3 FLoyds Zombie Dust attempt. Help/info requested

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My attempt at this with the most up to date recipe. DELICIOUS. I wish I could remember what the real thing tasted like, as it was almost 6 months ago. Regardless, the intense tropical, passion fruit like aroma and flavors are just fantastic. I hadn't had much luck with wyeast 1968, but my hopes have been resurrected!

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made this last week, took a gravity reading today 1.009 - i started off at a lower gravity because i converted the recipe to partial mash and didn't use enough dme

the sample tastes and smells amazing!!!

going to dry hop tomorrow, instead of the 3 oz for ten days i'm going to do 1.5 oz for 5 days then another 1.5 oz for another 5 days
 
I finished my batch a few weeks ago. Turned out amazing. Best brew of mine so far. Thanks all
 
I just had my first sample of mine this saturday and it was fantastic. I think it is slightly better than the real zombie dust, but maybe just because it is fresh right now.
 
I brewed this recipe 6 weeks ago. I hit all my preboil, OG, and final gravities spot on. 1 minute addition was converted to 15 minute whirlpool (recirced through pump). 72% mash efficiency.

Tasting it this week I think minor tweaks will land it closer to the clone. It's a touch thin, I'll bump mash up from 152F to 154F and boost the character malts up just a touch.

Regardless the first attempt was delicious. This is one of those beers that is worth perfecting. Especially since I can't get it out here on the west coast.
 
I brewed this on Sunday but cut the batch down to 3 gallons. My mash temp came in low (148) and for the life of me I could not get it back up to the 150s even after adding some additional hot water. Instead of diluting the mash even more by adding MORE hot water, I just decided to let it ride. Hopefully it won't have too much of an effect on the final product.

I'm guessing my grain temps were not nearly the 72 degrees that was entered in BeerSmith (which is the default value I think) as it was a little chilly when I started. Scaling down the recipe might have accounted for some of the issues as well since my MT is a 15 gallon cooler and I had roughly 7 lbs of grain in there. There was a lot of empty space in that cooler. I think I'll stick with 5 gallon batches from now on.

Anyway, it is bubbling away at 62 degrees and it is going to be painful to have to wait to taste it.
 
Brewing up my 4th batch of Zombie Dust today...thanks for the awesome recipe! This will be 10 gallons all-grain, and my first time at the helm making all the decisions with an all-grain batch. Last week I aided a fellow HBTer with 5 gallons of all-grain Zombie Dust, so I think I learned the process enough to give it a go...
 
My first all-grain batch went well! Did 10 gallons - hit 1.062 so I think that is a success. I mashed a bit high which I was surprised about. My strike water was 165 and I ended up mashing at about 156-157 when I was shooting for 152. I'm really not sure how that happened. Everything I read about my strike water temp said I should have reached around 152...oh well. Overall, a success and I'm sure I will still have great beer! I used leaf hops since they were the only bulk buy option at my LHBS and I have two carboys chugging away with S-04 at 63.
 
My only recommendation on this recipe is to buy sealed hops. I bought from a bulk seller, and I think I got Simcoe relabled as Citra. I have no proof, so I'm not naming names, but make sure you are buying from a trusted source. Simcoe or not, this recipe made a stellar beer... twice.
 
Here was my first attempt at it. OG was 1.062. Finished at 1.012. Came out tasting great.

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Still have a few gallons left on tap, but brewed it again this past Sunday and it is currently fermenting away in my basement. My mash temp was a little low at 150 degrees, so I let it go for 90 minutes. Other than that, smooth brew day and hit OG spot on. Looking forward to an even better batch. I'm lucky enough to live near some good beer bars that get the real thing on tap fairly regularly and this clone is very, very close. Great clone recipe. Thanks for it.
 
I brewed with s-04 on Sunday and it's set at 63-64. Is this a beer I'm going to want to leave at this temp for quite some time or will I want to ramp it up a couple degrees to help it finish a little lower?
 
Adaman05 said:
I brewed with s-04 on Sunday and it's set at 63-64. Is this a beer I'm going to want to leave at this temp for quite some time or will I want to ramp it up a couple degrees to help it finish a little lower?
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Keep it there, for a clean fermentation and in about 4-5 days allow it to climb naturally once it's finishing.
 
Adaman05 said:
Do you mean I should take it out of the chamber in a few days and bring to room temp?
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Many people will gradually step the chamber temp up to 70 or so (like a degree or two a day) after the aggressive fermentation has stopped. I guess it depends on where you are fermenting but since you have the chamber I wouldn't advise just pulling it out (a bit extreme but before u built my chamber I had a beer where temps were OK for the first few days but then went up to 85 for a week - turned out pretty bad!)
 
jvh261 said:
Here was my first attempt at it. OG was 1.062. Finished at 1.012. Came out tasting great.

9377_10151610100432427_1196061717_n.jpg


Still have a few gallons left on tap, but brewed it again this past Sunday and it is currently fermenting away in my basement. My mash temp was a little low at 150 degrees, so I let it go for 90 minutes. Other than that, smooth brew day and hit OG spot on. Looking forward to an even better batch. I'm lucky enough to live near some good beer bars that get the real thing on tap fairly regularly and this clone is very, very close. Great clone recipe. Thanks for it.
Click to expand...

Just a process note for you here; if you come in at a lower than expected mash temp, try adding in some hotter (170F) water to bring it up. A longer mash won't help you with the fermentability of your wort, it may just help a little with your extraction.
 
I'm thinking to dry hop this one with 1 oz of Amarillo, 1 oz Citra and 0.5 oz of Simcoe. What do you guys think about this? I know its not a clone of Zombie Dust anymore but I would like to experiment a little.:)
 
I will post results after I try it. I have done this recipe before as is and to my taste it was just too much tropical theme going on in flavor department.
 
