Shepherd's Delight
Little Creatures Brewing Company

Shepherd's DelightShepherd's Delight
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From:
Little Creatures Brewing Company
 
Australia
Style:
American Amber / Red Ale
ABV:
6.4%
Score:
87
Avg:
3.84 | pDev: 6.77%
Reviews:
12
Ratings:
18
Status:
Retired
Rated:
Dec 16, 2014
Added:
Apr 07, 2013
Wants:
  1
Gots:
  1
No description / notes.
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Ratings by CrazyDavros:
Photo of CrazyDavros
Reviewed by CrazyDavros from Australia

3.95/5  rDev +2.9%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
Pours pale copper with a large head.
Nose shows caramel, soft fruity confectionery, spicy hops and subtle bready malt.
Lots more sweet clean malt as a flavour along with more of the confectionery notes. Transitions to spicy hops in the finish. A bit of booze shows.
Nice moderately high carbonation works wonderfully.
Apr 27, 2013
More User Ratings:
 
Photo of Gasc0igne
Reviewed by Gasc0igne from Australia

3.74/5  rDev -2.6%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 3.5
A: Pours a cloudy dark orange colour with a ~1 1/2" off-white head. Medium retention. Good lacing. Almost no carbonation visible.

S: Hints of citrus with no outspoken specifics. Earthy. Hoppy. Bittersweet.

T: Bitter orange right at the front of the tongue. Morphs quickly into an earthy/herbal flavour (Thyme etc.). The bitter orange returns for the finish along with a slight caramel flavour that lingers.

M: Medium body. Smooth and creamy with the perfect amount of carbonation on the tongue. Very pleasant in the mouth.

O: A solid Red Ale. I adore the mouthfeel on the bottle I had but for me the beer felt too 'heavy', not on the tongue but after it had gone down, felt like a chore to finish the bottle.
Oct 14, 2013
 
Rated: 3.75 by tobelerone from New Jersey

Aug 09, 2013
Photo of JohnnyBarman
Reviewed by JohnnyBarman from Canada (ON)

3.71/5  rDev -3.4%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
500mL bottle from Australia, brought back by a friend and shared at a recent tasting.

Poured into a sampler nonic. Amber-caramel brew, good half inch of head, nice retention on this. Solid looking beer.

Nose is a mix of mild citrus and earthy hops, with a sturdy malt sweetness.

A tasty amber ale that has some balanced hoppage - a bit of citrus and earth, without dominating the brew. Finish is surprisingly sweet, a rich caramel or butterscotch flavor. If you like your red ales to finish more crisply, this wouldn't be your thing, but I enjoyed it. Medium bodied, slightly creamy.

Tasty red ale with some complexity to it. I quite enjoyed it.
Jul 26, 2013
Photo of lacqueredmouse
Reviewed by lacqueredmouse from Australia

3.93/5  rDev +2.3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
568ml imperial pint bottle purchased from Chippendale Cellars in Sydney.

Pours a fine rose red hue with a frothy head of white foam. This settles to a fine ring, but still looks pretty decent. Lacing is minimal and the body is a little light for the ABV, but not unacceptable. Looks pretty good.

Nose is bright and crisp from the offset, pleasing crisp and green fragrance: plenty of citrus (perhaps tending a little towards detergent, but we'll forgive it that), with a rugged earthy undertone. Some green grainy malt, but not a lot: the hops take charge, which is fine. Some additional complexities to the malt character would help differentiate it from a standard IPA.

Taste is very pleasant. Here there's a strong malt presence, which doesn't get in the way of the hops, but is more prominent than something just providing a platform. The hops are still quite dominant, however, providing a clean bright, fruity but sharp flavour throughout. Cleaner on the back, leading to a crisp pointed finish.

Feel is smooth and clean, perfectly suited to the beer.

It could do with a little bit more complexity to the malt character: otherwise, this is great stuff. Clean, bright, flavoursome and drinkable. Very happy with this—I think it's one of the better LC single batch range so far.
Jul 06, 2013
Photo of SmashPants
Reviewed by SmashPants from Australia

3.33/5  rDev -13.3%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.25
Bottle: stumpy embossed 500mL brown bottle, classically-styled old-school label.

