Vanilla Bean Score!!

So my wife just bought 70 vanilla beans through a group buy @ $0.40 ea....

What to do, hmmm

I'm definitely making some extract and some ice cream. I want to make some beer but I'm not sure what recipes I want.. I like the vanilla bourbon porter recipe but I don't like bourbon...

Any other popular beer recipes using vanilla beans?

Yeah, you can buy vanilla pretty cheap online that is nice and fresh. Not that nasty dried out crap that costs a fortune at the grocery store.

Sometimes I like to think in terms of a good recipe. With vanilla I think chocolate first; however, when it comes to recipes I start thinking about a nice apple tarte tatin so that makes me start thinking of maybe of something like an old ale. I'd think mostly Munich malt to get the bready character of the crust, a good percentage of crystal 60 to get the caramel character, round out the rest with 2 row. Hit it with calypso hops which is supposed to give an apple/pear character and ferment with a clean yeast or perhaps a British strain. Then toss a vanilla bean, a pinch of cinnamon, and some lemon zest into the secondary and let it sit all summer long and then you would have a fantastic dessert beer for the 2014 holidays.

Vanilla porter, vanilla stout, vanilla graff? So many options!