Gonna try and brew the extract version this weekend. I have never used DME before. Is there any concern about the color darkening with DME like LME so you only add half at the beginning of the boil? or can I just add the entire bag at once?
 
MeanDeuce said:
Gonna try and brew the extract version this weekend. I have never used DME before. Is there any concern about the color darkening with DME like LME so you only add half at the beginning of the boil? or can I just add the entire bag at once?
Click to expand...

You can treat it like LME, but it adds more gravity points
 
I did the extract version the other weekend. I did a partial mash on the grains however.
I added the DME at the end of the boil. They didnt burn or darken.

I just put it in the keg to cool in the fridge until I carbonate tonight, but the color looked good. Even being warm and uncarbonated, I can tell this is going to be a tasty brew. I have not had the opportunity to have the real Zombie Dust so I cant make a direct comparison.
 
Wanted to pitch in my 2 cents on this...I used the WLP002 yeast. I've heard that one can underattenuate some, so I mashed at 152 and oxygenated for 2 minutes.

I hit my OG spot on, but overattenuated to 1.012, or maybe 1.010. Next time I'll mash more like 154 or so and use the same O2 amount. Mine was great, but a little thinner than the real thing. It didn't quite have that nice mouthfeel that the real deal has. Still great though.
 
Just rebrewed this. Split the base malt 50:50 2row and pearl, bumped it up to 1.068, And using Conan to ferment. Looking forward to trying it.
 
skeezerpleezer said:
Just rebrewed this. Split the base malt 50:50 2row and pearl, bumped it up to 1.068, And using Conan to ferment. Looking forward to trying it.
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Was thinking about Conan myself, but I'll probably just throw some 05 in there today. Sometimes I just don't feel like messing with a starter.
 
Just brewed this up today. Lots of trouble with the mash, burnt grain bag, too wide brewpot made it difficult to steep/mash the grain, also had trouble keeping the mash temp.

We'll see how it turns out. Smelled pretty great when I pitched the S-05 a minute ago.

Also forgot to measure my OG, oops.
 
MeanDeuce said:
Just brewed this up today. Lots of trouble with the mash, burnt grain bag, too wide brewpot made it difficult to steep/mash the grain, also had trouble keeping the mash temp.

We'll see how it turns out. Smelled pretty great when I pitched the S-05 a minute ago.

Also forgot to measure my OG, oops.
Click to expand...

Other than that, sounds like brew day went well... :p
 
Bottled 2.5 gallons of this on Friday night. After taking a sample from the bottling bucket, I wish I would have done a full 5 gallon batch. It is going to be extremely hard to make it 3 weeks before taking a sample. Hell, I probably won't make one week! The smell of this beer is incredible.
 
Cracked into mine this weekend.
Its a great beer. Having no reference for what the real thing is like, I can only say that its a a solid beer by itself. I would have liked it to be a bit maltier, and have a little more mouthfeel, but those problems could have been a result of my brewing process.
The initial smell is sweet, with a strong mango scent. The taste is hoppy, but not overpowering. With 8oz of hops in it, I expected something much more dry and acidy.

It was a hit at the little BBQ get together I had this weekend. I had a fridge full of other store bought beers (still quality craft beers), hardly any of those were touched.
I will definitely give this one another try and work it to where I want it to be.
 
Just had a sample after only one week in the bottle and I have to say this is the best beer that I have brewed so far. I've had the real ZD twice and felt it was the best APA I've had. I can't say whether this tastes exactly like the real thing, but it is excellent nonetheless. I'm doing a SMASH next but my next one after that will be a full 5 gallon batch of ZD goodness.
 
MeanDeuce said:
Just brewed this up today. Lots of trouble with the mash, burnt grain bag, too wide brewpot made it difficult to steep/mash the grain, also had trouble keeping the mash temp.

We'll see how it turns out. Smelled pretty great when I pitched the S-05 a minute ago.

Also forgot to measure my OG, oops.
Click to expand...

Took a sample today to measure the SG. Looks to be 1.020 after 8 days. This should be much lower if its been averaging a 70-72* fermentation temp right?

Can I gently shake the yeast up to see if they'll finish drying this guy out? Or do I need to pitch more yeast?

It tastes pretty great already, a really good pale ale and nice color. Can't wait to dry hop it.
 
MeanDeuce said:
Took a sample today to measure the SG. Looks to be 1.020 after 8 days. This should be much lower if its been averaging a 70-72* fermentation temp right?

Can I gently shake the yeast up to see if they'll finish drying this guy out? Or do I need to pitch more yeast?

It tastes pretty great already, a really good pale ale and nice color. Can't wait to dry hop it.
Click to expand...

I hope you weren't using s-04 with that high a ferm temp. Going to be pretty estery.

I'd gently rouse the yeast and give it a few more days instead of pitching more.
 
It's S-05, see above I quoted myself.

Yeah, I have real trouble with temp control in the summer. In the winter my foyer stays nice and cool, but summertime low 70's in the best I can do.
 
Well I'm an idiot. Just brewed this with a new MLT, hit my og perfectly, and all excited because of my new fermentation chamber and stc 1000 wired up and working great on the first attempt... then I come back to this post and realize I forgot to copy the 5min hop into beersmith. F me.
 
Hey all. Before I brew the recipe on page 1, I just want to double check to make sure that it's current. I know a lot of you have read all 100 pages in this thread. So, to save myself a ton of reading, I figured I'd ask to make sure there were no changes that aren't reflected on page 1. Thanks for the assist!
 

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