Appearance: bright orange in colour with a big fluffy head that drops to a decent, rocky one-finger. Again no visible carbonation, but head has some retention and some sporadic lacing.

Aroma: mango and grapefruit almot assault the nose here - very sweet indeed. A touch of malts, but mostly citric and fruit sweetness.

Taste: the saccharin citric and fruit flavours continue - I really had to choke this down to get through it. Not unpleasant, just really overly strong sweet flavours. I will admit that I much rather bitter to sweet.

Aftertaste: still sickly sweet - far too much for me. Not much in the way of malt coming through - seems quite unbalanced.

Mouth feel: medium in body, nice and smooth with a good amount of carbonation. Very nicely done.

Overall: not a big fan of this one I must admit - it is too sweet for me. That aside, the mouth feel is quite nice, but I still feel the sweetness isn't balanced out by any bitterness or malt backing. A bit disappointing for a Little Creatures Single Batch.
Jun 23, 2013
 
Rated: 4 by Mendicant from Australia

Jun 21, 2013
Photo of soju6
Reviewed by soju6 from Missouri

3.81/5  rDev -0.8%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
A: Pours a nice amber color with a small head that fades to some lacing.

S: Aroma of pine, citrus, fresh fruit and bit of spice.

T: Tatse is a blend of pine and citrus, with fruit, bit of caramel and trace of spice. Nice bitterness and a clean finish with a trace of lingering hops.

F: Medium body, smooth and nicely balanced.

O: Enjoyable beer, nice for the style. Worth checking out.
Jun 01, 2013
Photo of laituegonflable
Reviewed by laituegonflable from Australia

3.53/5  rDev -8.1%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5
Pours a rich red colour. Head steadily grows with the pour, then a vigorous flurry of bubbles settles to form a tasty saffron-tinged crown of thick lace. Pretty beautiful-looking beer.

Smells resinous and piney, but a great, almost tart, citric hoppiness floating atop it all. Grapefruit, pineapple, some green pepper and turmeric, green apple and lime on the back. Could use a bit more malt presence for balance, but it's hard to care much since the hops smell so good.

Wow, the same issue is there on the palate. Hops dominate from the get-go, big lime-citrus flavour, touch of pine wood. Malt is there but it's a flimsy backbone, touch of toffee and some lightly toasted grain, but there's just a swirling haze of hop aromatics and esters raging around without ever finding firm ground to stand on. Muddled grapefruit, pine resin, cedar wood, green apple and then not a huge hoppy finish. Just a lot of hop flavour without much presence. More early hopping is probably needed, and maybe more malt body. There's promise here as far as flavour goes but it just feels quite empty.

Not a bad texture. Plenty of hop pull, but there's just enough malt to temper it.

Feel like they've gone really hop-mad here and have lost what a great flavour story can be told by a simpler hopping schedule and strong malt base. Bit too much new-world brewing and not enough respect for why old-school traditions exist.
May 19, 2013
 
Rated: 4 by mungus from Australia

May 08, 2013
Photo of doktorhops
Reviewed by doktorhops from Australia

3.85/5  rDev +0.3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5
Another Little Creatures Single Batch, which I love - it's refreshing to see experimentation like this from an Aussie brewer (our beers rarely step out of the classic American/English style formulas). This time it is a fusion of IPA and a Red Ale, will be interesting to taste the results though so far they've not made anything that comes close to the Single Batch that was The Quiet American [insert long sigh here].

Poured from a pint bottle into a nonic pint, as God and King intended my glass to be filled.

A: The body has the appearance as advertised of "a red sky at night", aka shepherd's delight, with a thin off-white lacing.

S: Interesting aroma of mango comes to fore, followed by papaya and citrus fruits - a very unexpected tropical adventure awaits. There is also the mandatory toasted caramel malt base in the middle however those tropical hop aromas are what dominate.

