American Pale Ale Three Floyds Zombie Dust Clone

[TrickyDick]

Dry hopping in the keg is my prefered way to reduce oxygenation. I connect the gas to the out side and bubble up CO2 to push out the nasty O2, and then seal with pressure, using the relief valve to purge any remaining O2.

When doing a beer that requires multiple dry hopping, I think it is best to leave the old hops in. Too many things, in my mind, can go wrong pulling things out of your beer and putting thing back in. YMMV.

I agree with that. A friend of mine who is getting into brewing and really fanatical at this point was asking, how do I remove the hop sack from my keg after 5 days. I told him I didn't know cause I had never done it! Well I suppose that there might be a better way, but this has always been fine for me.

 

[beejayud]

Made this back in march following all the original ingredients and instructions.... i kegged 2 gallon and bottled the rest. Og was 1.061 and fg was 1.010.. i used safale 04. Color hop character and feel from kegged beer was on, but yeast strain seemed off. Zombie dust had a more slightly different more english taste to me. The bottled beer after three weeks is closer but just a bit off still. Still a great beer and one of my favorite to date. im going to tweek a bit and try with safale 05 since i have already.

 

[TrickyDick]

Made this back in march following all the original ingredients and instructions.... i kegged 2 gallon and bottled the rest. Og was 1.061 and fg was 1.010.. i used safale 04. Color hop character and feel from kegged beer was on, but yeast strain seemed off. Zombie dust had a more slightly different more english taste to me. The bottled beer after three weeks is closer but just a bit off still. Still a great beer and one of my favorite to date. im going to tweek a bit and try with safale 05 since i have already.

Is that one of those new DFH/SN IPA glasses?

 

[beejayud]

Sure is, i'm not sold on them yet....
Makes the beer slightly more carbonated, but can't tell if thats good or bad yet... i still enjoy a nice pint glass.

 

[stonebrewer]

Just pitched on 11 gallons of Zombie Dust. Long day as I was using some new equipment and had issues...go figure! In the end, all turned out pretty well. Overshot my numbers a little, with my PBG being +6 and my SG being +5. First time I have done a 60 minute boil (usually do 90's) so the day went a little quicker, though I did run into some issues I had to contend with, mostly self inflicted. I used mostly leaf hops in the boil and man it smelled awesome!! Going to use a keg hopper for the dry hop phase...another new toy. I am going to do one keg with Citra and the other with Mosaic. Should be some tasty brew! May post a few pix later. Cheers!

 

[roger617]

Just brewed 5 gallons of this yesterday Mashed a couple degrees low, still managed OG of 1.074. I went with S-04, and man is it fermenting away! Can't wait to try it!

 

[heywatchthis]

Just kegged mine...this is easily the best beer I've ever brewed. I've been working on the water treatment aspect of my hoppy beers, and this one is as close to perfect as I've ever been.

Prost for honing this one in.

 

[Chavi]

Just kegged mine...this is easily the best beer I've ever brewed. I've been working on the water treatment aspect of my hoppy beers, and this one is as close to perfect as I've ever been.

Prost for honing this one in.

I kegged mine last night and tasted it.... it is probably the best beer I have ever made as well. I'll take a picture on Tuesday when it is fully carbonated.

 

[roger617]

I kegged mine last night and tasted it.... it is probably the best beer I have ever made as well. I'll take a picture on Tuesday when it is fully carbonated.

Lets see that pic! I'm transferring my tomorrow for dry hopping, curious to see how others have turned out!

 

[Ailstock]

Just brewed this yesterday using white labs 002. Also added an extra 1.25oz of citra at wirlpool around 170 degrees. Excited to see how it turns out.

 

[NathPowe]

Been drinking mine out of the keg for a week now. It's absolutely delicious. Probably my best beer yet as well. I'd post a pic but I don't have a way to host the file. This recipe is fantastic. If you're considering it, just make it. I took some over to the LHBS and they were way into it as well. Really glad I have enough Citra on hand to make it again. Thanks to skeezer for the recipe.

Mighty fine.

 

[Chavi]

Lets see that pic! I'm transferring my tomorrow for dry hopping, curious to see how others have turned out!

I promise I will take a pic when I get home from work!

