Will excessive vanilla age out?

Hi all. This is thread is half question, half rant. I know the answer will most likely be "wait and see".

SWMBO wanted to help bottle my latest beer. It was an imperial brown that was bulk aged for 6 weeks then oaked for 6 days with bourbon soaked chips. Tasted great.

On bottling day, SWMBO misread the 1oz vanilla extract on my beersmith printout as 1 bottle (4oz). The beer now has a very off flavor. I've never tasted beer with an acetaldehyde problem, but it does have a similar green apple phenolic type taste. I cannot blame anything other than the vanilla extract for the issue because it tasted just fine before hand.

I know vanilla will mellow, but this much? I don't even taste vanilla at this point, just awfulness. This brings me back to the first time I saw my mom making cookies and saw vanilla extract and decided to take a big gulp.

I'm not even considering dumping it, just wondering.

Also, it has been 2.5 months since bottling.

Was it pure vanilla extract or the fake vanillin imitation?

If pure vanilla, it will mellow/fade with age, slowly, like 6-12 months. If it's fake vanilla, I have no idea. Nasty stuff, IMO.

TyTanium said:

Was it pure vanilla extract or the fake vanillin imitation?

If pure vanilla, it will mellow/fade with age, slowly, like 6-12 months. If it's fake vanilla, I have no idea. Nasty stuff, IMO.

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It was pure bourbon vanilla extract from TJ's.

Only time will tell. Wait it out and try a bottle every other month or so.

It's a longshot and I know you've already bottled, but you could make a second batch and mix the two.

cmmcdonn said:

It was pure bourbon vanilla extract from TJ's.

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Oh man, that's some good stuff. Not cheap either. Hopefully age helps.

Blending would certainly be a great option, but might do more harm than good since already bottled. Aging is far less work

I've had pure vanilla taste fade over several months. I'd say in 6 months it went from "up front" to "mild". Never went away though.