# Shepherd's Delight



## yankinoz (9/9/15)

For better or for worse, there are flavours in Gladfield's Shepherd's Delight that you won't get anywhere else. Lots. I'll give my impressions and invite others to give theirs.

Just cracked open a dark lager, the first beer I've made with SD. The Gladfield website says it imparts kola. Okay, and I get licorice and toffee too.

They say it leaves a lingering sweetness. Ir sure does, not your malt if you love only dry. For 18 litres my grist had 250g each of SD and Caramunich, and 125 g Carafa Special II with a base of pils and Munich, I step-mashed starting at 63 and a pH of 5.3. The yeast was S-189, which usually attenuates pretty well, and I fermented fairly high for a lager, at 12 C. Nonetheless the beer is almost too sweet.

They say it gives lots of red colour. Yup, like the last of a sunset. R eally nice in my brew, at @ 23 SRM.

Go light on it. Gladfield likes it in red IPAs. I like my IPAs dry and would go very easy on it there. Dark beers, yes, maybe a little in robust porters and Baltic porters.

I will use it again, though maybe at only 2-3% of grist.


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## Samuel Adams (9/9/15)

The smell of this stuff is amazing.

I just used 250g (23L batch) in an amber ale. I'm glad I went with 40 IBU after reading this, hopefully it will offset the sweetness.


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## plateofboxes (9/9/15)

Bought a bunch of Gladfield stuff when I first heard about them. Made a red lager that was 4.5Kg Munich, 400g Red Back, and 200g Shep, and about 25IBU, and it was an absolute cracker. Pretty close to my favourite beer I've ever made - will brew again the second Full Pint are back from holidays as the keg went way too fast.

As a result I brewed an Amber with it at about 7% and MO last Wednesday and am looking forward to it making the keg in the next week or so.

Edit - sorry forgot to mention the colour is just amazing, but couldn't necessarily put that down to Shep specifically.


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## Spiesy (10/9/15)

yankinoz said:


> For better or for worse, there are flavours in Gladfield's Shepherd's Delight that you won't get anywhere else. Lots. I'll give my impressions and invite others to give theirs.
> 
> Just cracked open a dark lager, the first beer I've made with SD. The Gladfield website says it imparts kola. Okay, and I get licorice and toffee too.
> 
> ...


What were your quantities of Pils and Munich?
Hard to work out what percentage of the grist your SD and CM were.


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## doon (10/9/15)

I milled up 20kg of this yesterday at work. Smell was amazing!


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## contrarian (10/9/15)

Used this in a beer I have fermenting at the moment. 

65% ale
20% wheat
10% rye
5% Shepard's delight 

1.043

Magnum @60 to 10IBU
Cascade @15 to 10IBU
Cascade @0 to 5IBU

Tasting great out of the fermenter. 

Tasted great by the handful as well!


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## yankinoz (10/9/15)

Spiesy said:


> What were your quantities of Pils and Munich?
> Hard to work out what percentage of the grist your SD and CM were.


The grain bill. in 18L:

2.3 kg Avangard Pils
1.0 kg Avangard Munich
0.25 Gladfield Shepherd's Delight
0.25 Weyermann Caramunich III
0.12 Weyermann Carafa Special II

So SD was 6.3%. I'm sure the Caramunich added its share of sweetness too, b ut I'v e often used it at about that percentage without getting nearly the sweetness of this brew.


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## yankinoz (10/9/15)




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## droid (10/9/15)

Made a number of APA's with it, very nice though I went too far and ended up with a beer named "death by crystal" gave a couple to different peeps, havnt heard from them since hehe

In future I will use a clean bittering hop and 5% or less, I'd love to try an Irish red with SD but I'd be conservative with the quantities


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## Spiesy (10/9/15)

yankinoz said:


> The grain bill. in 18L:
> 
> 2.3 kg Avangard Pils
> 1.0 kg Avangard Munich
> ...


6.3% is a reasonable amount, particularly when paired with 6.3% of CM3. 

Glad to see someone else using Avangard malt. I've got a Pilsner on at the moment, made with 92% Avangard Pils (and a 8% Gladfield Gladiator) - pretty happy with how it turned out.


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## yankinoz (10/9/15)

Spiesy said:


> 6.3% is a reasonable amount, particularly when paired with 6.3% of CM3.
> 
> Glad to see someone else using Avangard malt. I've got a Pilsner on at the moment, made with 92% Avangard Pils (and a 8% Gladfield Gladiator) - pretty happy with how it turned out.