 

[REJ]

Dry hopped this yesterday. Those of you who have finished it, does the dry hopping of 3 oz. add a lot more "character" to this recipe? I hope so. My tasting sample was rather mediocre. Notthat it was bad, but it's not over the top either. After dry hopping the Zombie Dust, I added the 4th addition of dry hops to my Pliny the Younger, and it made me think from now on I just need to fill my 4 taps with 2 PTE's and 2 PTY's, because with those two, that's all people will drink anyhow. My sampling of the PTY thus far is probably easily the best beer I have tasted...ever. And that is with 3/4 dry hop additions, flat and room temperature.

 

[Chavi]

Yes, the dry hopping really puts the ZD over the top. I dry hopped mine for 8 days and it was perfect.

 

[REJ]

That's great news. Thanks Chavi. The one thing I will say is the aroma was incredible. I thought I was going to have a stellar rotation on the taps, and I was starting to worry. My Jai Alai clone...don't know what went wrong. It is a good beer, just not great. IMO, it is certainly not a clone of the real thing. I need to do some work on that one. My Stone Sublimely Self Righteous BIPA is stellar, but is more than half gone already. The PTY will be incredible, and then I was worried during yesterday's sampling that this one will be just average as well. So, I was hoping that 3 oz. of dry hops would take it over the top so I have at least 3 REAL good beers out of 4 on tap.

 

[schweitzer22]

Making this soon can't wait!

 

[roger617]

Just transferred mine to secondary to dry hop. Smelled great already, can't wait to try the final product!

 

[Fordzilla]

Anyone done this with US-05? It's what I have on hand.

 

[TrickyDick]

Anyone done this with US-05? It's what I have on hand.

I am brewing this next week. 11Gal. I was going to use pacman yeast slurry about 4 weeks old, but am thinking instead using a combo of s04&s05 safale dry yeast packs. Not exactly what you asked I suppose. Nice avatar BTW. Raptor?

TD

 

[Fordzilla]

Sure is! It's an awesome truck. I've driven one once. Unfortunately I couldnt quite spring for the raptor so I drive a black 2011 F150. A man can dream, though.

 

[AnchorBock]

Heres a picture of mine:

I pretty much followed the recipe on page 1 as far as the grist, but mashed at 150 and used WLP002. I changed the hopping up quite a bit to acomodate a hopstand/whirlpool addition - ended up with:
21.3 grams (.75 oz) Citra 13.9% FWH
56.8 grams (2 oz) Citra 13.9% 10 mins
120.7 grams (4.25 oz) Citra 13.9% – 30 minute hot steep
85.2 grams (3 oz) Citra 13.9% Dry hop for 8 days

This turned out awesome - haven't had the real thing in a long time, but this is an excellent beer (tasting notes on my blog). Thanks to all that have worked on this recipe - especially Skeezer.

 

[Chavi]

Here is a picture of mine. The lighting in my house is terrible, but I'm proud of it!

 

[skeezerpleezer]

Heres a picture of mine:

I pretty much followed the recipe on page 1 as far as the grist, but mashed at 150 and used WLP002. I changed the hopping up quite a bit to acomodate a hopstand/whirlpool addition - ended up with:
21.3 grams (.75 oz) Citra 13.9% FWH
56.8 grams (2 oz) Citra 13.9% 10 mins
120.7 grams (4.25 oz) Citra 13.9% – 30 minute hot steep
85.2 grams (3 oz) Citra 13.9% Dry hop for 8 days

This turned out awesome - haven't had the real thing in a long time, but this is an excellent beer (tasting notes on my blog). Thanks to all that have worked on this recipe - especially Skeezer.

Thanks man, and everyone else. Glad everyone is enjoying it! I am gonna rebrew it soon.

 

[crusader1612]

Heres a picture of mine:

I pretty much followed the recipe on page 1 as far as the grist, but mashed at 150 and used WLP002. I changed the hopping up quite a bit to acomodate a hopstand/whirlpool addition - ended up with:
21.3 grams (.75 oz) Citra 13.9% FWH
56.8 grams (2 oz) Citra 13.9% 10 mins
120.7 grams (4.25 oz) Citra 13.9% – 30 minute hot steep
85.2 grams (3 oz) Citra 13.9% Dry hop for 8 days

This turned out awesome - haven't had the real thing in a long time, but this is an excellent beer (tasting notes on my blog). Thanks to all that have worked on this recipe - especially Skeezer.

