Vanilla Beans and long term storage

frogguruami · 03-17-2010, 11:10 PM

I have a Tangerine Mead going right now that is heavily spiced. It has already had two spice additions and vanilla beans were going to be the next and final addition when I racked it for storage until fall when it would be bottled. The problem is, I really need to free up a carboy in the next week or so. So I am considering dropping a vanilla bean in each wine bottle and bottling it now. It is not ideal but...

My question is, are there any off flavors I will have to worry about with the vanilla bean being (for all intents and purposes) permanently in the bottle. It there going to be some funky (in a bad way) flavor in 1, 3, 5, 10 years??

TIA

**stromam** · 03-18-2010, 12:45 PM

I think your biggest problem is going to be overpowering vanilla, but I have read that it will mellow out much quicker than other spices. I would consider splitting the beans and adding 1/2 to each bottle.

frogguruami · 03-18-2010, 01:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stromam

I think your biggest problem is going to be overpowering vanilla, but I have read that it will mellow out much quicker than other spices. I would consider splitting the beans and adding 1/2 to each bottle.

Thanks for the response! So you don't think the bean would develop any bitterness over time??

Fletch78 · 03-18-2010, 03:21 PM

I haven't used vanilla bean before. Could you just add it now, and in "a week or so" you might have a decent amount of flavor to bottle it. Or, since you only have "a week or so", double up the amount of vanilla?

**stromam** · 03-18-2010, 03:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frogguruami

Thanks for the response! So you don't think the bean would develop any bitterness over time??

I don't think it will, if there was any bittering compounds they would probably be leached out within the first couple months (which is what everyone does at least).