Vanilla bourbon porter - vanilla beens in vodka & oak chips in bourbon

I have a question along these lines: Did my first all grain (vanilla bourbon porter) and slightly messed up in soaking the vanilla beans in vodka (chocolate flavored vodka). It's been a week now since they've been soaking and the same amount of time for the beer in the primary. The screw up was forgetting I was going to put bourbon in the secondary. Having done that, yesterday I soaked 2 oz of American oak chips in 6 oz of makers mark. I was going to leave the beer in the primary for a second week (to allow the vanilla and oak chips to soak longer) and then toss all it in the secondary (bourbon & oak chips in a muslin bag along w vodka & vanilla berms in Muslim bag). Does anyone have any thoughts here? Just more worried about combining the vodka and the bourbon both. I have half a mind to scrap the vanilla berms that's soaking in vodka and use the 4 been a I have left and let them soak in the bourbon along with the oak chips. Also, any thoughts on whether putting all those concoctions in muslin bags is recommended over simply dumping them straight into the secondary? I was going to rack the beer on top of the bourbon, chips, vanilla beans & vodka. I really appreciate anyone's thoughts here. Thanks!




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The amount of vodka is probably very little compared to the 6oz of bourbon, and it shouldn't add any flavor, it's just the medium for the vanilla.
When I did my bourbon barrel porter, I soaked the oak chips, put them in a bag and racked my beer onto that. I think the idea is ease of removing them, or less of a chance of siphoning a piece of oak into the finished beer. Not sure if I'd use the bag again though, it seemed like more of a hassle than it's worth.

Edit: Didn't see you said chocolate flavored vodka. I say just add it all and see how it turns out.

Definitely give it extra time, porters generally take more time to come into their own, and the oak flavor needs time to mellow out. The sample I pulled at 3 months was leaps and bounds better than the one I pulled at month 2.

Thanks for the response. I've got about 5oz of vodka with the vanilla beens. Along w 6 oz of bourbon, would you think that too much and would distort the vanilla bourbon?


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Oh and when you say it gets better with time... Do you mean you leave the beer conditioning in secondary for 2 vs 3 months or as it ages in your keg ( or bottle) it gets better?


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