back to the fridge the stats
- Style
- IPA
- Brewery
- Burley Oak Brewing Co.
- Origin
- Berlin, MD
- ABV
- 6.6%
- Hops
- NZ Motueka, Pacific Jade
- Format
- 4-pack · 16 oz tallboys
- Date sipped
- September 18, 2026
color
light brown to beige, medium haze (drinking out of a red Solo cup).
taste
Soft bitterness, pine, lemon zest, chocolate as it warms.
feel
Smooth entry, lingering bitter, heavy tongue.
overall
My introduction to Burley Oak was also my introduction to colorful beer and sours. The Mountain Dew Jream was hyped up by my sister's hauntingly troubled then-boyfriend.
Meh.
It was way too fruity for my then light beer preferring palate. I get the appeal, just not for me. Nonetheless, it was one of my first brewery visits and 21-year old me had a wonderful time drinking a flight of beer in the spring time eastern shore sun. That day their impressive Lost IPA gave me pause that maybe IPAs weren't all bitter, toxic sludge.
My second reckoning with Burley Oak was their "locally viral" COVID moment - a spat with Instragram followers over their anti-masking and general flippant stance over COVID-era restrictions. Admittedly, the ensuing vitriol in their comments turned me off of them for a couple years. Here we are six years later, and I hope we can agree that COVID made us all a little looney; the acerbic commenters and brewery deserve some grace. We're all just "Turning and turning in the widening gyre" (Yeats, The Second Coming).
So here I am giving the brewery another shot. This IPA is good. A bit too heavy, not leaning far enough into bitter or citrus or juice, it leaves something to be desired. A very different beer than the aforementioned Lost IPA, it drinks closer to a West Coast IPA style without committing. The heavy, lingering tongue texture precludes it from receiving a "crushable" classification, but its complex, evolving notes merit a try.