Your brew will be a good test of what Avangaard Pils brings. There's too much noise from other malts in mine. Maybe you can post when it's done lagering?


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## Gigantorus (10/9/15)

Thanks, yankinoz and others, for the insights.  I only purchased some of this yesterday. So good to get a handle on it. I did notice in the notes from Craftbrewer that should use in small amounts. I also grabbed some Toffee Malt and Vienna and will mix up a sunset ale (golden ale style). Will use the 3 malts in a mini-mash in my extract recipe. I liked the idea of the red colour.

I recently got some Belgium Special B malt and went a little over-board in a steep for an American Brown Ale recipe. All I could taste & smell for the first month after bottling was buttery-raisins. Thankfully this flavour/aroma has mellowed a fair bit now and the brown ale is finally drinkable.

Cheers,
Pete


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## Spiesy (10/9/15)

yankinoz said:


> Your brew will be a good test of what Avangaard Pils brings. There's too much noise from other malts in mine. Maybe you can post when it's done lagering?


It's done lagering - it's good.

Got a pretty clear wort out of the kettle, slightly higher than normal efficiency and now that some of the perfume from the Saaz has dissipated you can really pick up the taste of the pilsner malt. This mightn't sound nice, but I associate Pilsner malt with licking the back of a stamp - it has the sort of vibe in there when you eat the grain, and I can get that (and a grainy/bready vibe) from the finished beer. Very happy with it.


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## Dips Me Lid (10/9/15)

I've used SD in a couple of American Amber Ales at 3-5%, I've paired it with Red Back and their Toffee malt and it gives some great malty flavour. I get the cola, liquorice, aniseed flavours from the SD, amazing malt to chew on.

A good commercial example of this malts flavour and aroma is the Tuatara Copperhead Red Rye Ale.


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## yankinoz (10/9/15)

Thanks, Spiesy. I also got high mash efficiency using Avangaard Pils.

Gigantorus--Re Gladfield Toffee Malt, a lot of people here have used it and liked it. I'd marry it if I could. It's distinctive but not nearly as assertive as SD.

Toffee is not strictly speaking a caramel malt, but I do substitiute it for light crystal. It brings what I wanted out of light crystals and never got. I guess I taste toffee better than I do caramel. If, like me, you find light crystals don't do what you want, try Toffee.

I'd say use Toffee malt at 5% and maybe higher in light-colored lagers, blonde ales and the,like, up to 10% or more in ambers and heavier APAs. If you put it in English or Scottish ales the flavor might be distinct enough from light crystals to take the beer out of BJCP style guidelines, if you care. It might get lost in really dark beers.


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## Topher (13/9/15)

droid said:


> Made a number of APA's with it, very nice though I went too far and ended up with a beer named "death by crystal" gave a couple to different peeps, havnt heard from them since hehe
> In future I will use a clean bittering hop and 5% or less, I'd love to try an Irish red with SD but I'd be conservative with the quantities


Dude, your death by crystal was awesome. 
Im not entirely sure what it was, or what it was meant to be, or why it ended up that way, or where i am now. Tasted like a Hobgoblin went hobnobbin with a jar of treacle and smoked a bag of galaxy flowers. Weird and wonderful.


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## Topher (13/9/15)

Back OT, this was developed for mountain goat yeah? You guys reckon there is a fair bit of this in Fancy pants?


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## Dips Me Lid (14/9/15)

I think they first used it in their Rare Breed Indian Red Ale last year, not sure if it's in Fancy Pants.


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## Matplat (2/6/16)

Digging up an old one here as I'm considering using this in a red/amber ale. Does this malt give much roast flavour?

I want the red colour and toffee sweetness, and I suppose cola might be okay, but I'm keen to avoid any roast flavour (as in the roast flavour that you get from pale chocolate malt) in this beer. Am I barking up the wrong tree?


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## mofox1 (2/6/16)

Cola, slight raisin, sweet but not cloying (at 4% with 6% other light xtal)... but no roast AFAICT.

Imparted a burnt orange, not quite red colour. Wasn't quite the colour profile I was after in my Red Rye IPA.. a bit less of the S.D & a touch of RB would have helped.

Used it here


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## Matplat (2/6/16)

Is that RB for Roasted Barley, or Red Back?


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## mofox1 (2/6/16)

Matplat said:


> Is that RB for Roasted Barley, or Red Back?


Roast barley.


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## jphowman (2/6/16)

I waaay over did the melanoidin malts in a quick Flanders Red, and I'm thinking Shepards Delight was a major contributor. 

