Belt’s Beer Garden: Another Brix in the Wall

Brix City’s Cloud of Sound – an incredibly delicious hazy Pale Ale

Brix City began in Little Ferry, New Jersey back in May of 2015. The brewery is close to the NY/NJ border and sits just 10 miles from Central Park and Manhattan. You can find their beers across New Jersey and in a few select spots in New York and Pennsylvania but otherwise it’s very hard to get your hands on any of their brews.

That’s why when I saw one of their releases on Tavour, I jumped at the chance to get it. I was able to snag two cans of their Cloud of Sound: Mandarina Bavaria, a hazy Pale Ale.

For this beer they took their Cloud of Sound base, which is brewed and dry-hopped with Citra hops, and then added massive amounts of Mandarina Bavaria hops before conditioning it on a bed of orange zest. A package of four 16-ounce cans from the brewery runs the very reasonable price of $16.

This New England Pale Ale poured an insanely hazy golden straw color with two fingers of eggshell white head building up. The foam stuck around for a little bit, slowly fizzling down to a thin accumulation around the edges, leaving some solid lacing down the sides as it did so.

It honestly might be one of the juiciest beers I have ever smelled. The aroma was packed with big notes of orange, tangerine, and citrus peel…which isn’t surprising considering it was conditioned on buckets of orange zest. If it wasn’t for the smallest amount of flaked wheat, this could easily be mistaken for actual orange juice based on just the smell. Quite inviting and I couldn’t wait to dive in.

My first sip did not disappoint. It began with a light hum of carbonation that fizzled across my tongue before the flavors really began to pop. As expected, it was very citrus forward with massive amounts of orange crashing down on my taste buds.

The beer was thin and easy to drink and, yet, somehow those flavors began to build into a thicker, almost chewy mouthfeel. Building with that mouthfeel, was a slightly bitter pithy flavor from all that orange zest. However, it peaked early and was never really that bad…just a gentle reminder this wasn’t orange juice.

On the backend, one last wave of fruit pushed out the bitterness and ended the sip with a lasting creamsicle flavor. It ended with some moderate sticky dryness and just a tad bit of lingering citrus rind.

Despite the dry finish, this was an absolutely amazing brew. It was insanely flavorful and crushable and I couldn’t stop going back for more. I think I finished the beer in under ten minutes…it was so damn good.

I wish I had bought more than just two cans of this beer. Holy cow, Brix City knocked it out of the park with this one.