T: First thing one notes is that the hop aromas come out as much subdued flavours, mainly that papaya note is the strongest hop taste. The malt base is bold toasted caramel and reasonably sweet. The finish is long dry and slightly bitter, not expected from the hop regime stated on the bottle, but I guess it really depends on the quantity used.

M: Medium bodied with a very light carbonation and the dryness makes it quite a palate cleanser.

D: This is a big "what if?" brew for me - the flavours are interesting however they are subdued, I'm looking at you hops, and it leaves me thinking "what if Little Creatures added more of this hop?". There is a strong malt base let down by hops that could really shine given half a chance. It's a tough one to like but it's also tough to dislike due to the effort that went into making it. Overall it is a decent enough experiment that doesn't require repeating.

Food match: Shepherds pie.
May 02, 2013
 
Rated: 4 by hartstarter from Australia

Apr 26, 2013
Photo of dgilks
Reviewed by dgilks from Australia

4.14/5  rDev +7.8%
look: 3.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
Hazy amber red brown colour with a small, creamy tan head. Fair head retention and some lacing.

Nice citrussy hop aroma with some resinous notes. Caramel malt. Solid for the style.

Crisp, firm hop bitterness with a lovely floral and citrus character. Good malt sweetness without dominating.

Medium body with moderately-high carbonation. Good.

A really solid beer. Lots of flavour and well balanced. Very tasty and enjoyable.
Apr 23, 2013
Photo of eric5bellies
Reviewed by eric5bellies from Australia

3.88/5  rDev +1%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Drank from my Duvel Tulip

A - Pours a reddish clear copper colour with an off white one fingered head that reduces quickly.

S - Mainly malty aromas with some hop background.

T - Up front some nice malt flavours followed by a small amout of creamy hops. Shades of mandarin and overall quite balanced. A nice clean finish that is a little dry.

M - Nice creamy feel, low on carbonation, with a medium body.

O - I liked this one and its got plenty in it for the all round beer drinker. After the recent takeover this could be the last Single Batch release (I hope it isn't) in what has been a very mixed bunch for me. This is one of the better ones.
Apr 18, 2013
Photo of heygeebee
Reviewed by heygeebee from Australia

3.67/5  rDev -4.4%
look: 4 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4
From Jim's. BB Dec 13 - nice to see short date.

Pours amber, one finger frothy head. Head dies to a film, lines of lace.

Aromas are somewhat subdued, malt base is firm, and the hops are an add-on, some mandarin and peach.

Taste is not what I expected. For a red IPA it's all red, and little IPA. Having said that it's well integrated and hugely drinkable. Malts to the fore, biscuits, hint of peach and a moderate hop note. Some pine resin notes come through toward the end of the bottle.

Mouthfeel has a hint of oiliness, and carbonattion is light. Medium bodied. Gets drier in finish as it warms

Ok - I am surprised here - for a one-off batch it's not in your face at all, as if the brewers have decided not to almost 'have fun' while they can. Drinking not thinking, this one, and very good for it.
Apr 11, 2013
 
Rated: 3.75 by dansmcd from Australia

Apr 09, 2013
Photo of danieelol
Reviewed by danieelol from Australia

3.53/5  rDev -8.1%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
Surprised I am the first to review this actually.

Had both on tap last week and tonight, from the bottle. Was fairly similar on both occasions.

Pours a golden bronze. Good white head/lacing.

Nose is toffee apple, some fairy floss, and some nice CCC hops (I find myself wishing they were a little more forward). Orange rind, and some mandarin which at times is good and at times carries some slightly off notes.

Taste is more toffee apple, a crisp but not pungent American Amber.

Mouthfeel is somewhat resiny, somewhat dry.

Good beer, competently made but a little middle-of-the-road for me.

Oh, it also has an NZ hop called "Dr Rudi" in it. That's pretty cool.
Apr 07, 2013
Shepherd's Delight from Little Creatures Brewing Company
Beer rating: 87 out of 100 with 18 ratings