Mai Tai: Black Label

Alvarado Street Brewery — Salinas, CA

29 Dec 2020 · Stephen

Triple IPA Alvarado Street Brewery

10.5% ABV

Deep golden Color

Contributing Factors

Presentation ✓

Character ✓

Experience ✓

Return ✓

4 / 4 I'd order another

Tasting Notes

Appearance Deep golden to light amber, likely with some haze from the triple dry hop additions and the Cryo lupulin concentrates suspended in solution. A white head that dissipates relatively quickly given the ABV. Looks rich and substantial — this is not a beer that pretends to be smaller than it is.

Aroma Alvarado Street's description is the review: mango liqueur and blueberry reduction poured over flamed orange peels and candied pineapples floating on a bottomless ocean of rich passion fruit juice. Every word of that is both accurate and deliberately excessive, which is exactly right for a beer at this gravity. The triple dry hop and advanced hop products produce a Mosaic concentration that fills the room — not the subtle, nuanced expression of a session pale ale, but the full-volume version of every flavor note Mosaic is capable of producing, amplified by the alcohol's solvent capacity.

Palate Mellow, dry hopped, smooth, layered — the drinker review that captures it in four words. The 10.5% ABV is present and warming but completely integrated into the hop character rather than sitting separately as heat. The mango and passionfruit from the Mosaic carry through the middle in full concentration, the blueberry and orange note building alongside it, the piney resin and dank quality from the Cryo additions grounding the tropical fruit in West Coast IPA identity. Balanced and drinkable as Alvarado Street promises — and at 10.5% those words require real craft to earn.

Finish Dry, low-to-medium bitter, and long. The Mosaic tropical fruit character fades slowly, the Cryo hop dankness and resin lingering on the back palate with a warming ABV presence that's clean rather than harsh.

The Verdict

Mai Tai P.A. at its most extreme and most ambitious — triple dry hopped, advanced hop products, 10.5% ABV functioning as Mosaic solvent, producing a hop expression that the flagship simply can't reach. The Black Label earns its name. Annual release, limited availability, worth finding.

— Stephen · Contributing Factor Brewing · 29 Dec 2020