Three Floyds Brewing Co. & Brewpub - Zombie Dust

A few weeks ago, I did an in person trade with an awesome guy named Tyler. As a late addition to the trade, I ran up to Alpine for a few things for him, the condition being that he would give me a bottle of Surly's Darkness for doing so. When I met up with him, he said he was meeting with a friend who had never tried Darkness, and wondered if I would be cool with him sending me a bottle later, plus a few extras. This isn't the kind of guy that sends a few Coronas as extras, so I agreed. About a week later, I was talking to him and happened to mention how much I wanted to try Zombie Dust, the Three Floyds beer that's been perched firmly in beeradvocate's Top 10 for a while now. Immediately, Tyler said he could get me one. In fact, he had a trade coming through for some as we were talking and he'd be sure to throw one in the box he was sending me. It took me a while before I could be certain I hadn't just crapped my pants and, sure enough, a short time later a box arrived at my door containing Darkness (another huge want that I'll get to shortly), Zombie Dust and a few other goodies you may see soon. Tyler, you're the greatest! At #7, Zombie Dust.


Zombie Dust pours a slightly hazed orange color with a one-finger foamy cream colored head. Each sip yields a pretty nice sheath of lace down the glass. The smell is a pretty incredible blend of tropical hop notes alongside some spicy pine. Immediately after the pour, I started to smell notes of ripe mango, peach and some pineapple with a musty blanket of pine in the background. There's just a hint of caramel sweetness tucked in there as well. This is definitely one of the better smelling beers I've come across.

The taste opens on the drier side with a big dose of pine tempered by just a hint of overripe mango. The middle shows grapefruit, tangerine and some drying grapefruit pith. The finish brings pine resin balanced by some caramel malt and some lingering pink grapefruit pith. This beer has better balance than most Olympic gymnasts. It's intensely loaded with hops without subjecting the imbiber to massive amounts of bitterness. If this was available here, it's hard to imagine I would be drinking many other Pale Ales. A huge thanks to Tyler for giving me the chance to finally try this.

Final Grade: A

Top 250 Beers Tasted: 134

Three Floyds Brewing Co. - Dreadnaught IPA

I've come to accept the sad fact that there are some beers on the Top 100 list that I'm just never going to get to try. A few of the beers on the list are so rare that the chances of them ever making it to San Diego are slim to none. However, that's not going to stop me from trying to taste all 100. Today, I took another step in my mission, trying #35 on the list, Dreadnaught IPA. Three Floyds normally doesn't distribute to California, so to find one of their beers in the state, you have to get pretty lucky. I got just that when a coworker gave me the heads-up that there were some Three Floyds beers at a local bottleshop, including Dreadnaught. When I stopped in to check it out, I was relieved to find some still there.

Dreadnaught IPA pours a hazy honey color with a huge cream colored head and lacing down the glass that is downright ridiculous. It doesn't get much better than this beer looks-wise. The smell is full of mango and peach with some big citrus hops.

I was expecting some big things out of this beer based on its ratings and the taste definitely didn't disappoint. Some huge citrus hop notes hit hard upfront with some big flavors of juicy grapefruit and grapefruit pith. The malts follow with some big caramel and mango notes and they're just big enough to balance out the large amount of hops. The finish brings a nice hit of pine hops which leave a pleasant bitterness on the tongue. I haven't had a ton of Three Floyds' beers, but if Gumballhead and this one are any indication, I sincerely hope they decide to distribute to California in the very, very near future.

Final Grade: A

Top 100 Beers Tasted: 24

Three Floyds Brewing Company - Gumballhead

In most beer trades, the traders agree to a certain number of bottles of beer to trade, be it one bottle or an entire case of beer. However, it's always polite to add one or two "extra" bottles. These are entirely up to the beer trader and is kind of the trader's way of showing how much they know about beer. For example, if you know that the person you're trading with is all about getting beer from areas that don't distribute to them, you might throw in something from a small local brewery. If you know the trader really enjoys a particular style, you might throw in what you believe to be a good example of that style. No matter how you choose to do it, extras are part of what makes beer trading exciting. You literally never know what's going to be in that box when you open it.

In the recent trade I did with a trader from Cincinnati, the trader wasn't able to find a few of the beers I requested, so I got some fantastic beers that I wanted (Kentucky Breakfast Stout and Hopslam) along with some nice extras. One of these was Three Floyds' Gumballhead.

Three Floyds has been on my radar for a while now. They're based out of Indiana and make some of the top beers in the world, including Dark Lord and Dreadnaught. One of their beers that sort of flies under the radar is Gumballhead, a Pale Wheat Ale. "Uh oh," you're saying, "Wasn't that last beer you reviewed a Wheat Ale? And wasn't that behemoth the first 'F' you've ever given on this blog?" Relax. I'm not against wheat beers in general. I just happened to really not like the last one I tried.

Gumballhead pours a pale honey color with a thin head that looks to be all carbonation and dies fairly quickly. The smells of this one are more along the lines of what a good wheat beer should smell like (are you listening, Kennebunkport?). I picked up some banana, bubblegum, melon and a slight hint of hops on the nose. None of these elements were particularly overpowering and they melded together perfectly. On a side note, this beer may have the best label I've ever seen. It looks to be some kind of pissed off cat with a black eye and a cow nose and there's a cigarette hanging from his mouth. Fantastic. We need more beer labels like this.

The taste starts with a lot of caramel malt flavor and some citrus hops. The hops come in first and are followed by a lot of malt flavor. The wheat gives this beer an amazing smoothness and a nice, creamy mouthfeel. This is probably the best wheat beer I've ever had. (Insert Kennebunkport joke here.)

Final Grade: A