American Pale Ale Three Floyds Zombie Dust Clone

So I plan on doing the 6 Gal batch Thursday. Just plugged all the numbers from the recipe into Beersmith and the OG, ABV, and IBU were way off. I'm assuming those that have made this recently adjust the grains and hops to fit the percentages and IBU's from the original recipe. I was just wondering if people customized the recipe to fit or just brewed it as written in the first post.

I brewed this up a few months ago. Having never tried the real thing I was always unsure how mine compared. This past weekend I was in Chicago at a local pub. They had Revolution brewing's Citra Hero on tap. Their take on Zombie Dust. I must admit that what I brewed up was pretty similar. Great brew for sure.

I just kegged this and began the dry hopping so I took a sample and WOW this is probably the best beer I have had directly from the fermenter, and I have made a lot of beer in the past few years. I can't wait to see how dryhopping and carbonation changes things, hopefully it only get better for our party in a few weeks.

barhoc11 said:

I just kegged this and began the dry hopping so I took a sample and WOW this is probably the best beer I have had directly from the fermenter, and I have made a lot of beer in the past few years. I can't wait to see how dryhopping and carbonation changes things, hopefully it only get better for our party in a few weeks.

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In my experience it gets better after a week or 2 cold and carbed.

I used a 2 liter starter and my god it started fermenting insanely fast

olotti said:

To those that use the US-04, is 1 packet enough for the 6Gal batch?????

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I was happy with my first batch that had one rehydrated pack of s-04. Two might be overpitching??

TallDan said:

I was happy with my first batch that had one rehydrated pack of s-04. Two might be overpitching??

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Not according to brewers friend yeast pitch rate calculator

This high grav beer should have a starter

blackonblack said:

Not according to brewers friend yeast pitch rate calculator

This high grav beer should have a starter

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Mr Malty says 1.2 packets of US-04 so maybe I'll just do 1.5 packets to play it safe and hopefully not overpitch it.

mrmalty recommends 1.2 packs of dry yeast

edit: beat me to it

You guys don't use yeast starters? Brewers friend has a pitch rate calculator for it

I've never used a starter. Never saved my yeast. Never had a problem with fermentation. Used wyeast 1968 for my all grain 5 gallon batch. Solid activity for 5 days straight.

Agher32 said:

I've never used a starter. Never saved my yeast. Never had a problem with fermentation. Used wyeast 1968 for my all grain 5 gallon batch. Solid activity for 5 days straight.

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^^^ *Never had a great batch of beer.


I would seriously contemplate trying it with a starter. You can tell the difference and I think you will thank yourself for making one after you taste it.

blackonblack said:

You guys don't use yeast starters? Brewers friend has a pitch rate calculator for it

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I wanted to originaly but I plan on brewing Thursday and ran out of time to make the starter and cold crash it but it'll be a good experiment to do us-04 this time and then use 1968 next time with a starter.

I'm trying to figure out when I should secondary and dry hop. Currently been in primary for 8 days using s04 with a good sized starter . Running a blowoff tube and it stopped bubbling a few days ago. Haven't bad a chance to check gravity. I know s04 is fast especially at the quantity I pitched. Fermenting at 65. Is there a gravity reading I should have before I secondary?

Just a consistent one. Take the reading one day, then another day and another day. If there is no movement in the readings then fermentation is "done."
Edit: I'd think you could get away with 2 consistent days for it just going to the secondary.

blackonblack said:

I'm trying to figure out when I should secondary and dry hop. Currently been in primary for 8 days using s04 with a good sized starter . Running a blowoff tube and it stopped bubbling a few days ago. Haven't bad a chance to check gravity. I know s04 is fast especially at the quantity I pitched. Fermenting at 65. Is there a gravity reading I should have before I secondary?

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I thought it wasn't advised to make a starter with dry yeast. So your saying you did make a starter with US-04?

olotti said:

I thought it wasn't advised to make a starter with dry yeast. So your saying you did make a starter with US-04?

