dry hopping with vanilla bean

I want to dry hop with vanilla bean. I brewed a brown ale using Crystal 120L, roasted barley, and biscuit malt. Also I used vienna as part of my base. Bittered with cascade and and flavored with amarillo. Any who, I want to add a hint of vanilla aroma to this 4 gallon batch. How much should I add and do I add it raw or cooked?

Raw, split two to four beans down the middle and drop em in, leave for a couple of days.

I'll second that,but soak them in vodka for a week first, then dump it in, booze and all.

2-4 beans in 4 gallons is going to be outrageous. I use 2 beans soaked in vodka in my chocolate stout and the vanilla is overwhelming for the first few weeks out of secondary.

1 bean in in 4 gallons will be fairly vanilla-y. If you just want a hint, I would add extract dropwise at bottling/kegging.

I boiled a whole bag of beans (About 8).. and it was awesome (I Do love my Vanilla though)

CDGoin said:

I boiled a whole bag of beans (About 8).. and it was awesome (I Do love my Vanilla though)

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You destroyed a lot of the best things about the vanilla and sort of kind of made up for it with ridiculous excess. Vanilla is a delicate and aromatic ingredient, not to mention expensive- you don't need to waste it. Trust me when I say my chocolate stout with 2 beans is has too much vanilla for a few weeks out of the secondary.

I did 1 bean in an Egg Nog Stout in a 2.5 gal batch. I boiled it for about 5 minutes, cooled then put it in. I had it in there for two weeks. Beer came out great, didn't really have the nutmeg flavor I was looking for, but the vanilla definitely came through.

I did a Creme Brule stout with vanilla beans. I split them, scrapped the insides and soaked everything in vodka. Then dumped the whole thing in a secondary. I had to let it age for at least 2 months before the alcohol flavor died off where it wasn't as noticable.

daksin said:

You destroyed a lot of the best things about the vanilla and sort of kind of made up for it with ridiculous excess. Vanilla is a delicate and aromatic ingredient, not to mention expensive- you don't need to waste it. Trust me when I say my chocolate stout with 2 beans is has too much vanilla for a few weeks out of the secondary.

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Trust me it was my first batch and I "figured" (This was before finding HBT ) that you just added all the ingredients into the boil. I also assumed the bag of vanilla beans I had gotten was the amount for a batch, as they were right next to the Brewers Best kits in Brews Best bags..

I know better now..

BTW as for vodka.. have you tried SoJu..? It's similar to vodka, but smoother and imparts less of its flavor.. It can be harder to find though. If your state allows alcohol sales in conveinece stores, find a Korean one.. they will have it.

Soju is a great drink. But,yes,there is one, downside: vodka is 40% and will clean and extract the flavour very well. Soju is 20% or there about, thetefore not so big on extraction and bug defense.

So the way to do it would be to essentially make a vanilla tincture with vanilla beans and vodka and when done poor the whole thing in...? I'm just a little leery about using too much and ruining the batch. I figure using one bean and a half cup of vodka for a 4 gallon batch. Would that be good if I just wanted a hint...enough to cut through, but not be over bearing.

michaelpeach76 said:

So the way to do it would be to essentially make a vanilla tincture with vanilla beans and vodka and when done poor the whole thing in...? I'm just a little leery about using too much and ruining the batch. I figure using one bean and a half cup of vodka for a 4 gallon batch. Would that be good if I just wanted a hint...enough to cut through, but not be over bearing.

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Don't worry about it- you just need enough to keep the bean submerged the whole time (it will absorb a fair amount). Adding an entire fifth of vodka to a 5 gallon batch will only increase the abv by 1.5% and you're nowhere even remotely close to that much.

Also, I'm more concerned about a vanilla aroma rather than flavor. Could I just drop the vanilla bean into my secondary and get aroma without it flavoring it?

michaelpeach76 said:

Also, I'm more concerned about a vanilla aroma rather than flavor. Could I just drop the vanilla bean into my secondary and get aroma without it flavoring it?

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Not really- the aroma and the flavor are coming from the same compound in the bean (vanillin). It's the sparkly crystals you see on the outside of the bean. Using a bean will give you better aroma than extract though, so I'd still do the vodka soak and toss everything in together. You want to soak the bean to sanitize the outside.

Cool. Thanks everyone!

I was thinking if you want JUST aroma and not flavor.. maybe scrape the middle of the bean out. Its more concentrated there.

Let us know how it goes..

I am thinking of dry hopping in my current batch when it goes to secondary.