American Pale Ale Three Floyds Zombie Dust Clone

I make this regularly. I even have a kit set-up at my local LHBS bused on ZD.
http://knowhowbrewsandfoods.com/accidental-zombie-ipa

Everytime I brew the Whole Grain version, it is cloudy for 2-3 weeks in the keg. That is even after gelatin, Irish Moss, etc.

Then about week 3, it clears and pours crystal.

All that being said, it tastes awesome no matter what you do to it. Even my screw up that I made into a kit is very popular with the family and friends. Bottom line, Citra is the key!

Brewed this again Thursday only different from the first time was I have a wand aerator now and used some yeast nutrient since I built Thia version to b at 7% abv. Pitched two packs Rehydrated us-04 and aerated for 60-90 sec, the o2 tank kicked somewhere around then. Woke up the next morning with krausen in the airlock had to affix a blowoff tube the 04 was violently kicking away around 68deg now its finally started to slow but still bubbling every second or two. Don't know if it was the aeration with o2 or the yeast nutrient but this didn't happen the first batch with the 04. Fg projected at 1.015 so well c if the yeast just didn't blow right past that. Gravity test won't b until day 12 at the earliest.

Gotta little too anxious lastnight and it was only 2.5 days into bottle conditioning. Cooled one down and popped it open. Got the psst sound and then poured. Obviously still very flat but the flavor is very damn close to the real thing.

I rarely secondary.
Any huge benefit to secondarying this over just running three weeks in primary?

Kegged my ZD Clone batch on Tues and tried it out yesterday. Pretty awesome fast and a killer aroma (I've never had the original), BUT I still have bits of hops coming through. Think I may have to filter through the HopRocket and re-keg? Wondering if it will get grassy with too many hop particles floating.
OG: 1.064
FG: 1.009
Had a friend over last night and he was amazed. This stuff goes down WAY too easily.

On another note, got 12 gal of my Drunken Punkin Ale brewed yesterday, and it is happily fermenting along! If I brew this one again the pumpkin will NOT get mixed into the mash. Just put it on top of the rest of the mash and let the RIMS do its job. Had an extremely slow sparge even with 1.5# of rice hulls (25# grain bill and about 10# of roasted pumpkin). I could see bits of pumpkin clogging the holes of the false bottom. I may need a level 3 filter and HD false bottom stand for this one.

olotti said:

Brewed this again Thursday only different from the first time was I have a wand aerator now and used some yeast nutrient since I built Thia version to b at 7% abv. Pitched two packs Rehydrated us-04 and aerated for 60-90 sec, the o2 tank kicked somewhere around then. Woke up the next morning with krausen in the airlock had to affix a blowoff tube the 04 was violently kicking away around 68deg now its finally started to slow but still bubbling every second or two. Don't know if it was the aeration with o2 or the yeast nutrient but this didn't happen the first batch with the 04. Fg projected at 1.015 so well c if the yeast just didn't blow right past that. Gravity test won't b until day 12 at the earliest.

Click to expand...

I used S-04 and reached final gravity in 36hrs. And this was at 65 degrees. So... maybe you'll want to check it after 4-5 days.

Ok I made this and I'm in love but I need to fix a few things 1 this hop schedule I'd it FWH and then again at 15??

Anyway to take down the ABV? I would love to have a keg that tasted as good but didn't knock me on my butt after 2 beers. I really like the all day IPA for this reason but zombie dust tastes so much better

gotbags-10 said:

Anyway to take down the ABV? I would love to have a keg that tasted as good but didn't knock me on my butt after 2 beers. I really like the all day IPA for this reason but zombie dust tastes so much better

Click to expand...

Ummm just reduce the malt.....


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

Adaman05 said:

Ummm just reduce the malt.....


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

Click to expand...

Or drink more often and build that tolerance up

Adaman05 said:

Ummm just reduce the malt.....


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

Click to expand...

Depends how "sessionable" you want it. Any ballpark figure?
Maybe double the flameout and rove the 15min and 5 min?


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

I know I should reduce the malt. Should I reduce all the malts or just the 2 row? And by how much? I'm looking for possibly an 4.5-5.5 ABV . Something that I could drink all night if I'm at a gathering with friends.