8.00 kg Vienna Malt (Weyermann) (5.9 EBC) 66.3 % 
1.00 kg Oats, Flaked (2.0 EBC) 8.3 % 
0.88 kg Caramalt (Joe White) (49.3 EBC) 7.3 % 
0.65 kg Amber Malt (Joe White) (45.3 EBC) 5.4 % 
0.64 kg Pilsner (Weyermann) (3.3 EBC) 5.3 % 
0.40 kg Special B (Dingemans) (290.6 EBC) 3.3 % 
0.30 kg Gladfield Shepherds Delight Malt (300.0 EBC) 2.5 % 
0.20 kg Gladfield Dark Crystal Malt (190.0 EBC) 1.7 % 


This was a bit of a 'use what's in the shed' beer and I didn't feel I had enough red malts so I added the Gladfields stuff. I got my red colour, but too much bread crust came with it. It's like eating the end piece of a well baked wholemeal loaf. I've used all the other malts before and wasn't expecting the amount of melanoidins that resulted. Not bad, but I feel like I'm missing a lot of subtleties, so I'd probably only use it in something that would support a high level of maltiness.


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## Matplat (2/6/16)

"so I'd probably only use it in something that would support a high level of maltiness"

What do you mean by this?

This is where I'm at at the moment:

*Red Back Amber*
American Amber Ale

*Recipe Specs*
----------------
Batch Size (L): 23.0
Total Grain (kg): 4.700
Total Hops (g): 60.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.048 (°P): 11.9
Final Gravity (FG): 1.012 (°P): 3.1
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 4.72 %
Colour (SRM): 15.7 (EBC): 30.9
Bitterness (IBU): 36.2 (Rager)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 75
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

*Grain Bill*
----------------
3.000 kg Pale Ale Malt (63.83%)
1.000 kg Aurora (21.28%)
0.500 kg Red Back (10.64%)
0.200 kg Shepherd Delight (4.26%)

*Hop Bill*
----------------
20.0 g Topaz Pellet (16.2% Alpha) @ 30 Minutes (Boil) (0.9 g/L)
20.0 g Topaz Pellet (16.2% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil) (0.9 g/L)
20.0 g Ella Pellet (15% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Boil) (0.9 g/L)


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## contrarian (2/6/16)

It's powerful stuff! Am just drinking a IIPA where it was about 2% of the grain bill and the colour and flavour is distinctive. It's a great malt but needs a light hand.


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## Matplat (2/6/16)

Ah well, I pulled the trigger and ordered the grain bill above so we'll see how it goes at 4%..!


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## jphowman (3/6/16)

Let know how it goes, it should be interesting.

All I meant was that my Flanders Red wound up tasting like a soured bock, rather than a soured brown ale.
So I wouldn't be using this in a beer that I didn't want tasting in the bock spectrum.


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## contrarian (4/6/16)

Matplat said:


> Ah well, I pulled the trigger and ordered the grain bill above so we'll see how it goes at 4%..!


It will definitely give you a sense of what it brings to the table. No doubt it will be a great beer.


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## droid (19/6/16)

i am doing an American Brown Ale this weekend coming and was going with something like:
87% Gladfield Ale
9% Chocolate
4% crystal light

or

87% Gladfield Ale
9% Chocolate
2% crystal light
2% shepards delight

mashed low with a decoction

too much choc?
will the SD be appropriate? - I don't think toffee was in the list of appropriate flavours for an American Brown


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## yankinoz (26/6/16)

Shepherd's Delight is distinctive enough it's probably a malt to avoid if you're entering competitions, but so far amateur tasters have loved every beer I've made with it at 2--5% of grist.


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## Matplat (26/6/16)

I bottled my above recipe at 4% (with a few more late hops) on wednesday, FG sample tasted unreal....


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## Randai (27/6/16)

So I put about 2-3% in a beer the other day, while munching on the grains, I tasted something that I really couldn't explain what it was like. Uhm sort of a rich melanoidany flavour, but something else.

Anyone else picking up anything else in the finish product?


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## yankinoz (27/6/16)

Randai said:


> So I put about 2-3% in a beer the other day, while munching on the grains, I tasted something that I really couldn't explain what it was like. Uhm sort of a rich melanoidany flavour, but something else.
> 
> Anyone else picking up anything else in the finish product?


 At first a bit like cola and a tiny bit like licorice. In a dark lager with almost five percent that's been in cold-conditioning for over two months it's changed some, in a way I can't exactly describe.


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