Adding vanilla extract to mead??

Hey guys,
Just wondering if this would be a good idea. I was thinking about making a new batch of mead with some great value (walmart brand) vanilla extract to make it more of a honey/vanilla mead. What do you guys think? Will it work? Will it have some vanilla flavor at the end??

Thanks for everyones help,

Baker

I don't see why it wont work but I'm not an expert about these things. I am doing a cherry vinnilla mead right now but my plan is to split a whole bean and put it in the secondary. I think I read that on storm the castle or another place like that. Well good luck on your project.
zbay

I read on a message board months ago about the extract doing something that spoiled the batch, but I can't remember the entire context. I personally have been splitting the beans and tossing them in the secondaries. Can't go wrong with the real deal, right?

Many people have used extract.

I personally have yet to use it.
Have a blueberry vanilla going right now, used 2 whole beans split and scraped.

Go into the recipe section on mead and you will find plenty of recipes that use extract.

When I made my Vanilla Cream Ale I added 2oz of extract to 5 gallons when I bottled. The results were amazing!!! I have to give a lot of credit to the extract though. It was a bourbon vanilla extract, made in Texas with a Mexican label that said "vainilla". I would LOVE to get another bottle of that stuff!

baker1234 said:

Hey guys,
Just wondering if this would be a good idea. I was thinking about making a new batch of mead with some great value (walmart brand) vanilla extract to make it more of a honey/vanilla mead. What do you guys think? Will it work? Will it have some vanilla flavor at the end??

Thanks for everyones help,

Baker

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You might want to check that vanilla extract, a LOT of vanilla extract is artificially flavoured, especially the cheaper stuff.

I'd go with real vanilla beans, split & added to the must. It might cost you a couple dollars more to do it that way, but I think your end product will be much better for it.
Regards, GF.

like GF mentioned, be cautious and if you really want to go the extract route, make sure its real vanilla not the artificial stuff. It can also be very easily overpowering something about the chemistry of how the beans are steeped in grain alcohol helps it take over in a lot of things, so you may want to consider adding it in small doses let it mingle a bit then do taste tests til you get to the level you want.

Personally I prefer using real beans as well, they can be pricey in most stores but if you take a few minutes and search online, amazon often has great deals, you can get them reasonably. Even going with grade b madagascar (the ones they use to make the extracts) which are a little less expensive but work fine.

I have a metheglin that had "honey vanilla chamomile" tea cold steeped in the must and when I could taste absolutely no vanilla in the mead I added 2 small cap fulls of real vanilla extract. My friend tried it and said it was great! I bottled right after that addition and I plan to crack that open in about mid May.

Thanks so so much for your fast responses. And reading through them I think I'm just going with a vanilla bean sounds like a safer way to do it and has more successful chance at working.

Thanks again,

Baker

Well, I'd guess some of it is about location. Here, if its artificial flavouring, its on the label, if it says extract, then it must be just that. But in any case, I make it myself. I've currently got 100 grade A vanilla pods steeping in half a gallon of vodka.

After all, you want the flavour, not the pods or seeds. It means I add it when I need to, a tiny amount at a time, tasting in between to achieve the desired level.....

I agree with Fatbloke. Either use the bean or make it yourself. It's very easy to make. And since it is recomended you add to the secondary you should have enough time to make it. Just take vodka or white rum and split, scrape, chop the pod and put it all into it in a jar, about 1 cup for 6 beans would be good and shake it once a day for a week, then let set for 2 months. At the end, run through a screen and boom, vanilla extract. Then you can use it when you want. The best part is if you keep the pods and scrapings, the stuff you screened out you then can make another batch as all the vanilla has not yet be extracted. For bulk grade b beans you can find good prices on amazon.com or other places and buy 1/4 to 1/2 pound and then keep it. Give some of the excess extract to your wife or girlfriend or who ever else you know that bakes. It also makes great gifts. And I like to cook with my home made extract, let alone brew with it.

If you are planing on using beans and have a 5 gal batch, I suggest that you put it in the secondary, split and scrape and drop in, and leave it for a couple of months. I would use about 6 beans for a good vanilla flavor. If I wanted a strong vanilla then I would use about 8-9 beans.