If you have beersmith there is a function that will scale everything--malt, hops, water, etc--to a desired SG.

gotbags-10 said:

I know I should reduce the malt. Should I reduce all the malts or just the 2 row? And by how much? I'm looking for possibly an 4.5-5.5 ABV . Something that I could drink all night if I'm at a gathering with friends.

Click to expand...

If it was me remove the 15 and 5 and just use a 10 and flameout. But as per my earlier post is probably double the flameout.
Reduce your base and reduce your melanoidin a tad.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

just tried mine after three weeks in bottle. Very nice. Best head retention I've probably had on a beer.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

Only 8 days into bottle conditioning and really impressed!!! Brewing another 6 gallon batch on Sunday. Still have 5 1/2 6packs downstairs conditioning and two bombers. This will forever be on constant flow in my house.

Brewing this tomorrow and planning on a batch sparge. Using brewheads.com batch sparge calculator. Does anyone do a mash out with this recipe. If so what temp? Or does anyone recommend a better calc? I'm anticipating 7.25-7.5 pre boil gallons as doing a 60 minute boil should leave me with 6 gal left upon transferring to primary with my 15.5 gal keggle BK

Brewed this one again today. It never disappoints!

so what's the hop schedule the FWH then 20min then @15?

Yup you got it

AfroHopster said:

so what's the hop schedule the FWH then 20min then @15?

Click to expand...

Incorrect. Fwh, 15, 10, 5, 1


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

3rd attempt has just been kegged. Abv right on a 6.5% smells great. But i lost a lot during fermentation. Only got 4 gallons. Guess my 4th attempt will come sooner!

Brewed my second batch of this yesterday and turned out way darker than my first. First one was BIAB and this one was with my new mash tun in a keggle with a false bottom kit from brewhardware.com. I did a batch sparge with my mash in volume at about 4.5 gallons (produced 3 gallons at 1.072 SG) then sparge volume about 5.5 gallons that produced 1.030 SG. After draining the 1.030 wort into the 1.072 wort to get my preboil 7.5 gallons it knocked the damn SG preboil down to 1.045. So after crunching numbers I only got 66% efficiency WTF. I even milled my own grain with my new Cereal Killer grain mill set at a recommended credit card thickness gap and the grain came out awesome so I don't think that was the issue. Nailed my temps throughout so I don't think that was the issue either. Any suggestions?

copper2hopper said:

Brewed my second batch of this yesterday and turned out way darker than my first. First one was BIAB and this one was with my new mash tun in a keggle with a false bottom kit from brewhardware.com. I did a batch sparge with my mash in volume at about 4.5 gallons (produced 3 gallons at 1.072 SG) then sparge volume about 5.5 gallons that produced 1.030 SG. After draining the 1.030 wort into the 1.072 wort to get my preboil 7.5 gallons it knocked the damn SG preboil down to 1.045. So after crunching numbers I only got 66% efficiency WTF. I even milled my own grain with my new Cereal Killer grain mill set at a recommended credit card thickness gap and the grain came out awesome so I don't think that was the issue. Nailed my temps throughout so I don't think that was the issue either. Any suggestions?

Click to expand...

Did you calculate efficiency with your pre-boil gravity? If so, use your post boil gravity and also make sure to include any volume of wort that was left over in your BK, if any.

Anybody know if ZD is viable to gather yeast from? I am getting some bottles in the mail today and was thinking about trying to harvest the yeast, if there is any. Has anyone done this before with success?

finsfan said:

Anybody know if ZD is viable to gather yeast from? I am getting some bottles in the mail today and was thinking about trying to harvest the yeast, if there is any. Has anyone done this before with success?

Click to expand...

I could be wrong, but I think I read on here you can, but it's not recommended because the yeast could be stressed from the higher abv. I think Gumballhead is the better option for harvesting yeast.
That being said. I'd give it a shot.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

First time poster! Awesome infor here, but it seems one thing is eluding me.

I've got the recipe, and will be doing BIAB. What I seem to be missing, however, is how much water I should be starting with? I'm looking to get a rough estimate (closer is better) of starting water volume with BIAB without a sparge. I'm reading conflicting information on other sites that suggest between 7 and 8.63. Is there a target to start?

rustedbucket said:

First time poster! Awesome infor here, but it seems one thing is eluding me.

