Strawberry Short's Cake

Origin Story

Strawberry Short's Cake was first proposed by Ryan Hale (Bellaire Head Brewer) back in 2009, by simply saying, "we should brew a beer called "Strawberry Short's Cake." Joe Short liked the sound of it and felt that it would work nicely with some of the other beer concepts we were tossing around for that summer (most notably, S'more Stout). Joe Short created the original recipe for Strawberry Short's Cake and brewed the first batch in Bellaire on June12, 2009. Leaning heavily on specialty grains called Victory Malt and Special Roast, which creates biscuit-like flavors, and by incorporating real strawberries and milk sugar, Joe was able to create a beer that mimicked this famous summertime desert. By brewing 3 consecutive batches in Elk Rapids, we yielded 660cases, along with 32 ½ barrels for statewide distribution. There is approximately one ounce of milk sugar and one ounce of real strawberries for each 12oz bottle of Strawberry Short's Cake produced. The label art for Strawberry Short's Cake was one of the first times, outside of the Imperial Beer Series, where we used an artist other than Fritz Hortzman to create the image for this beer. Now Short's uses an array of artists who we have come to know over the year's and have a personal connection to us and the brewery. Designed by one of Leah Short's best friends, Sage Hannah, the artwork for Strawberry Short's Cake symbolizes exactly what we were trying to create with this beer. Literally, a liquefied version of this classic dessert, served up in pint glass. Sage is also responsible for the artwork on the Ale La Reverend label, which was Joe and Leah's wedding beer, and was taken from a painting Sage had made for Leah.