Beer crate oddly dropped on one's toes (5)
I believe the answer is:
alert
'on one's toes' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'beer crate oddly' is the wordplay.
'beer' becomes 'ale' (type of beer).
'oddly' means one should take alternating letters (letters in the odd-numbered positions are used).
The alternate letters of 'crate' are 'rt'.
'ale'+'rt'='ALERT'
'dropped' is the link.
This may not be right. It may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for alert that I've seen before include "Warning signal" , "Prompt" , "Quick to notice" , "alarm" , "Wakeful, observant" .)