Vanilla on which beer?

I have a maple brown ale (32oz type b maple syrup) fermenting right now (about a week remaining) and my next beer will be a chocolate coffee stout. I've come across a lot of vanilla discussions in my stout research. I'm thinking it sounds good for either if the two beers (2 beans split, scraped, and added to the secondary) but don't want to do both. Which way sounds better?!

My gut says the Stout, but its done a lot. The Maple brown ale w/ vanilla peaks my interest.

Make sure to soak the bean in vodka or a little bourbon to disinfect and help infuse the flavor. Just a few ounces is enough and wont be noticeable in the final product.

I'd put it in the brown ale,

The vanilla might get lost in the mix of a chocolate coffee stout.

How long do I soak before adding to the secondary, and how long in the secondary. Beans in the secondary too?

When I do my porter I soak the beans in Makers Mark for a week or two then throw it all in the secondary (or rack on top of it). Give it a lite swirl every day or two for a week or more.

Got 2 beans split scraped and soaking in 2-3oz of vodka. Racking to the secondary in 4-7 days. Can't wait

I'd do the maple vanilla brown. That sounds delicious just typing it. I've got the exact same vanilla extraction going on right now: a scraped & cut up bean sitting in a few OZ of cheap vodka for a few weeks. I'm making a vanilla pumpkin lager

I tried some of the maple brown yesterday and it's about half way through fermentation. Delicious so far. I won't be able to extract the vanilla for more than a week. I guess if it's absent at bottling after a couple weeks in the secondary, I can always add a bit of extract in the bottling bucket.

I've found the real beans tend to fade slightly over time, In the beginning my porter had a very up front vanilla flavor but it balanced out over time and became amazing.

as for the vanilla extract - use the good stuff

What kind of time are you looking at to let it mellow, and how much extract if you're not using beans?

Won't need too much extract, search the board i know its somewhere around here. I think add a table spoon at a time at bottling (for the extract) and stop when you have had enough.

As for mellowing a beer. the last time i did my VBPorter. I have the beer fresh after 3 weeks of bottle carbing, a few months later and up to six months later. The best tasting was the ones a few months to six months later. The vanilla was more subtle and was just over all a great beer, just a faint touch of vanilla. Just a great tasting easy drinking beer. When it was younger the vanilla was more forward, not over powering, really gave a milk chocolate taste to the beer from blending with the chocolate malt. but as it got older it got better, especially if you can keep it in the fridge for a long time.

For example: I just bottled my newest batch (second brew) Vanilla Bourbon Porter today. Had two Madagascar Vanilla beans and an additional TBSP of high quality extract along with 8 oz of bourbon (Makers/Elijah Craig split). I had 4 oz of bourbon, the table spoon of vanill ex. and one bean sitting sat for a week in the secondary, then i decided to add more vanilla and a little more bourbon a week later. I let that sit for another week to marinate. It smelled great today. the sample i tasted was from the left overs of the bottling bucket. The vanilla this time was more pronounced then the last time. I'm going to try and let it sit until November.

If you can set a few sixer aside for like 2, 4, and/or 6 month down the road to see how it changes. Its your beer, a bit of experimentation on your part is part of the process.

I've secondaried a stout with 3-4 oz of high quality vanilla extract for 1 week with great results.