This looks good, I'm tempted to try this. with the hopstand/whirlpool addition. did you add half at flameout, then the other half after 10-15 mins?? maybe even add as a percolator/hop tea addition, what differences would this offer?

 

[AnchorBock]

This looks good, I'm tempted to try this. with the hopstand/whirlpool addition. did you add half at flameout, then the other half after 10-15 mins?? maybe even add as a percolator/hop tea addition, what differences would this offer?

I added all of it at flameout. I've played around with doing half at flameout and half closer to 170* with other recipes, but I haven't noticed a whole lot of difference yet so I usually just add it all right at flameout. There is definitely room for experimentation here though.

 

[crusader1612]

I added all of it at flameout. I've played around with doing half at flameout and half closer to 170* with other recipes, but I haven't noticed a whole lot of difference yet so I usually just add it all right at flameout. There is definitely room for experimentation here though.

Gotta Love that experimentation with this hobby. My thoughts were theres 120g of flameout hops, if I add 60-70g at flameout and leave it for 20 mins, then cool to temp.
the other part of the process is as follows: around about 750ml of 80 degrees water per 50 g of hops, and steep the hops in this water maintaining this temp for arounf 1-1.5 hours while boiling, cooling and adding to the fermenter before adding the cooled wort on top. Its worked for me in the past, the only issue I felt was there despite no test between thisand adding a normal whirlpool addition was there was missing a flavour contribution. but the aroma was definitely there.

I'm a few months away from this recipe, but I hacve the hops in the freezer ready to go. So I'll be running a test or 2 using 1 gallon batches to compare the differences between beers, and post my results.

 

[dhaverstick]

Ok… I just got done reading all 37 pages and still have a question. I have not yet brewed a PM Recipe; only extract recipes with steeping grains for approximately 30mins. Should I treat this PM recipe as I would any other Extract recipe except that I am steeping a lot more grains for a longer period of time? I plan on brewing a 20 gallon partial boil (15 gallon boil), should I steep with 10 gallons and wash the grains with the remaining 5 gallons? Thanks!

 

[crusader1612]

Ok… I just got done reading all 37 pages and still have a question. I have not yet brewed a PM Recipe; only extract recipes with steeping grains for approximately 30mins. Should I treat this PM recipe as I would any other Extract recipe except that I am steeping a lot more grains for a longer period of time? I plan on brewing a 20 gallon partial boil (15 gallon boil), should I steep with 10 gallons and wash the grains with the remaining 5 gallons? Thanks!

essentially you are correct, longer time more water and more grains. if you wanted to, by the sounds of it you could do all grain, BIAB, its almost exactly the same thing. with the full water volume required. alternatively, you can do it then "sparge" with maybe 5 gallons, at the hotter watertemp to get the rest of the sugar out.

That what I'd do.

 

[dhaverstick]

essentially you are correct, longer time more water and more grains. if you wanted to, by the sounds of it you could do all grain, BIAB, its almost exactly the same thing. with the full water volume required. alternatively, you can do it then "sparge" with maybe 5 gallons, at the hotter watertemp to get the rest of the sugar out.

That what I'd do.

Just so I am understanding correctly, steep all of the recommended grains for the PM recipe in 10 gallons for 60 minutes (in my brew kettle) then add my remaining 5 gallons of water (pull out grain bags and add remaining water by pouring it over/through the grain bags)?

 

[crusader1612]

Pretty much. Make sure to sparge with 76-77 degree Celsius water.
Allow for boil off and grain absorption. If u can do a full boil I'd do that as well better hop utilisation.

 

[AOD]

You can make this recipe *fairly* close with extract and steeping grains by removing the Munich malt and steeping the Carafoam, Caramel 60, and Melanoiden malt.

Add maybe 1/4 to 1/2 pound of extract to make up for the lack of Munich. Keep OG the same.

A note above asked if you can use US-05 on this recipe. Sure, why not? It's not going to be the exact same beer...but US-05 makes a nice clean ale, but slightly drier than the yeast in this recipe.