I've got the recipe, and will be doing BIAB. What I seem to be missing, however, is how much water I should be starting with? I'm looking to get a rough estimate (closer is better) of starting water volume with BIAB without a sparge. I'm reading conflicting information on other sites that suggest between 7 and 8.63. Is there a target to start?

Click to expand...

Welcome to the forums!

Bit first, not at all trying to be a jerk, but I think you'd have better luck not posting this question on a recipe thread and instead asking the BIAB group.

But, you're in luck in that I brewed this recipe yesterday BIAB! And the answer is, it depends. Actually it doesn't matter if you do BIAB or three tier or whatever. It will always depend on your specific system and your methods.

So, for me, I needed 8 gallons of water total. I mashed in 6 gallons, sparged with 2 gallons to get my preboil volume. I modified the recipe and only boiled for 30 minutes and ended the day with 6 gallons in the fermenter. I dont loose any to true in the kettle because I just dump it all into the bucket.

But, your system could be completely different. Your boil off rate, how hard you squeeze the bag (grain adsorption), how much you assume you loose to kettle trub, how much you loose in the feremnter.

I'd recommend you go to one of the online calculators. I had really good luck yesterday with PricelessBrewing's calculator.

http://pricelessbrewing.github.io

You can leave his default values and they'll get you close.

Hey, thanks for the feedback. Love the calc, seems much better than the first couple I liked/looked at.

I hear ya about the questionable post here. Tbh, wasn't sure if it was best in the BIAB forum or not since it was THIS recipe specific.

With no sparge and yielding a 6 gallon return, with the defaults, I've gotten my answer of 9.47 gallons of total water to yield 6.2 gal of 'gold'.

Then, just a matter of deciding whether to make this a "Galactic Zombie" via dry hopping with Galaxy.

Thanks for the help!

Hit the ten day mark today and sent it to secondary.
The sample was 1.020 and tasted quite nicely. I started with 1.070.
Can't wait to get the dry hopping on there!
Was even considering going 4oz on the dry hop.

Floated my keg yesterday; sad its gone. This will absolutely be back in the pipeline again soon!!

Nagorg said:

Floated my keg yesterday; sad its gone. This will absolutely be back in the pipeline again soon!!

Click to expand...

Great Clarity!

after drinking this for the past few weeks I have come to the conclusion that I have yet to find an APA that can touch this stuff. Its amazing. The compliments and feedback I have received from people I let try this beer is nothing short of outstanding.

I'm going to make a SMaSH with Pils/Citra next. Citra is my favorite hop right now and for good reason, unbeatable tropical flavors.

Medic218 said:

Hit the ten day mark today and sent it to secondary.
The sample was 1.020 and tasted quite nicely. I started with 1.070.
Can't wait to get the dry hopping on there!
Was even considering going 4oz on the dry hop.

Click to expand...

do it! i dry hopped with 3.5 and it came out delicious! i think you would be safe with a 4oz dry hop on this beer.

This just taste amazing! About to dry hop it tonight. cant wait to keg and enjoy!

Medic218 said:

Hit the ten day mark today and sent it to secondary.
The sample was 1.020 and tasted quite nicely. I started with 1.070.
Can't wait to get the dry hopping on there!
Was even considering going 4oz on the dry hop.

Click to expand...

Go for it. I dry hopped my last batch with 3oz of citra pellets and 1oz of whole leaf. Aroma was so much better than batch #1

This beer is amazing biggest problem I have with it is my friends won't let me brew anything else!

I followed the ag recipe to a t, hit my numbers thru the brew process. I tried a homemade spider for the hops additions and used to small hop bags for the dry hop and it came out not hoppy. Last time I do the spider, I'm going to switch to the paint strainer after the boil method going forward. To hop it up after it was in the keg I added another 2oz in a sterilized knee high nylon, and after a week the citra aroma is finally coming thru! Overall best beer I've ever made, even with the mistakes. Thanks to everyone for the great tips.

trip150 said:

To hop it up after it was in the keg I added another 2oz in a sterilized knee high nylon

Click to expand...

And the beer pretty much names itself, "Knee High Nylon Pale Ale"!

I want to brew this one up next but I'm kinda confused with the bittering here. Skeezers recipe calls for 65 IBUs but the FFF website lists ZD at 50 IBU. Was this discussed in here before? Couldn't find anything.

Has anyone put this into Beersmith? If yes, please share your .bmsx file.