American Pale Ale Three Floyds Zombie Dust Clone

[jammin]

Im brewing this again for the 5th time tomorrow, just before the Patriots are scheduled to silence the 12th bag.

Cutting all specialty malts by 2oz. Medium hardness water with ~ 190ppm Sulfate. WLP002

 

[skeezerpleezer]

Im brewing this again for the 5th time tomorrow, just before the Patriots are scheduled to silence the 12th bag.

Cutting all specialty malts by 2oz. Medium hardness water with ~ 190ppm Sulfate. WLP002

Gonna carb it when it's done or leave if "Flat"?

 

[jammin]

Gonna carb it when it's done or leave if "Flat"?

fukker haha - as sick as I am of those jokes, that was actually pretty well played

 

[sybesbrew]

Best inflate gate joke yet!

 

[GRBC]

Brewed this and really enjoyed it. I had never used Citra in the boil before, only as a whirlpool or dry hop addition. It surprised me that this beer had such a pleasantly strong citrus character when what I have gotten from citra in the past with my whirlpool/dry hops was that powerful overripe mango, tropical kind of flavor & aroma. I had always thought it odd that they named it citra, now I get it.

Will definitely brew it again.

 

[TxBigHops]

Thinking about brewing this on Saturday. I have a few questions regarding the original recipe in Post #1.

For a medium gravity beer, why does it finish so high? Previous beers of mine with that OG have generally finished in the 1.010 to 1.012 range when mashed at 152.

I see all the hops are late addition except for the FWH. Is this critical to the beer turning out like the original? Is it because Citra is not a good bittering hop?

Anybody divide the dry hops into two separate shorter additions? I don't think I could get a hop bag with three ounces in it back out of my carboy neck.

Thanks!

 

[jjbanks]

Thinking about brewing this on Saturday. I have a few questions regarding the original recipe in Post #1.

For a medium gravity beer, why does it finish so high? Previous beers of mine with that OG have generally finished in the 1.010 to 1.012 range when mashed at 152.

I see all the hops are late addition except for the FWH. Is this critical to the beer turning out like the original? Is it because Citra is not a good bittering hop?

Anybody divide the dry hops into two separate shorter additions? I don't think I could get a hop bag with three ounces in it back out of my carboy neck.

Thanks!

Mine finished at 1.011. Had about 6 gallons go into the fermenter. Used a 2 stage starter but may have been unnecessary.

 

[beernbourbon]

Mine finished at 1.012, I also did a starter, yes unnecessary but I just like to do them out of habit for my process. Same thing every time no matter what so I don't miss something.

 

[In_Vino_Veritas]

With the Vermont Ale Yeast being the hot yeast for IPAs any consideration for trying it for this APA? Think it'd be interesting to do a split batch S0-4 and Vermont.

 

[mtnagel]

I think Conan would be great in this. I think it would complement the citra well.

I got down to 1.015 but I used WLP005. I'd probably use Conan or WLP001 next time I do it.

I also wouldn't hesitate to split up the dry hop either. I regularly do that now on all my IPAs. First dry hop after 5 or 6 days in primary, then keg after 4 or 5 more days (so around 10 days primary). And I add in the second dry hop in the keg.

 

[thelouisvillekyle]

I would recommend throwing in 4 to 5 more pounds of 2 row with a couple packets of S-04. This the best brew I've made yet, next to the LH milk sout clone.

 

[TxBigHops]

Bought my grain and a pound of Citra pellets. Gonna fire this one up tomorrow morning! Pumped!

 

[TxBigHops]

Well damn! Brew day seemed to be going great. Beautiful sunny Texas day. But for some reason my efficiency sucked and I put 5.75 gallons of 1.056 wort into the fermenter. Used the original recipe exactly.

So any suggestions? How will this turn out 9 points low? Can I bump it up by adding some sugar to the fermenter? Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

 

[olotti]

Well damn! Brew day seemed to be going great. Beautiful sunny Texas day. But for some reason my efficiency sucked and I put 5.75 gallons of 1.056 wort into the fermenter. Used the original recipe exactly.

