Hey, I had heard all the hype folks, but truth be told, I couldn’t get my hands on a bottle of Three Floyds Zombie Dust to save my life. Three Floyds beers used to be sold here in Georgia back in the aughts, in the days before we popped the cap and raised the legal alcohol limit on beer from 6% to 14% by volume. With the flood of new beers into the local market once that limit was raised, Three Floyds decided to pull out of the Georgia market, much to my dismay.
Still, I had seen lots of folks posting great things about Zombie Dust in that greatest of all Facebook beer groups, Honest Craft Beer Reviews. Though I don’t usually put much stock in crowd consensus sites like Ratebeer and Beer Advocate, they both give this beer a solid 100 score. That made me think this must be another sledgehammer beer.
Then I opened my bottle that I was so happy to finally try, and found:
Three Floyds Zombie Dust pours to a hazy orange color with a thick cauliflower head of foam and an earthy, herbal and citrusy lemon zest and grapefruit peel hop nose. Taking a sip, the beer has medium caramel malt up front appropriate to a pale ale followed by an abundance of earthy herbal and citric lemony hops. Very nice balance between malt and hop here, with the hops really winning but the malt coming in with a very nice supporting role. I could sip this one forever!
Not a sledgehammer beer at all! To be sure, Zombie Dust is a single hop beer showcasing the earthy, citrusy character of the Citra hop. But the balance here is wonderful, and the beer has delightful malt character, too.
From the label:
This intensely hopped and gushing undead Pale Ale will be one’s only respite after the zombie apocalypse. Created with our marvelous friends in the comic industry.
Three Floyds Zombie Dust has an alcohol content of 6.2% by volume with 50 IBUs. I got my bottle from the very generous Scott White. Can’t thank you enough Scott!
If a well-balanced beer such as this can rank so highly amongst today’s beer geek crowd, well, maybe there’s hope for today’s beer geek crowd after all…..
And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.
*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.
(B)=Bottled
(D)=Draft