Wierd Timez Leans on Strata to Keep a Juicy Hazy Dank

Paperback has a soft, juicy hazy in cans that refuses to be entirely wholesome about it. Citra handles the grapefruit, and a comparatively young Oregon hop supplies the strange.

Style: Hazy IPA
Release Date: 2026-09-04
ABV: 6.0%
Paperback Brewing Co (Glendale, CA)

Paperback Brewing Co has never been shy about how its beers come to exist, but the account it gave of this one is worth reprinting in full:

Our brewer took some little rainbow-colored pills, experienced some strange things, and thus Wierd Timez Hazy IPA was born.

The beer that resulted is a 6.0 percent hazy IPA, now in cans and on draft at the Glendale tasting room. Paperback describes it as soft and juicy, loaded with Citra and Strata, bursting with grapefruit, bright citrus, and ripe melon, with just a touch of dankness to keep things weird. The can adds that it is triple dry hopped.

Citra is the familiar half of that pairing and accounts for the grapefruit and bright citrus. Strata is the one doing the interesting work. It is an Oregon-bred variety, still fairly new by hop standards, and its reputation rests on a combination that does not sound like it should hold together: tropical and melon-like fruit on one side, and a dank, resinous, almost herbal quality on the other. It is one of the few single hops that can supply both the juice and the edge in the same addition.

That makes it a sensible choice for a beer trying not to be simply sweet. Hazy IPAs at 6 percent can drift toward soft and unremarkable, and the dank note here is what keeps the fruit in check.

Wierd Timez is available now in cans and on draft at 422 Magnolia Avenue in Glendale.

Editor’s Take

The beer origin story is one of the great unexamined genres of craft brewing. Most of them are the same story: a recipe was scaled up, a name was argued about in a group chat, and somebody involved once went to Vermont. Paperback has declined to file that report. What we get instead is a brewer, some rainbow-colored pills, some strange experiences, and a finished hazy IPA, with the connecting logic left as an exercise for the reader.\n\nThe pleasure is that the beer actually delivers on it. A soft, juicy hazy loaded with Citra is the safest thing a brewery can put in a can right now, and Strata is what stops this one from being that. It brings the resinous, faintly disreputable edge that keeps the grapefruit and melon from tipping into fruit-cup territory. The label promises weird and the hop bill quietly makes sure something on the palate agrees.

Source & Editorial

JollyPint independently prepares release articles using information published by breweries through newsletters, websites, and other official public communications. Brewery-supplied descriptions and tasting notes are reported as provided, while editorial context is added by JollyPint.