So any suggestions? How will this turn out 9 points low? Can I bump it up by adding some sugar to the fermenter? Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

Something went wrong somewhere. Poor mash efficiency maybe or maybe you didn't boil off enough. MAybe just try to find where it went wrong, hope u take good notes, and just figure this a really flavorful session beer and rebrew again. I haven't been doing this long enough to know if sugar would help since you had a low of of to begin with but there are only so many sugars the yeast can eat and they may do that and then your set at your FG. What's your expected FG?

 

[TxBigHops]

Something went wrong somewhere. Poor mash efficiency maybe or maybe you didn't boil off enough. MAybe just try to find where it went wrong, hope u take good notes, and just figure this a really flavorful session beer and rebrew again. I haven't been doing this long enough to know if sugar would help since you had a low of of to begin with but there are only so many sugars the yeast can eat and they may do that and then your set at your FG. What's your expected FG?

I'm still dialing in my all grain process. Received a new Igloo 10 gallon mash tun for Christmas. This is my second batch with the system. On my first batch I didn't run enough water into the kettle, plus boiled too long and gravity ended a little high. Beer still turned out good.

I also put all my recipes into BeerSmith. This one gave me a projected OG of 1.064 and a projected FG of 1.016. My mash went perfectly. Hit 152 degrees on the nose. However, Beersmith recommended batch sparging at 168, which I did, but after adding the sparge water, my grain bed temps dropped back to the low 150s. Could that have been the problem?

As far as volumes, I put 7.25 gallons into the kettle and 5.75 gallons into the fermenter. I had originally planned to put 5.5 in the fermenter. Could 1/4 gallon make that much difference? Well obviously it does have an effect, but it couldn't be the entire 8-9 points.

 

[Adaman05]

I batch sparge with 185-190 F water get the grain bed up to 168ish. This essentially acts as my mash out.

 

[barrooze]

I'm still dialing in my all grain process. Received a new Igloo 10 gallon mash tun for Christmas. This is my second batch with the system. On my first batch I didn't run enough water into the kettle, plus boiled too long and gravity ended a little high. Beer still turned out good.

I also put all my recipes into BeerSmith. This one gave me a projected OG of 1.064 and a projected FG of 1.016. My mash went perfectly. Hit 152 degrees on the nose. However, Beersmith recommended batch sparging at 168, which I did, but after adding the sparge water, my grain bed temps dropped back to the low 150s. Could that have been the problem?

As far as volumes, I put 7.25 gallons into the kettle and 5.75 gallons into the fermenter. I had originally planned to put 5.5 in the fermenter. Could 1/4 gallon make that much difference? Well obviously it does have an effect, but it couldn't be the entire 8-9 points.

Since this is only your second all grain batch, you're still figuring out your system's mash efficiency. Your system may be working at a lower efficiency than what you've got plugged into BS. This will result in lower a preboil Gravity than what the recipe has.

Did you check your preboil Gravity? If so, was it what BS stated it would be? If not, I HIGHLY recommend getting a refractometor (if you don't have one already). They make taking gravity samples during mash and boil a breeze.

 

[TxBigHops]

Since this is only your second all grain batch, you're still figuring out your system's mash efficiency. Your system may be working at a lower efficiency than what you've got plugged into BS. This will result in lower a preboil Gravity than what the recipe has.

Did you check your preboil Gravity? If so, was it what BS stated it would be? If not, I HIGHLY recommend getting a refractometor (if you don't have one already). They make taking gravity samples during mash and boil a breeze.

Yes, I did take a preboil gravity reading. It was 1.048, only 1 point low. That makes me suspect that one of my readings was not correct. Hopefully it was the post boil reading. And yes, both readings were adjusted for temperature. I have been thinking about getting a refractometer. Probably a wise investment.

At least I don't have any problems with fermentation. Here it is just 16 hours after pitching!

 

[aStoutObserver]

When did you take your post boil gravity? Did you adjust for the temperature?