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Yes I did . According to the calculator at brewers friend I needed to make a starter for the recommended pitch rate with the gravity of this recipe.

blackonblack said:

Yes I did . According to the calculator at brewers friend I needed to make a starter for the recommended pitch rate with the gravity of this recipe.

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Did u make it like a regular starter just pitched in the 04 instead of a liquid yeast??? I'm new to ag and never made a started let alone one with dry yeast. I'm just gonna pitch 1.5 packets of 04 according to mr malty that should suffice and my lhbs guy tonight said 2 packets but that seems a little much.

Yah I just made a normal starter . I'm very new to brewing so everything is a learning process. For dry yeast I read online it doesn't make much sense making a starter just rehydrate. I didn't know that until after I made this batch. I definitely over pitched going by what I know now. I made about a 1.8 liter starter with a stir plate and 1 pack of s04 for this all grain recipe. In my defense I got that advice from brewers friends online calculator.

blackonblack said:

Yah I just made a normal starter . I'm very new to brewing so everything is a learning process. For dry yeast I read online it doesn't make much sense making a starter just rehydrate. I didn't know that until after I made this batch. I definitely over pitched going by what I know now. I made about a 1.8 liter starter with a stir plate and 1 pack of s04 for this all grain recipe. In my defense I got that advice from brewers friends online calculator.

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Lol I right there with ya every batch is a learning experience I'm fine with that as long as the beer turns out. I always rehydrate so I'm sure that shouldn't b a problem with the 04.

I'm very confused about pitch rates . I bought all the equipment for making yeast starters and as a result I made a starter using dry yeast....

How many packets of s04 did the original recipe call for?

Over pitching yeast by a half a packet wont hurt at all. Professional breweries pitch at a much higher rate than we so. If anything, you want to pitch more instead of less. Two packets, dry or liquid, wont hurt for pretty much any beer.

There's a photo of my starter that's a 1l flask I refrigerated to settle the yeast. You can see the yeast on the bottom. That's how much I pitched. I decanted off the fluid before I pitched

Here is the data from brewers friend yeast pitch calculator. The data I put in was estimates from 1 pack s04. You can see why I thought a starter was a good idea.

blackonblack said:

Here is the data from brewers friend yeast pitch calculator. The data I put in was estimates from 1 pack s04. You can see why I thought a starter was a good idea.

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Where did you get that cell density estimate? I thought fermentis estimated 200B cells in a 11.5g pack...

TallDan said:

Where did you get that cell density estimate? I thought fermentis estimated 200B cells in a 11.5g pack...

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My guess is from the brewers friend yeast pitch calculator.

Sure did I went with their suggested numbers.

When I made this recipe with S-04 I pitched 2 packets. With my OG at 1.064 and 6 gallons of wort, Mr. Malty was recommending about 1.5 packets, I think, so I just dumped in both packets in their entirety. Didn't even rehydrate (I never rehydrate dry yeast unless re-yeasting for bottle conditioning). Worked like a charm. The beer was magnificent and I now prefer this recipe with S-04 over the 1968.

BeerPower said:

When I made this recipe with S-04 I pitched 2 packets. With my OG at 1.064 and 6 gallons of wort, Mr. Malty was recommending about 1.5 packets, I think, so I just dumped in both packets in their entirety. Didn't even rehydrate (I never rehydrate dry yeast unless re-yeasting for bottle conditioning). Worked like a charm. The beer was magnificent and I now prefer this recipe with S-04 over the 1968.

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Did u have blowoff issues????? If I have 5.5 gal fermenting in a 6.5 gal carboy and pitch 1.5 packs of us-04 will I have blowoff issues. Will a blowoff tube be needed? ??? Ill b out of town all weekend while this is fermenting and would rather nit come home to a giant mess.

olotti said:

Did u have blowoff issues????? If I have 5.5 gal fermenting in a 6.5 gal carboy and pitch 1.5 packs of us-04 will I have blowoff issues. Will a blowoff tube be needed? ??? Ill b out of town all weekend while this is fermenting and would rather nit come home to a giant mess.

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Better to be safe than sorry...

