Dusty Zombies

About This Beer

First iteration of the renamed Dusty Zombies series — Matt’s renamed continuation of his Zombie Dust clone (February 2023) of Three Floyds Brewing’s classic single-hop Citra pale ale. The Ale + Vienna grain bill that proved itself in the original is carried over unchanged; the deliberate departure here is on the hop side. Citra is out; three NZ varieties new to the lineup are in: Moutere (clean bittering), Nectaron, and Superdelic.

The rename signals the recipe has moved on while honouring the origin. The “Dusty” half of the name keeps a connection to the Zombie Dust template; the inversion to “Dusty Zombies” reflects a recipe Matt has now made his own.

At OG 1.069 it sits at the heavier end of the Pale Ale bracket, closer to a session IPA in gravity but styled as an APA. The hop-forward design was intentional.

Tasting verdict on the hop departure: while the beer turned out well, the Superdelic + Nectaron pairing lost the pleasantly “undead” character of the original Zombie Dust — Citra’s distinctive fruit + dank “sweaty socks” combo is what gives that signature, and the NZ tropical pairing lands in a different aromatic place. The grain bill proved itself though, and stays unchanged across the subsequent versions; later iterations swing back toward Citra (V2 and V3) and eventually find the right pairing with Citra + Krush in V4 for the tropical + dank balance.

Ingredients

The grain bill is deliberately minimal: Gladfield Ale Malt as the base with Gladfield Vienna Malt providing a touch of golden colour and soft malt body. Vienna keeps things from reading as completely neutral while still staying out of the way of the hop character.

Moutere at 60 minutes provides clean, soft bittering from its low cohumulone. Nectaron and Superdelic were used in parallel at every late addition stage — 15-minute boil, whirlpool, and dry hop. Nectaron brings intense passionfruit and stone fruit; Superdelic contributes red fruit and candy-citrus. LalBrew Verdant IPA was chosen for its biotransformation properties and the soft, juicy mouthfeel it lends to hop-forward beers at this gravity.

Brew Day

Brewed on the BrewZilla 35L Gen 4. Mash-in at 67°C with 16.5 L, sparge with 16 L at 76°C. Pre-boil volume was 28.5 L. A 60-minute boil brought the volume down to 26 L before transfer.

The transfer had a significant issue: the kettle drain blocked from hop and trub build-up, resulting in extra trub carry-over into the fermenter. Volume into the fermenter came in at 21.5 L, but packaged yield was lower than expected due to the trub-heavy wort. OG hit 1.069, matching the target exactly.

Fermentation

Fermented in the FermZilla at 18°C primary with a rise to 20°C for a rest phase. A final gravity was not recorded for this batch. The beer was packaged into bottles on 2023-10-19, 14 days after brew day.

The Result

Despite the process complications on brew day, the beer tasted well on bottling day. The simple grain bill did exactly what it was supposed to: the hops dominated clearly, with the malt providing structure without drawing attention to itself. Lower yield than planned due to the blocked kettle drain.

The Dusty Zombies recipe was revisited in May 2024 as Dusty Zombies Pale Ale II — returning to Citra after this V1 hop departure didn’t carry the original undead character forward.

Lineage

• Zombie Dust (Feb 2023) — the Three Floyds clone that started the line
• This brew — Dusty Zombies V1 (Oct 2023) — first renamed iteration; Citra out, Superdelic + Nectaron in
• Owen’s Dusty Zombies (Oct 2023) — Owen’s parallel V1, three weeks after Matt’s; similar hop departure with Nectaron + Superdelic (Sequoia bittering)
• Dusty Zombies II (May 2024) — Matt returns to all-Citra
• Dusty Zombies III (Nov 2024) — all-Citra continued, Pomona yeast introduced
• Dusty Zombies IV (Dec 2025) — Citra + Krush; the pairing that restores tropical + dank “undead” character
• Owen’s Dusty Zombies (Mar 2026) — Owen’s parallel V2, similar to Matt’s V4 (Citra + Krush, BRY-97)