 

[In_Vino_Veritas]

I’m puzzled by you temp results. Adding 168 deg F water to your 152 mash can’t have resulted in a reduction of temp to 150. You have to of bleed heat somewhere or missed the number you expressed. Did you leave the cooler open bringing your water to 168 and your 152 temp was in fact lower? Did you lose a huge amount of heat transferring the 168, it would have to drop below 152 to reduce the combined temp? Point being, it isn’t physically possible to add 168 to one 152 and reduce below 152. Depending of volumes if I were to guess, you should have hit upper 150s. You will want to know for future reference where you're bleeding heat.

Additionally, I don’t understand the point of adding 168, it won’t bring you up to mash out temps. You want to hit a combined 168 for the mash out, which means you need to add around 190 to boiling depending on the volume you’re adding. You want to mash out for two reasons. First, it increases viscosity, which helps in lautering. If I was to bet this is were you got poor extraction, sugars didn’t become viscous enough to drain, thereby leaving sugars behind. Second, the mash out denatures the enzyme activity, which results in setting your fermentability mixture. Second point would not have resulting in poor extraction.

Key take away, I would check BeerSmith. Did you misread the infusion step that 168 were your target for the mixture and you should have added water at a good amount higher?

Otherwise, all I’ve got to add is to check water pH. Along with seconding aStoutObserver. Did you adjust for temp when taking the gravity reading; couldn’t EASILY of been just a reading mistake as gravity goes down significantly with increased temp.

 

[emorris]

Thinking of doing a Amarillo version of this soon

 

[TxBigHops]

I’m puzzled by you temp results. Adding 168 deg F water to your 152 mash can’t have resulted in a reduction of temp to 150. You have to of bleed heat somewhere or missed the number you expressed. Did you leave the cooler open bringing your water to 168 and your 152 temp was in fact lower? Did you lose a huge amount of heat transferring the 168, it would have to drop below 152 to reduce the combined temp? Point being, it isn’t physically possible to add 168 to one 152 and reduce below 152. Depending of volumes if I were to guess, you should have hit upper 150s. You will want to know for future reference where you're bleeding heat.

Additionally, I don’t understand the point of adding 168, it won’t bring you up to mash out temps. You want to hit a combined 168 for the mash out, which means you need to add around 190 to boiling depending on the volume you’re adding. You want to mash out for two reasons. First, it increases viscosity, which helps in lautering. If I was to bet this is were you got poor extraction, sugars didn’t become viscous enough to drain, thereby leaving sugars behind. Second, the mash out denatures the enzyme activity, which results in setting your fermentability mixture. Second point would not have resulting in poor extraction.

Key take away, I would check BeerSmith. Did you misread the infusion step that 168 were your target for the mixture and you should have added water at a good amount higher?

Otherwise, all I’ve got to add is to check water pH. Along with seconding aStoutObserver. Did you adjust for temp when taking the gravity reading; couldn’t EASILY of been just a reading mistake as gravity goes down significantly with increased temp.

Thanks for such a great reply! So much good info. This is why HBT rocks.

I'm looking at BeerSmith right now. It clearly says to sparge with 168 degree water, not to bring the grain bed up to 168. Lesson learned. I won't make this mistake again.

My grain bed was just a touch under 152 at the beginning of the mash. An hour later it had dropped to 150. After a vorlauf and draining the mash water, I assume the grain temp would have dropped into the 140's. I do leave the cooler top off while I'm measuring out the sparge water. I drain two quarts at a time from my HLT into a pitcher and pour it slowly over the grain bed. I measured the temp of the water after I had drained it into the pitcher. I think the first sparge was 168 and the second was 166. I assume it may have lost some more temp while being poured over the bed. After pouring 4 or 5 pitchers, I stir it, then let it rest for 10 minutes with the lid back on prior to a vorlauf, and then draining it to transfer to my kettle. I don't remember if I took the temp of the grain bed after the first sparge, but I did after the second, (after pouring and stirring) and I think it was somewhere in the low, or maybe mid 150's, not exactly 150.

