American Pale Ale Three Floyds Zombie Dust Clone

[rafaelpinto]

I have some questions:

1 - Is US05 not recommended?

2 - What will be the change of cutting crystal off and adding some more meladoiden malt (6%)? Will that make the beer more orange in color?

3 - Increase amount of carafoam to 6% will change malt aroma/taste?

 

[EVBrewing]

You will have a lighter color and a sweeter grain bill.

 

[Komodo]

Has anyone not dry hopped? I'm not as worried about getting a straight ZD clone, just something similar, maybe somewhere between ZD and Magic Hat 9? I used Motueka and Citra in the boil and am not opposed to dryhop but wondering if it'll be worth it. I don't ever dry hop Belgians (which is all I ever brew).

I guess tossing in 1 oz per bucket won't hurt anything. Just thinking out loud.

 

[skeezerpleezer]

Has anyone not dry hopped? I'm not as worried about getting a straight ZD clone, just something similar, maybe somewhere between ZD and Magic Hat 9? I used Motueka and Citra in the boil and am not opposed to dryhop but wondering if it'll be worth it. I don't ever dry hop Belgians (which is all I ever brew).

I guess tossing in 1 oz per bucket won't hurt anything. Just thinking out loud.

Never skipped the dryhop, and it is worth it.

Do you plan to add apricots?

I like to dryhop saisons and some sours. I would dryhop Belgian IPAs and pales if I ever made them.

 

[mrgrimm101]

New brewer here. For the Zombie Dust I was wondering if the dry hopping was done for the primary or secondary fermentation.

I just brewed a clone of Bell's Two Hearted Ale and it has me add the dry hop addition when I transfer it to the secondary fermenter, so I was wondering if this is common or maybe just particular to the Two Hearted.

 

[skeezerpleezer]

A lot of people don't use secondary, so it is jut personal preference really. Personally, I rack to a keg, then dry hop in that, then carb and cool.

 

[mrgrimm101]

Would there be a difference in taste if i were to dry hop in the primary vs dry hopping in the secondary?

I'm planning on bottling and so far I have no preference as to whether a secondary is necessary.

 

[rafaelpinto]

If you wait till primary is complete, I guess it would not make a difference. However, Ive heard people talking about yeast cells embracing the aromatic compounds of hops and getting it to the thrub...

 

[mrgrimm101]

It looks like it calls for 3 oz to be dry hopped so maybe I'll do 2 oz in the primary and then 1 in the secondary. anyone have any thoughts about that?

 

[Komodo]

New brewer here. For the Zombie Dust I was wondering if the dry hopping was done for the primary or secondary fermentation.

I just brewed a clone of Bell's Two Hearted Ale and it has me add the dry hop addition when I transfer it to the secondary fermenter, so I was wondering if this is common or maybe just particular to the Two Hearted.

There technically is no secondary fermentation. There is just, fermentation. After the initial ferment is done (maybe 4-7 days), many like to transfer to another vessel and off of the yeast cake. I guess this is to prevent off flavors from dead yeast (autolysis) but this is not an issue for the home brewer. This may be an issue for LARGE scale brewers using huge conical tanks where the pressure at the bottom of the cone is enough to kill yeasts.

For the home brewer, leaving a beer on the initial yeast cake isn't an issue and considering the potential for introduction of contaminants, is avoided by many. ie. don't mess with it if you don't have to. Fermentation will continue at this point, just slower. One problem with transferring to a new container (secondary) is that you could potentially stop the ferment and not reach the final gravity you were shooting for. If you had just left it, it may have continued further.

I'm not an avid dry hopper, but it is usually done just after the bulk of the ferment is done.

 

[BrewFry22]

It looks like it calls for 3 oz to be dry hopped so maybe I'll do 2 oz in the primary and then 1 in the secondary. anyone have any thoughts about that?

Don't do that. If you are going to transfer to a secondary then do all of the dry hopping in there. I would dry hop this for around 1 week total.

