Dusty Zombies Pale Ale (October 2023)

About This Beer

Owen’s V1 of the Dusty Zombies series — brewed just three weeks after Matt’s Dusty Zombies V1 (October 2023). Owen mirrors Matt’s V1 hop departure from the original Zombie Dust template: Citra out, Superdelic + Nectaron in for flavour and aroma, with Sequoia as a clean bittering hop in place of Matt’s Moutere.

The shared grain bill (Gladfield Ale + Vienna) traces back to Matt’s Zombie Dust clone of Three Floyds’ single-hop Citra pale ale. The Ale + Vienna template proved itself in the original and carries unchanged through the entire Dusty Zombies series across both brewers.

The hop departure to Superdelic + Nectaron is shared with Matt’s V1 — and per Matt’s tasting verdict, the NZ tropical pairing lost the pleasantly “undead” character of Citra’s fruit + dank “sweaty socks” combo. Both brewers eventually return to Citra in their later versions, with Matt’s V4 (Citra + Krush) settling on the pairing that restores the tropical + dank balance.

Second captured cross-brewer collaboration in the Owen collection after Hazy IPA IV (July 2023) — Owen continuing to draw recipes from Matt’s library, modifying to his own taste.

The Recipe — Departing from Citra

The defining choice of Owen’s version: skip Citra entirely. The original Dusty Zombies is built around showcasing Citra’s grapefruit / tropical signature. Owen substitutes:

• Sequoia 25 g @ 60 min — clean bittering (Indie Hops 2017 release; bred specifically to not compete with aroma hops)
• Nectaron 100 g + Superdelic 100 g — flavour, whirlpool, and dry hop pairing

A NZ-localised take on a US single-hop classic. Nectaron (passionfruit, peach) and Superdelic (intense tropical, sweet candy citrus) work together as a tropical pairing that occupies similar fruit territory to Citra but with a distinctly NZ-hop signature.

Grain Bill

6.4 kg total, just two malts:

• 4.8 kg Gladfield Ale Malt (75 % of grist)
• 1.6 kg Gladfield Vienna Malt (25 % of grist)

Vienna at 25 % is high but legitimate — Vienna is a sub-base malt and can be used up to 100 %.

Hop Schedule — 225 g

The Nectaron + Superdelic split is symmetric — both at 100 g, both in the same 20 / 30 / 50 schedule at 15 min, whirlpool, and dry hop.

Fermentation

2 packets of Lallemand Verdant IPA pitched at 19 °C for 2 weeks. Same strain as Hazy IPA IV three months earlier.

Dry hop on day 5 from pitch: 50 g Nectaron + 50 g Superdelic = 100 g total.

FG hit 1.010 vs 1.012 target — Verdant IPA attenuating predictably at 82.1 %.

The OG Miss

OG fell 13 points short of target. Likely the combination of a 1.5 L pre-boil under-shoot, the high Vienna percentage (25 % may extract less efficiently than a typical Ale base), and an undersized grain bill for the OG target.

First captured use of the RAPT Pill in the Owen collection — hydrometer (1.056) and Pill (1.0548) agree within 0.001.

Numbers

Consistent under-shoot pattern of 1.5 L across all stages from pre-boil onward.

Lineage

• Zombie Dust (Feb 2023) — Matt’s original Three Floyds clone; 150 g Citra only; the recipe that started the line
• Dusty Zombies V1 (Oct 2023) — Matt’s first renamed iteration with Moutere + Superdelic + Nectaron; lost the undead character
• This brew — Owen’s V1 (Oct 2023) — Sequoia + Superdelic + Nectaron; mirrors Matt’s V1 hop departure three weeks later
• Dusty Zombies II (May 2024) — Matt returns to all-Citra
• Dusty Zombies III (Nov 2024) — Matt continues all-Citra, switches to Pomona yeast
• Dusty Zombies IV (Dec 2025) — Matt’s Citra + Krush; restores the tropical + dank “undead” character
• Owen’s Dusty Zombies (Mar 2026) — Owen’s V2; mirrors Matt’s V4 with Citra + Krush + BRY-97