 

[Rowdy50]

Just brewed this yesterday as my 2nd AG batch. Messed up a bit and did my batch sparge with 3 gallons instead of 4, so I ended up with about 4 gallons in primary at OG=1.070.

Any thoughts on how this might come out considering I used all the hops of a 5 gallon batch? Should I adjust the dry-hopping at all?

 

[MMJfan]

Bottling up batch #2 of this recipe tonight! Hydrometer sample tasted wonderful when I was adding the dry hops! Can't wait for this to condition as I slammed through my first batch of this in less than a month!

 

[TxBigHops]

Thanks for such a great reply! So much good info. This is why HBT rocks.

I'm looking at BeerSmith right now. It clearly says to sparge with 168 degree water, not to bring the grain bed up to 168. Lesson learned. I won't make this mistake again.

My grain bed was just a touch under 152 at the beginning of the mash. An hour later it had dropped to 150. After a vorlauf and draining the mash water, I assume the grain temp would have dropped into the 140's. I do leave the cooler top off while I'm measuring out the sparge water. I drain two quarts at a time from my HLT into a pitcher and pour it slowly over the grain bed. I measured the temp of the water after I had drained it into the pitcher. I think the first sparge was 168 and the second was 166. I assume it may have lost some more temp while being poured over the bed. After pouring 4 or 5 pitchers, I stir it, then let it rest for 10 minutes with the lid back on prior to a vorlauf, and then draining it to transfer to my kettle. I don't remember if I took the temp of the grain bed after the first sparge, but I did after the second, (after pouring and stirring) and I think it was somewhere in the low, or maybe mid 150's, not exactly 150.

Looks like this brew is going to turn out drier than the real Zombie Dust. Five days in and gravity is already down to 1.010. Citra aroma is fantastic. Gonna start the dry hop in a day or two and bottle next weekend. I wish it were going to have a little more body, but many new things were learned from this brew and my next beer will be better.

I'm thinking since it's lower gravity than it should be, and there's plenty of hop aroma and bitterness already, that I will cut the dry hop back from 3 to 2 ounces. Does that make sense?

 

[olotti]

Looks like this brew is going to turn out drier than the real Zombie Dust. Five days in and gravity is already down to 1.010. Citra aroma is fantastic. Gonna start the dry hop in a day or two and bottle next weekend. I wish it were going to have a little more body, but many new things were learned from this brew and my next beer will be better.

I'm thinking since it's lower gravity than it should be, and there's plenty of hop aroma and bitterness already, that I will cut the dry hop back from 3 to 2 ounces. Does that make sense?

I'd keep with the same dry hop amount that may mask any perceived extra bitterness. My first batch turned out the same way and I loved it being new to all grain it made me see how much the hops shine with that slight drop in Gravity. Plus I had a chance to a/b the two and the people that tasted it either said my clone was spot on or they actually preferred the hb version. in my follow up batches of this I shoot for a 1.010 FG now.

 

[gotbags-10]

Anyone have the FG turn out real low? My OG was 1.065 on the money. 1pack of s-04 and it went down to 1.000!! I believe that is 8.6%abv with 98% attenuation. I took multiple gravity samples and all were the same. Mashed at 150. Fermented starting at 64 then finished at 70 for a few days before cold crashing. Beer is bone dry and pretty bitter.

 

[mtnagel]

You sure that's accurate? Did you check your hydrometer with distilled water? That's 100% attenuation!

 

[gotbags-10]

I haven't checked it in a while but it's never been off as far as I can tellView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1423868288.354223.jpg

 

[rbdono2]

I'm an idiot and need some advice. I brewed this one on Thursday and everything went great! Except, my location for my carboy was not thought out very well. I put it in my closet because my basement has been sitting around 55F and I was concerned it would be too cool. However, I didn't realize my dryer vent runs directly under my closet, bringing my carboy to a nice warm 78F. I have read that US04 gives off a tart taste above 68F.

So, do I go to the LHBS for more grain and re-brew, or stick it out and see what happens? Total time at 78F is 36 hours. Almost all activity has subsided.