I like using secondaries when bottling since it gives me another chance to leave behind some trub and my beer ends up clearer because of it. Also, it frees up my primary so I can brew more beer!

 

[mrgrimm101]

There technically is no secondary fermentation. There is just, fermentation. After the initial ferment is done (maybe 4-7 days), many like to transfer to another vessel and off of the yeast cake. I guess this is to prevent off flavors from dead yeast (autolysis) but this is not an issue for the home brewer. This may be an issue for LARGE scale brewers using huge conical tanks where the pressure at the bottom of the cone is enough to kill yeasts.

For the home brewer, leaving a beer on the initial yeast cake isn't an issue and considering the potential for introduction of contaminants, is avoided by many. ie. don't mess with it if you don't have to. Fermentation will continue at this point, just slower. One problem with transferring to a new container (secondary) is that you could potentially stop the ferment and not reach the final gravity you were shooting for. If you had just left it, it may have continued further.

I'm not an avid dry hopper, but it is usually done just after the bulk of the ferment is done.

Awesome thanks so much for clarifying.

 

[Komodo]

I like using secondaries when bottling since it gives me another chance to leave behind some trub and my beer ends up clearer because of it. Also, it frees up my primary so I can brew more beer!

Both totally valid points. I switched to buckets and now have more fermenters than I know what to do with.

BTW-I'm using S-04 for this one and one of the things I hope it achieves is a clearer beer with it's reputed compact cake.

 

[Komodo]

Never skipped the dryhop, and it is worth it.

Do you plan to add apricots?

I like to dryhop saisons and some sours. I would dryhop Belgian IPAs and pales if I ever made them.

I'm going to forget the Motueka, and dry hop with either Citra, Simcoe, or Mosaic or a mix of these. I have no experience with these other than the Citra used in the boil, my Belgians use all Tett and Saaz. I'm thinking 4-5oz total, all mixed up and split between my buckets 5G, 4G and 4G. (In the end I had less than I thought.)

Any votes on which hop or which mix of those? I literally don't care, and I'll have to drink it unless anyone wants to come help.

 

[ljames]

Just when I thought my day couldn't be any worse...work in IT and experienced a major outage...all I wanted to do was get home, eat and have an ice cold home brew. The SWMBO is out of town on business so the house is all mine.

I walked in the house and was smacked in the face with mango and grapefruit and this...


Damn blowout. Don't ask what the t-shirt looked like. Total mess and It was a good thing SHE wasn't home! Oh well guess I'll still have that home brew and clean up the mess. Hopefully it will still turn out okay.



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[Komodo]

Crap. At least you had it in something! I had one explode in a small room one time that cover walls, floor and ceiling.

 

[mtnagel]

I brewed this yesterday and started with a blow off tube (like I always do on my 5 gal batches).

 

[EVBrewing]

I brewed this one last Saturday and the fermentation took off like a rocket for the first three days. Luckily i've got eight gallons in a fifteen gallon vessel with a tube. It would have blown an air lock right out.

 

[doaradorowans]

Wow this recipe sounds delicious. I'm thinking about this for a future brew but I have a question for those who have done the extract/PM version.

Are you guys mashing and the sparging the extra grains with the appropriate amount of water and then adding to your boil water? Or are you doing a controlled steep in the full 3 gallons of water?

 

[ljames]

I use Deathbrewers method for PM and find it works well for me. I AM also able to do full boils. For this recipe I followed it almost to the step the only difference is I added 3# DME at start and the last 3# with 15 min left in boil.

Here is the link to Deathbrewers topic on PM.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=787489



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[mtnagel]

Just when I thought my day couldn't be any worse...work in IT and experienced a major outage...all I wanted to do was get home, eat and have an ice cold home brew. The SWMBO is out of town on business so the house is all mine.

I walked in the house and was smacked in the face with mango and grapefruit and this...


