Summer’s Getting Shorts-er Review: Short’s Strawberry Short’s Cake

In Beer Reviews by The Guys

Short’s says:

“A golden ale brewed with loads of biscuit malts and milk sugar fermented with fresh strawberries. Sweet strawberries up front cushioned with biscuits and cream! Perfect for dessert.”

Short’s Strawberry Short’s Cake
Fruit Beer, 5% ABV

strawberryshort'scakeKarl: I have only one problem with this beer.  When trying to tell people about how awesome it was, I feel kind of dumb saying “It’s called Shorts’ Cake.  I mean, it’s a Short’s Strawberry Short’s Cake.  I mean, shortcake.  It tastes like shortcake.  Short’s cake.  It’s from Short’s, it’s -”

I mean, c’mon.  It’s just verbally unwieldy.  Other than that, I can’t think of a single reasonable or valid complaint about this beer.

This golden ale pours with a minimal white head, mild lacing and a nice deep ruby color.  Smells like strawberry preserves, which surprised the hell out of me.  Strawberry is typically a light flavor, not dominant but usually secondary, in the background.  This beer is STRAWBERRY, all seeds and pulp and tart green roundness with that nice sweetness following up.  It is astonishingly good and I have evangelized this beer to at least a dozen people since I’ve had it.

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Beneath that, thanks to the utilization of biscuit malts and milk sugars, you get a nice blast of cake flavor and light creaminess beneath the huge front end of berry.  Not to get too hyperbolic on this, but I foresee this being one of those beers that will stay at the front of my mind for a long time to come.  If you see it, get it.

Ryan: I love this beer.  I love this beer so much I momentarily contemplated blowing up the label into two giant cardboard signs and wearing it as a walking advertisement for how great this beer is.  I would then set up shop along Michigan Avenue, just down from the guys who play the drums on buckets, and preach of the wonders of Strawberry Short’s Cake.  I would pontificate on how you can taste the strawberry seeds with each sip.  “You can taste the subtle sweetness of each strawberry as if it were the forbidden fruit from the Garden of Eden…you can taste the shortcake – oh the sweet, moist shortcake…you can even taste the WHIPPED TOPPING!?!” I would bellow into my megaphone.

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Sadly or thankfully – depending on which camp you are in – this never happened.

I will tell you, right here and now, this is one of the best beers I have ever had.  The strawberries are very sweet and very pronounced but they don’t make this beer undrinkable.  Think of it like eating a spoonful of strawberry jam.  Complete with the gritty seeds.  Crazy, I know, but we both picked up on it.  Along with the strawberries you get a  touch of cake flavor and a nice, creamy finish.  This really is a remarkable beer.  Kudos to Short’s for absolutely nailing a somewhat risky and very different style of beer.

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Written by many, compiled by one, this is a collaborative post with contributions from at least two writers at Guys Drinking Beer.

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