Mai Tai P.A.

Alvarado Street Brewery — Salinas, CA

22 Feb 2018 · Stephen

IPA Alvarado Street Brewery

6.5% ABV

45 IBU

Golden Color

Contributing Factors

Presentation ✓

Character ✓

Experience ✓

Return ✓

4 / 4 I'd order another

Tasting Notes

Appearance Golden, clear with a white head — clean and bright in the glass, the simple two-row grain bill delivering a neutral, luminous base that puts nothing between the eye and the color. Looks exactly like a California coastal afternoon should look.

Aroma This is where five GABF medals get explained. 100% Mosaic in full expression — passionfruit leads immediately and intensely, mango layering in right behind it, lychee floating above both with that distinctive floral-tropical quality that's the Mosaic fingerprint. The brewery calls it super intense, and that's not marketing exaggeration — this hop variety at this concentration on a clean two-row base produces one of the most expressive IPA aromas in California craft brewing. Nothing competing, nothing obscuring. Just Mosaic.

Palate Drier and lighter on bitterness than the ABV and IBU would suggest — 45 IBU is real but restrained for a 6.5% IPA, and the absence of crystal malt sweetness keeps the palate clean and forward. The passionfruit and mango carry through the middle with Mosaic's tropical character building through the sip, the bitterness arriving last and resolving cleanly without asserting itself over the fruit. The clean fermentation keeps everything precise — no yeast-derived ester competing with what the hops are already doing.

Finish Dry, tropical, and medium length. The Mosaic lychee and mango linger with a light bitterness fading behind them, the two-row malt providing a clean, neutral close that resets the palate for the next sip. Drier than most fruit-forward IPAs — that's the design choice that won three gold medals.

The Verdict

Five GABF medals, 100% Mosaic, two-row malt, clean fermentation, and the discipline to not add anything else. Mai Tai P.A. is Alvarado Street's masterwork and the most decorated IPA in this entire series. Tropical, precise, and completely unapologetic about both. Cheers from the Big Sur coast.

— Stephen · Contributing Factor Brewing · 22 Feb 2018