Damn blowout. Don't ask what the t-shirt looked like. Total mess and It was a good thing SHE wasn't home! Oh well guess I'll still have that home brew and clean up the mess. Hopefully it will still turn out okay.

I just checked mine and I barely have any kraussen. I used a blow off just in case. I don't understand why some people have explosive fermentations while I almost never do. I pitched what I thought was a healthy pitch. I was a yeast cake that was about 2 weeks old, but I still made a starter. I estimated low cell density for the yeast cake, so I assume I over pitched. I have mine in a water bath like yours and it's at 66F.

 

[ljames]

I just checked mine and I barely have any kraussen. I used a blow off just in case. I don't understand why some people have explosive fermentations while I almost never do. I pitched what I thought was a healthy pitch. I was a yeast cake that was about 2 weeks old, but I still made a starter. I estimated low cell density for the yeast cake, so I assume I over pitched. I have mine in a water bath like yours and it's at 66F.

I used a single packet of S-04 and I didn't rehydrate. My temp was about 65-67 pre blowout but when I checked it after the blowout it was in the neighborhood of 70-72. I suspect the slight rise in temp may have "woke up" the yeasties but I'm not certain. I switched to a blowoff tube because about 4' above the fermenter is a wire shelf and when it blew out my airlock shattered upon impact. I also emptied and added fresh cool water which slowly lowered the temp back to where I wanted. Definitely looking into fermentation chamber this summer!


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[mtnagel]

Crazy that it had so much force to break the airlock!

Not sure where Reston is, but it's still cold enough here that I have to heat my water to get it up to 66F! It's sitting on the floor of my ~60F basement. I use an aquarium heater. I hadn't checked during fermentation if the temps were matching the bath, but I just did on this batch and the temp was high by 1F (bath at 65F and wort at 66F) so I feel pretty good about my super cheap method keeping the fermentation temps in check.

 

[ljames]

Reston is in N. VA about 25 miles west of DC. Temps here just started creeping into the 60's finally after having snow this past weekend. I have no problem with warm water. My tap spits out hot water at 120+F, can't put your hand in it, for too long anyway. Brewing ales in these temps are ok. But I don't think my swamp cooler will work at maintaining the temps I need for the lagers I want to brew, hence my desire for a ferm chamber.


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[mtnagel]

You'd have to change out ice very frequently and you'd probably have too many temperature swings.

 

[ljames]

Exactly, I don't want to be dealing with that in the summer. I live on the top floor of my complex and couldn't be bothered with ice packs and the like. The chamber is on my b-day list...hope the SWMBO is on board.


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[thaymond]

Fermentation chamber is the best investment I made for lagers. I don't notice much difference in my ales. My basement stays a consistent 60degrees and maybe tops at 68 in the summer. I plan my brews accordingly.

Just did my daily sniff of the airlock. SWMBO had a nose full, and she even said that this smells heavenly. No joke, her words. She hates the smell of fermentation and hops. But this is special. I can't wait to dry hop it this weekend.

 

[proink]

My first PM!

Recipe calls for 2.5 lbs of grains. How much water to start with, 3 quart?

Also, should I add all 6lb. of dry after sparging or split it, 3lb after sparging and 3lb. last 15 minutes of boil?

 

[ljames]

My first PM!

Recipe calls for 2.5 lbs of grains. How much water to start with, 3 quart?

Also, should I add all 6lb. of dry after sparging or split it, 3lb after sparging and 3lb. last 15 minutes of boil?

Sounds about right regarding the water. I think the DME split is a matter of choice honestly. I'm pretty sure it will affect mostly color and not flavor. Someone with more brew experience may chime in if I'm incorrect.



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[skeezerpleezer]

Sounds about right regarding the water. I think the DME split is a matter of choice honestly. I'm pretty sure it will affect mostly color and not flavor. Someone with more brew experience may chime in if I'm incorrect.



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And it will affect hop utilization