# Russian River Damnation



## Duff (18/7/07)

Haven't brewed in a while so this Saturday I'm going to try a Damnation clone. I'm drinking an 8 month old tripel at the moment which have been in champagne bottles and want to fill a few empties with a nice golden strong.

There is not much info on receipes out there on the web. Brew Like A Monk, and a number of other pages, have suggested pilsner and dextrose as the two ingredients. That's what I used in my tripel, which started as a Duvel clone, and is a beautiful bright golden colour. But in the text, Vinnie Cilurzo mentions "I used dark sugar and was thinking that woould darken it up. I was wrong, but it was so good that I decided to stick with it." BLAM also suggests pale as well in the grist. Here's a piccy I found which suggests dark sugar is used, rather than dextrose.





OG is 1.066, IBU 27. I don't know the AA's of the hops yet (Styrian Goldings, Sterling) was thinking something along the lines of the following:

Wey. Pilsner 85%
Dark Sugar (Candi) 15% (in boil at 60min)

St. Goldings @ 60 (23 - 25IBU)
Sterling @ 5 (2 - 4IBU)

WLP500.

Any suggestions?


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## Doc (18/7/07)

After a big day tasting beers and the 12 that were on offer at Russian River, my memory isn't doing me justice to help you with any insight into the flavours and taste profile I experienced having the beer.

The lastest version of the Damnation however sounds like they have changed it a little. 

From here


> We turned our regular Damnation recipe into a Tripel. It is bittered with Tomahawk and has Sterling and Cascade in the mid-boil and finish. The beer was than aged on new American oak chips for two or three weeks. The draft is 10.5% and the bottles are closer to 11% ABV.



Doc


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## 3GumsBrewing (18/7/07)

What a coincidence, was just listing to a podcast from the brewing network from October last year (Doctoberfest), they were cracking open a 2 litre bottle of this stuff that had been aged for 1 year, as usual they were crapping on about it so much it piked my interest.

The first thing I did this morning was to hop on AHB and search for a recipe and bloody hell there it is at the top of the latest thread list!

Looks pretty simple Duff. Good luck!


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## Duff (18/7/07)

I should qualify that it can't be 15% dark sugar, as the colour comes out way too dark. I was thinking of blending some rock sugar I have with some brown or dark sugar to try and get the colour right.

Anyone blended sugars before? For the sugar content it may probably well be 80% rock/20% dark. To get to the 7% mark FG has to be around 1.013. Would combining sugars affect yeast attenuation?


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## Doc (18/7/07)

Just seached my HDD trying to find any more info on Damnation and found this.
This is what you should bottle your version in Duff. You'd only need to wash a couple of bottles.

Doc


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## Duff (19/7/07)

After a couple of emails from Vinnie, here's the receipe I'm going with on Saturday. Got the starter going ATM.


07-35 Damnation

A ProMash Recipe Report

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (L): 40.00 Wort Size (L): 40.00
Total Grain (kg): 10.55
Anticipated OG: 1.066 Plato: 16.09
Anticipated SRM: 10.4
Anticipated IBU: 27.2
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
91.9 9.70 kg. Weyermann Pilsner Germany 1.038 2
8.1 0.85 kg. Candi Sugar (amber) Generic 1.046 75

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
65.00 g. Styrian Goldings Whole 5.30 23.9 60 min.
45.00 g. Sterling Pellet 5.90 3.4 5 min.


Yeast
-----

White Labs WLP500 Trappist Ale


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## 3GumsBrewing (27/7/07)

Hey Duff,
How did the Damnation go?
I was browsing forums for recipies for some leftover WLP500 I have and came across this on the TBN forum - 



> Russian River uses a proprietary yeast derived from White Labs WLP500 that is not available to the general public. If I were inclined to brew a Damnation clone (which I am), I would use Vinnie's recipe as follows:
> 
> Vinnie Cilurzo's Strong Golden Ale
> 
> ...


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## Duff (13/8/07)

All done, came in at 7.2%. The dark candi sugar did sweet FA in relation to the colour, but still within the style easy given it is a Golden Strong.

Great flavour, the banana from the WLP500 is very muted with the cool fermentation for the first 4 - 5 days. It's slightly fruity, spicy and nice bitterness, good full mouthfeel. Very easy to drink, you certainly wouldn't pick it being 7%.

Cheers.


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## Stuster (13/8/07)

Looks good, Duff. :super: 

Can you taste the Sterlings? And would you make it again? The same? With dark sugar instead?


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## Doc (13/8/07)

Hey Duff,

Looks great. I'm sure it is tasting great too.
Brewed my latest Dubbel at the weekend and used the Dark Candi http://darkcandi.com/
I was surprised at how little colour it added too. It darkened it up, but not as much as I expected.

Doc


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## Stuster (13/8/07)

How about the taste, Doc? Any contribution there? It gets some rave reviews on the US boards.


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## Doc (13/8/07)

Stuster said:


> How about the taste, Doc? Any contribution there? It gets some rave reviews on the US boards.



The raw stuff (Candi) tasted great. The brew looked and smelt great (but I didn't taste it going into the cube).

Will be culturing up WLP500 in a couple of weeks ready for fermenting it.

Doc


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## THE DRUNK ARAB (14/8/07)

Doc said:


> Hey Duff,
> 
> Looks great. I'm sure it is tasting great too.
> Brewed my latest Dubbel at the weekend and used the Dark Candi http://darkcandi.com/
> ...



Doc, did you purchase the dark candi whilst in the US?

C&B
TDA


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## THE DRUNK ARAB (14/8/07)

Duff said:


> All done, came in at 7.2%. The dark candi sugar did sweet FA in relation to the colour, but still within the style easy given it is a Golden Strong.
> 
> Great flavour, the banana from the WLP500 is very muted with the cool fermentation for the first 4 - 5 days. It's slightly fruity, spicy and nice bitterness, good full mouthfeel. Very easy to drink, you certainly wouldn't pick it being 7%.
> 
> ...



Mmmm, that would have gone down well with my lunch just now.

Nice looking brew Duff :beerbang: 

C&B
TDA


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## ozpowell (14/8/07)

Duff said:


> ... I'm drinking an 8 month old tripel at the moment which have been in champagne bottles and want to fill a few empties with a nice golden strong.
> ...



Hey Duff,

I'm curious, how do you seal the Champers bottles? I'd be keen to use these also, but have been put off by difficulty in sealing them.

TIA!

Cheers,
Michael


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## Doc (14/8/07)

THE DRUNK ARAB said:


> Doc, did you purchase the dark candi whilst in the US?
> 
> C&B
> TDA



Yes. Got it from MoreBeer.

Beers,
Doc


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## fraser_john (14/8/07)

Doc said:


> Yes. Got it from MoreBeer.
> 
> Beers,
> Doc




And customs did not take it from you on the way back in? I guess it is a processed sugar, so all the bugs would be well and truly dead. Did they question it at all?


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## SpillsMostOfIt (14/8/07)

ozpowell said:


> Hey Duff,
> 
> I'm curious, how do you seal the Champers bottles? I'd be keen to use these also, but have been put off by difficulty in sealing them.
> 
> ...




If the tirage seals don't do it for you, G&G (for example) sell plastic champagne closures and wire cages.


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## Duff (14/8/07)

ozpowell said:


> Hey Duff,
> 
> I'm curious, how do you seal the Champers bottles? I'd be keen to use these also, but have been put off by difficulty in sealing them.
> 
> ...



I got mine from Grain and Grape, triage bell and a couple of packs of caps came to about $13. Just screws onto your standard bottle capper.

Cheers.


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