SALISBURY, MARYLAND
Situated on the northern outskirts of East Salisbury at the eastern shore of Maryland, bright blue brewpub, BURNISH BEER CO., began operations October ’21 inside a converted 6,000 square-foot boat factory. Co-owning brewmaster Randy Mills gained experience at nearby Evolution Brewing and Cambridge’s RAR Brewing and his IPA-dominated elixirs tend to lean on the dry side.
A V-framed entrance advances patrons to the weathered Industrial pub sporting a dramatic rust metal bar back, black slate floor, left side seating kiosk, echoey high ceiling with Edison lights and exposed pipes plus multiple TV’s, tables aplenty and three overhead doors providing open air seating.
On a sunny August ’22 afternoon, my wife and I enjoy Sunday brunch with all thirteen available suds, chowing down fruitful maple sugared Liege Waffles, Napolean pizza and wings at one of the four canopied high chaired tables.
Rustic corn-dried milled graining grounded Kickin’ Brass, a moderate Noble-hopped Italian pilsner with basil-herbed floral wisps.
‘Crushable’ Cornhub Premium Lager saturated its lemon-soured corn starching with musky herbal hop astringency and mild pilsner graining.
Spritzy lemon souring and maize-dried herbal musk ambled thru brusquely grained Roy Light Lager, a peppy golden light body.
Lemondrop-soured Petite Farmhouse Ale stayed dry as hay-like barnyard leathering contrasted less prominent floral-spiced beet sugaring.
Peachy daiquiri-like amber-hazed summertime wheat ale, Peach Socks, provided light vanilla creaming to the lacquered citrus onrush subsuming its chewy banana-doused peach pureeing.
Dry beige yellow-cleared wheat IPA, Finite Precision Chaos, plied wheat cracked flouring to wood-parched grapefruit peel and orange rind bittering, leaving tidy herbal spicing on the backend.
Soft-toned NEIPA, Edge Of Sanity, left lemony grapefruit, pineapple and orange zesting as well as peachy passionfruit and mango tanginess upon the earthen tamped down hops relegating raw-honeyed pale malts.
Placid lemony orange-tangerine tanginess reached light piney bittering for mellow Mosaic-Citra-Simcoe-hopped Imperial IPA, Paperclip Guitar, riding atop a buttery pale malt base.
Lightly lingered grapefruit rind bittering, orange peel sweetness, pineapple salting and red cherry whims gathered for Awkward High Fives, picking up floral perfumed spicing and dry herbal-doused wood tones.
Brisk Imperial IPA, Behind The Pallets, allowed dry-hopped grapefruit and orange tang to gain lightly spiced pale malt sugaring.
Sunny IPA, Shine, placed mild yellow grapefruit seed, pith and rind bittering alongside estery white wine whims and sedate earthen herbage for desiccated oats flaking.
Smoothly dry English porter, Rusty Rivet, let dark cocoa bittering pick up raw molasses and earthen soiling to contain its dark toffee spicing.
Dark-roast coffee imbued lightly creamed milk stout, Storm Of The Bones, wrought by black chocolate syruping and charred walnut bittering.
On the way to the Outer Banks, revisited Burnish in early August ’26, quaffing another eight stylishly diverse brews with wife and son, Chris.
Premium lager, Corn Hub, mated dried maize astringency to soured whiskey and light herbage.
Pale wheat ale, Fish Don’t Wear Socks, lets its lemony spritz prickle stylish orange-peeled coriander spicing, gaining mild herbage over white wheat base.
Blonde roast coffee beans anchored Insomniac Coffee Cream Ale, a golden ale-based moderation with coffee beaned vanilla latte creaming grazing grassy-hopped astringency and picking up slight woody smokiness.
Strawberry mojito knockoff, Jellyfish Apocalypse, retained tart lime-juiced strawberry spangle and distant gummy sugaring atop mild pilsner-malted blonde ale base.
Easygoing hoppy pale ale (despite heady 7% ABV), Solar Drip, let polite yellow grapefruit bittering, peachy mandarin orange tang, pink grapefruit sugaring and passionfruit tropicalia receive oated wheat creaming.
Sharp West Coast IPA, Northwood, brought dry pine resin to mild grapefruit pith bittering contrasting spiced orange peel sweetness over toasted rye breading.
Semi-dark chocolate syruping and chewy peanut buttering infiltrated velvety milk stout variant, Loose Lips Sink Ships, leaving vanilla bean, cinnamon bark and anise illusions upon the perfumed wheat chocolate malts.
Dry stout, Midnight Forge, retained dark-roast coffee tones and hop-charred walnut sear given lemon rind acidity to create a lemon wedged java alternative.