When I began my home brewing career in August 2017, one of the first beer recipes I heard about was Zombie Dust from 3 Floyds Brewing Co. Back then I was brewing all extract. To say the least, I was rather intimidated by the thought of brewing an all-grain recipe. I looked at several different clone recipes. Beer-N-BBQ by Larry has one. More beer has a kit they call Soulless. I knew about the Northern Brewer Zombie Dirt kit.

By the end of 2017, I had sworn of of kits. The quality of the ingredients I was receiving was questionable at best. The hops weren’t vacuum sealed. Who knew how long those ingredients had been sitting around. I know most places say the kits are “built to order” but I’m not buying it.

A comment on my Upgrading to Partial Mash video in early January 2017 changed my mind. I had a request by Tetman74 to brew Zombie Dirt. I thought about it for a while and came up with the idea to build the kit by myself using their recipe. I knew I could do it cheaper. I picked up some of the grain from Atlantic Brew Supply when I ordered the triticale for the Sherman’s Planet IPA recipe. The Citra Hops came from Yakima Valley Hops. The rest came from my LHBS.

You can view the recipe for yourself over on the Northern Brewer site here.

Brewing grain substitution chart

Here is the cost breakdown:

2-row: $19.43
Crystal 60: $1.68
Munich: $2.33
Carapils: $0.85
Citra: $12.99
Yeast: $7.75

Total: $45.03

VS.

Zombie Dirt Kit: $61.51, ($69.26 with yeast)

Total Savings: $24.23

Music:
The Waster
Scott Buckley
http://www.scottbuckley.com.au/