Triple Howzit Punch

Alvarado Street Brewery — Salinas, CA

8 Feb 2020 · Stephen

Imperial Sour Alvarado Street Brewery

10.0% ABV

Contributing Factors

Presentation ✓

Character ✓

Experience ✓

Return ✓

4 / 4 I'd order another

Tasting Notes

Appearance Deep hazy orange-pink to golden, the epic fruit additions pulling the color into something vivid and tropical. Minimal head. Looks like a chalice of concentrated POG juice — which is precisely the design intent.

Aroma Passionfruit arrives first and with force — not the delicate floral quality of the original Howzit but a more concentrated, almost syrup-thick tropical intensity that only epic amounts of fruit produces at this ABV. Orange comes in right behind it with a vivid citrus brightness, guava adding its deeper, slightly fermented tropical sweetness underneath. The 10% alcohol is detectable on the nose as a warm, vinous quality that sits behind the fruit — present but integrated, not harsh.

Palate Big, thick, and tropical — the fruit concentration and ABV giving this a presence and weight that the original's lighter frame doesn't carry. The passionfruit and orange dominate the middle, the guava adding depth on the back half, the lactic acidity from the kettle sour base cutting through it all with a brightness that keeps the whole thing from going purely sweet.

Finish Long, tropical, and warming. The 10% ABV lingers on the back palate alongside the passionfruit and guava tartness, the orange citrus fading first. More vinous and warming than the original's clean, refreshing close — this resolves as a serious beer, not a crushable sour. Medium-long, complex, and entirely worth the annual wait.

The Verdict

Howzit at its most extreme — epic POG fruit, 10% ABV, annual release, brewed once for the Anniversary and consumed with appropriate reverence at festivals from Paso Robles to Monterey. Peak tropical relaxation in liquid form. Enjoy responsibly, as Alvarado Street says — and they mean it.

— Stephen · Contributing Factor Brewing · 8 Feb 2020