It Is Springtime In Japan
Cloudwater Brew Co.

Pours a hazy, dirty dark orange coloration with a medium, fluffy head and a bunch floaties. Smells of biscuity malt and tropical/stone fruit hops, with notes of papaya and peach. Taste is a decent balance of biscuity malt and quite floral, fruity, slightly dank and spicy hops, with tropical, stone fruit and much lighter citrus notes of passion fruit, papaya, peach and lime peel, as well as some spicy weed. Finishes with a medium bitterness and some floral notes, papaya and hints of spicy weed lingering in the aftertaste. Soft, pillowy mouthfeel with a medium body and carbonation.

This is a very, very rare miss from Cloudwater for me, but that's probably mostly due to the Loral hops. Maybe it's just me, but I just don't get why brewers keep putting these into NEIPAs. Don't get me wrong, they can be fine in Pilsner or other lager, but are just way too floral and bitter for a NEIPA, while not adding much else either, really. I guess those spicy accents go kinda well with the dank notes of Strata, but overall this just doesn't work for me, to be honest. I mainly bought this to see how one of my favorite and least favorite hops would interact and unfortunately the answer is: not great, while I don't think that the Strata hops are really living up to their full potential here as well. It's not a terribly attractive beer either, with lots of floaties, which is not something I'm used to from Cloudwater either. At least the mouthfeel is very full, soft and fluffy here.