~Adam

 

[dhaverstick]

You can make this recipe *fairly* close with extract and steeping grains by removing the Munich malt and steeping the Carafoam, Caramel 60, and Melanoiden malt.

Add maybe 1/4 to 1/2 pound of extract to make up for the lack of Munich. Keep OG the same.

A note above asked if you can use US-05 on this recipe. Sure, why not? It's not going to be the exact same beer...but US-05 makes a nice clean ale, but slightly drier than the yeast in this recipe.

~Adam

Should I still steep the carafoam, crystal, and melanoidin for 45-60 minutes our go with the standard 30 minutes for steeping?

 

[fosaisu]

Ok… I just got done reading all 37 pages and still have a question. I have not yet brewed a PM Recipe; only extract recipes with steeping grains for approximately 30mins. Should I treat this PM recipe as I would any other Extract recipe except that I am steeping a lot more grains for a longer period of time? I plan on brewing a 20 gallon partial boil (15 gallon boil), should I steep with 10 gallons and wash the grains with the remaining 5 gallons? Thanks!

I made this Monday (5.5 gallons, not 20!) as my first PM. PM is really simple, nothing to be intimidated by so if you have an extra hour on brew day I'd say go for it! Everything you need to know is in the first few posts of this excellent thread on PMing.

Since I've got all of one PM under my belt I'm no expert, but using half of your water for the mash sounds like too much. I've read that people generally do the mash with 1-2 quarts of water per pound of grain (I went with 1.25 qts/lb which seems to be a popular and safe ratio to use).

So to do your 20 gallon batch I think you'd want to mash:
4 lb Munich Malt
2 lb Carafoam
2 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt
2 lb Melanoiden Malt
*Consider adding several pounds of 2 Row, which is evidently supposed to help the specialty grains convert properly in the mash (reduce the DME accordingly, subtracting ~ .6lb DME for every pound of 2 Row)

If you used the 10 lbs specialy grains plus 4 lbs 2 Row, and went with 1.25 qts/lb, you'd want to sparge in 17.5 qts (4.375 gallons) of water. This website has a calculator the tells you roughly what to heat the mash water to so that it will drop to your desired mash temp once you add your grains. I mashed at 152 F for 1 hour, and things seem to have worked out fine.

There are various techniques for "sparging" (rinsing to extract residual sugars) the grains once the mash is complete. For simplicity's sake I just heated the remainder of my boil water up to 160 F (some people do 170 F) and tea bagged/steeped the grains in there for 10 more mins, then tossed them out, added the mash water to my boil water, and proceeded as I would with a normal extract brew.

Good luck with your brew however you decide to attack it, and I'm very impressed that you're doing 20 gallons!

 

[Tupperwolf]

I just upgraded from a 5g to a 10g mash tun. I finally got sick of being limited on how much grain I could mash and the $75 cost of a bigger cooler with all the hardware is nothing. I'm going to break it in with this beer. I've never had Zombie Dust so I won't have anything to compare my beer to, but I have a little experience with Citra and I'm looking forward to trying it again.

 

[roger617]

I just managed to pick up a couple bottles of ZD this week, as well as have it on tap again. Can't wait to do a side by side in a couple weeks.

 

[Tupperwolf]

Well, my LHBS that just opened is still trying to get on its feet. No Munich or melanoidin malt available and only 7oz of Citra on hand, though it is 14% AA. I'm getting sick of trying to make recipes out of grains they don't have on hand so I might have to put this one off.

 

[nab911]

Just wanted to say I made a batch of this bottled and everyone who tried it said it was amazing. Made another batch with the 1968 and kegged it but I am the only one who has had it so far. Still amazing. Definitely the best I have made yet and I have made about 20 various sized batches.

 

[TangoHotel]

This looks to be a tasty brew. ZD from FFF is one of my favorites. It looks like I'll have to pick up citra in bulk this summer to brew this and another CPA to fight the hot IL weather.

 

[TrickyDick]

I'm brewing mine tomorrow (hopefully). Planning on adding a 30+ minute Hopstand at 140 ºF with unbagged pellets and then runoff through the HopRocket packed with whole cones! Can't get FFF in FL, and never had any single hop Citra brews before. Hope its as good as they say!

TD

 

[skeezerpleezer]

Any reason for 140? I usually see 170-180, which is what I use.