I just racked this bad boy to a glass carboy secondary and dry hopped it with 3 ounces of citra. Beer tasted very good for only being 10 days old. Not overly bitter at all. I followed the hop additions to a T. I just dumped the pellet hops in to the carboy and they all floated to the surface and formed like a sludge on the surface. I can know see why people weigh them down ill do that with the next batch. Learning process

olotti said:

Did u have blowoff issues????? If I have 5.5 gal fermenting in a 6.5 gal carboy and pitch 1.5 packs of us-04 will I have blowoff issues. Will a blowoff tube be needed? ??? Ill b out of town all weekend while this is fermenting and would rather nit come home to a giant mess.

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Mine wasn't overly foamy but I'd run a blow off for cheap insurance

olotti said:

Did u have blowoff issues????? If I have 5.5 gal fermenting in a 6.5 gal carboy and pitch 1.5 packs of us-04 will I have blowoff issues. Will a blowoff tube be needed? ??? Ill b out of town all weekend while this is fermenting and would rather nit come home to a giant mess.

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Like the others suggested, I'd recommend putting in a blow off tube so you can rest assured everything will be fine. I've made it a standard practice in my home brewery. But sorry, I don't recall if there was blow off on that specific batch.

Every time I use S-04 it's an aggressive fermentation. Not always requiring a blow off tube, but it usually does. The worst was when I fermented a 1.104 RIS with S-04. Cleaning the blow off tube and carboy from that one was a nightmare!

Well this should be interesting. Bought the grain yesterday according to the original 6 Gal recipe. Well double checked the numbers on Beersmith today and for whatever reason, operator error, I guess the original recipe is at 75% efficiency so idk what happened but I used my 72%efficiency and it has the OG at 1.068 FG at 1.017 and abv at 6.7%. Ibu's are in line but idk I must've put something in wrong still getting used to the program and adjusting for my efficiency. Either way if I have a good day I'll just have a potent zombie.

First running collected 3.25 gal from 5 gal mash in with 20deg Plato at 1.084 sg. Just sparged with 4 gal grain bed only got to 162 deg though not the 168 I was shooting for. Ill collect enough hopefully 7 gal and it'll b the 1.056 pre boil gravity I need.

blackonblack said:

I just racked this bad boy to a glass carboy secondary and dry hopped it with 3 ounces of citra. Beer tasted very good for only being 10 days old. Not overly bitter at all. I followed the hop additions to a T. I just dumped the pellet hops in to the carboy and they all floated to the surface and formed like a sludge on the surface. I can know see why people weigh them down ill do that with the next batch. Learning process

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I started dryhopping mine on Monday in a Big Mouth and yep, the pellet hops formed about a 1/2" thick layer on top. There is still movement in the fermenter with hop particles going up and down but I think I may rouse the surface up a little with a spoon tonight to get more hop exposure.

So after Sparge 2nd gravity reading while vorlauf was 7.5 deg Plato.don't really knowxwhat that means. Pulled in 7 gal with a pre boil gravity of 13.6 deg lato 1.055 beersmith est pre boil was 1.056. Looking good so far just a hair under.

hezagenius said:

I started dryhopping mine on Monday in a Big Mouth and yep, the pellet hops formed about a 1/2" thick layer on top. There is still movement in the fermenter with hop particles going up and down but I think I may rouse the surface up a little with a spoon tonight to get more hop exposure.

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My opinion, don't use a spoon. Just give the tiniest of jostle and most of the particles should fall.

aStoutObserver said:

My opinion, don't use a spoon. Just give the tiniest of jostle and most of the particles should fall.

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Agreed I do that for all my dry hopped beers. Gentle jostle every few days mixes it up nicely.

Well I thought all was good but man those hop additions even with my hop spider just sucked up volume. With a few minutes left in the boil I had a gravity reading via refractometer of 1.067 but when all was said and done I had to top up with .5 Gal to get me around 5.75 gal into fermenter which dropped my abv from 6.7 to 6.2 which I'm really not sad about it falls more in line with the real thing but my efficiency took a hit oh well. Took a bunch of trub into the fermenter so hopefully that all settles out.