Hope that helps. Oh, using a mix of burbon and tahitian vanilla beans is best. If you can't get access to them both then just use burbon.

Good luck
Matrix

Alright thanks guys. So do I throw the beans in the mead it's self during secondary or start the beans in vodka then throw them in with the vod in secondary?

baker1234 said:

Alright thanks guys. So do I throw the beans in the mead it's self during secondary or start the beans in vodka then throw them in with the vod in secondary?

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Two methods can be used:

1: Home Made Extract: You make extract by tossing beans in the vodka, split, scrape. Then left in the vodka for about 2 months (Shaking once a day for the first week), you then have Vanilla Extract that you put into your must. 1 cup for 6 beans or 1/2 cup for 3 beans. I recomend you use the full cup and then take 1/2 of your extract and toss in the secondary.

2: Just the beans: You split and scrape the beans into the secondary and drop into the must for about 2 months. Less flavor than making extract but easier to calculate ABV% and not adding any vodka. A small amount is not really going to change it much.

What you descrip is sort of a combination of the two methods. Which can be fine too. There is more than one way to do it. Use what feels right to you.

Matrix

Any reason you guys like adding vanilla to the secondary instead of primary?

Just curious.

subtle flavors and aromas of any herb, spice, fruit etc. etc. can get lost in the fermentation of the primary, blown out the airlock/blow off tube. not necesarily all of it but adding the adjuncts in the secondary helps preserve and give you more intensity to the flavors and smells you're looking for at the end...splitting between the two, like 25% in primary, 75% in secondary is kind of my prefered route, get the flavoring and depth even if shallow at that point started plus start infusing some of the color early on

Doomsday said:

Any reason you guys like adding vanilla to the secondary instead of primary?

Just curious.

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In primary fermentation, the sugars you add in will most likely get fermented and turned into alcohol, whereas adding flavors like vanilla during a secondary will leave more actual flavor in the end product; your yeast have cooled down and won't ferment as much of the sugars you added.

^^ that too

When you put a flavouring of some.sort into primary, the ferment will reduce colour, flavour and aroma dramatically. Hence if you want just a hint, them that's fine. Also, while some of the flavours characteristic may recover during ageing, nothing is certain.

If you put the flavour element in secondary, you get a greater depth or level of flavour, so in the case of non-spice organics, it often helps mask some temp flaws like alcohol hot, making for earlier drinking and a better flavour i.e. more fruitiness etc.

With spices, it helps to know how stronger flavour the spice supplies. Cloves and nutmeg are very strong, hence caution is needed

Flavours like vanilla can either be lost or reduced by primary, so using a measured about of either the pod or properly extracted natural one will keep it more to the front in a secondary.

Sorry if that sounds muddled. It's late and I'm knackered, so it makes sense to me.....

Alright thanks guys and galls for all of your help. You guys have a lot of great input on this stuff. So I think what I'm going to do is get some vanilla beans and put then in my mead during secondary fermentation.
And if you guys have any more tips or great flavors to try id love to keep reading and trying them

Thanks again,
Baker

Also, adding your flavoring items to secondary means it is in contact with alcohol longer, and in greater concentration than in primary (since your primary starts out at zero ABV). Alcohol helps draw flavors out.

Ahhhhh I see now. That's why people are saying secondary is the best for flavoring. Alright thanks that clears up a lot of thing.

Baker

I made a total of 2 gallons of vanilla a while back, using different kinds of beans with vodka or rum for my chef friends to sample, and it was well worth doing. If you also bake, I wouldn't spend money to buy only 3 or 6 beans at the store. Order enough beans to make 1/2 gallon. As was mention a mix of bourbon and tahitian beans is good. Anything not called tahitian is a bourbon bean and the name is where it's grown with its own character. Tahitian is a different kind of bean, while obviously vanilla, its not quite the same.

Oh sweet! Ok is I have another question. Are you about to put coffee beans in to say mead to get a honey/coffee flavored mead?

baker1234 said:

Oh sweet! Ok is I have another question. Are you about to put coffee beans in to say mead to get a honey/coffee flavored mead?

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There are lots of threads about coffee Mead's.