Dearfield Ale
Crabtree Brewing Company

 

 

Sampled with a good friend back on 2/11/16. Comes in a single 16 ounce bottle for close to $5.00 at the local Hy-Vee. Bottle chilled down 36 degrees F in my beer cooler and poured in to a handled-glass stein with sediment seen in the bottom of the bottle after the pour. Overall a decent beer with strawberries but not overdone. Not as sweet as you would think but sightly tart.

 

I had my doubts, but this is an okay beer. It is a hazy amber color and has a small white head. The aroma has a very strong strawberry smell, backed with a bit of malt. No real hop aroma. The taste is similar...delicate strawberry, some sweetness, a bit of twang, and hint of yeast. Medium in body and the strawberry fruit sensation is more prominent than expected. Not bad.

Poured from a 1 pint 16 ounce bottle into a Shaker pint glass, there is no "best by" date that I can find.

APPEARANCE: pours a cloudy, copper color with less than one-finger off-white head that quickly dissipated until a ring of small bubbles remained around the glass, there is significant lacing.

SMELL: bread and strawberries, the smell is subtle and pleasant, it is not artificial smelling or too overpowering.

TASTE: the taste follows the nose, sweet bread and subtle taste of strawberries.

PALATE: medium body and carbonation.

OVERALL: this is a good beer and I'm glad I tried it, the fruit beers are not something I have often but when I'm in the mood this is a good choice, I would recommend to anyone who enjoys the style.

 

Pours a clear, amber color. 1/3 inch head of an off-white color. Decent retention and good lacing. Smells of strawberry, pale malt, hint of sweet malt, and a hint of hop. Fits the style of a Fruit / Vegetable Beer. Mouth feel is sharp and crisp, with an average carbonation level. Tastes of strawberry, pale malt, hint of sweet malt, and a hint of hop. Overall, about what I expected from a Strawberry beer.

12oz bottle. Poured out a clear, golden yellow color with a small, white head of foam. It smelled of strawberry puree and caramel. Sweet strawberry taste with a touch of caramel and bitterness.

 

 

 

dearfield is back, and obviously reinvented, because it is far better now than these reviews suggest. it is also double listed on here, and definitely not retired. the color is barley pink tinted from the fruit, but still looks clear and radiant like a blonde ale should. nice inch of off white head on top settles very slowly. the nose is way strawberry, very potent and sweet, summery and jammy, not inauthentic but very sweet. the malt base is also very light, letting the fruit really dominate the nose. the taste is much more balanced, and the strawberries, while still jammy in nature, seem more real, more from the field, which i really like. it also finishes fairly clean, uncommon in these fruity beers that aren't bretty or anything, more conventional yeast on this one obviously too. fuller body for a blonde which also flatters it, and a honey aspect mid palate. i like the combination a whole lot, its just really well done. carbonation is way high, cutting any leftover sugar more than adequately, and i find it supremely refreshing. finally a light fruit summer beer that isn't apricot and isn't a lager, i think this is a long time coming, and should have wide appeal this season. cheap too at under 4 bucks a bottle. i also really like the project, preserving local history, we need more of that. well done crabtree on this one, people will catch on!

 

 

 

 

 

Midway between amber and orange with a decent looking two finger head of bone white foam. The lid, which develops a little character as it melts, manages to lay down a few stray scraps of suds. Closer to good than bad.

Strawberries were appreciated as soon as liquid splashed into pint glass. Thankfully, the fruit smells natural rather than artificial, which is always vitally important in beer of this style. Otherwise, there isn't much to go on. Blonde ales (base beer) aren't known for being olfactory overachievers.

Crabtree Dearfield Ale tastes like what is was brewed to be, which is a 'golden blonde ale with natural strawberry flavor added', so points for that. Unfortunately, there isn't much flavor and the mouthfeel is watery in the extreme. A 3.0% ABV is believable, though it's probably a little higher than that.

There's a woeful shortage of malt in this sucker. I'm sure the brewers wanted a relatively blank canvas to allow the strawberries to shine, but this is taking that concept too far. Each gulp delivers an almost nonexistent untoasted graininess and a blip of strawberry juice. Not sweet, not bitter, not tangy... not nothin'.

Light. Lighter. Lightest. Even though a hint of substance tries to fight through after some amount of warming has occurred, it's too little too late. The carbonation is probably fine right where it is, since more aggressiveness would just be felt as fizziness.

Dearfield Ale is the beer equivalent of dry toast with a microthin layer of strawberry jam. It's so light, and so lightly flavored, that no one could possibly hate it. It's equally hard to see how anyone could love it. Good for girlfriends or wives who don't really like beer.

22oz bottle. Pours a clear straw yellow with a small white head that quickly goes to a thin film that leaves a little lacing.

The aroma is strange. Lots of strawberries with weird off notes (rotten fruit and feet? maybe baby puke).

The flavor is wheaty malts with the same weird rotten strawberry with a dry finish. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with some sharp carbonation.

Overall, lots of weird off notes. The strawberries help cover them somewhat. I did finish the bottle.