Shortcake
Alewerks Brewing Company

 

 

Good job of providing subtle hint of strawberry but still tastes like a beer.

Just a little on the tart side, I’m still pretty impressed on how the generally timid ingredient comes through in the nose and taste. The strawberry essence is more obvious in the nose, adding a nice fruity/floral aroma that doesn’t give the impression artificial syrup was dumped into beer to make a concoction.

Little sweet and a little tart, I’m actually getting more of a kiwi with skin flavor than strawberry. Most importantly, it’s still a beer, and there’s some recognizable corn and maybe even a hint of grassy bitterness. So overall, a fruit-enhanced beer, not a pastry beer.

 

 

 

 

Probably not a beer I would normally pick out at the store, but a friend brought this over in a mixed 6-pack for a dinner party we recently held. I just kegged a strawberry beer I made, so this will have to compete with my nose and palate which is currently tuned in to strawberry.
Pours a little darker than expected. Hard to say if there is a little oxidation going on here or it is just the strawberry. Nose does give me strawberries, but it is more like a syrup than fresh strawberries here. The taste surprises me. I was expecting a low-flavor blonde...probably not a good one...with the strawberry syrup covering up flaws. Instead, it is a much bigger beer (I see now it is 7% ABV actually). Plenty of malt to provide body and some residual sweetness, but not cloying. Strawberry is there, but is more balanced with the base beer than a one-trick pony. It is still pretty straightforward, but better than I expected going in.

 

Poured hard from a bottle into a snifter glass, forming maybe a finger of frothy white head that slowly faded to a ring of lacing. Body is a translucent hazy orange, maybe a hint of red. Smell is a delicious and quite noticeable strawberry, very refreshing somehow. Taste is not as strong as the smell, but is a very nice strawberry with some malty breadiness. A little bit of sweetness, tastes a lot like its namesake. Light to medium bodied with a gentle bit of carbonation. I feel like it would pair very well with actual strawberry shortcake, wish I had some. Seriously considering a 6-pack despite how large my collection is at the moment.

 

 

 

A: Clear and golden--an off-white head tops it and retention is great. I forgot about it sitting to 'open up' and the head was still there half an hour later. Maybe a bit dark if we're considering this a blonde ale, though the addition of strawberries may do that.

S + T: The aroma is somewhat unremarkable--malty sweetness, not much for fruitiness. The flavor is similar in that there is very little fruitiness here, some caramel maltiness, but little else. The flavor isn't bad in the least, though it's not really true to what the bottle describes.

M + O: Medium body, fairly smooth drinking. Overall, it's not a bad beer--it tastes fine and I would likely not turn it down if offered. However, it's more a malt-bomb of sorts with little else to differentiate it or have it stand out.

From the label, above the bar code: "BOTTLED ON DATE 01/21/2021"

Appearance: The body is a medium amber color with hints of copper and sun tea brown. The body has a slight haze to it but dark shadows are visible through it without much distortion. The head is a tobacco stained off-white color with a creamy texture. It starts medium in height and slowly recedes to a short cap on the surface. No lacing.

Aroma: There is a faint raspberry aroma to the beer.

Taste: Up front there is a hint of wheat and some raspberry character. Towards the middle there is a light bit of malty alcohol character with a light bit of caramel. Not much towards the back of the mouth or aftertaste but it does have a bit of a bitter root character at the back of the mouth. At times it has a toast flavor that comes through.

Mouthfeel: It is smooth with a medium-light body. It has a light earthy bitterness.

Overall: The beer is called "SHORTCAKE" and it says that this is a "CREAMY STRAWBERRY BLONDE ALE." The color is pretty dark for a blonde ale but the beer still looks alright in the glass. The aroma comes across as raspberry more than it does strawberry, but it's nice that there is some berry character. The flavor is pretty lackluster, having very little berry character at all and more of this malty alcohol character. Plainly put, It doesn't taste like a strawberry shortcake. It is a very malt-heavy beer and the malt character seems to dominate whatever little berry flavor is there. As a whole I wouldn't recommend it or drink it again.