My brother is trying to tell me that Vanilla and Oak together will be too much vanilla. I'd appreciate your feedback on that.
Thats an odd notion...
Disclaimer: I am no oak expert.
I believe you will find different flavor characteristics based on a few different things. 1) type/origin of the oak 2) toast level of the oak 3) exposure of the oak to the beer.
This thread on oak aging gave me a good jump off point, and you may find more valuable information there.
So I have only used oak in two instances now. Both times were the same bag of hungarian medium toast cubes. I don't find a ton of vanilla character in the beer that I have aged. It is more of a straight up oak flavor. A little pungent/smokey/bitter.
Now if you take oak that has been aged on bourbon/whiskey, you may get an additional vanilla flavor, depending on the spirit that was used. I used macallan 12yr, which has a very mellow smooth sweet vanilla flavor.
Point being, I don't think oak AND vanilla are predetermined to be an over-vanilla contribution.
I bottled my beer last night, so here's some basic notes:
Yum.
The Vanilla was sweet smelling and tasted like vanilla ice cream float made with an anchor porter. Yes, you will now have that for dessert at the next opportunity. The sweetness somehow made the beer seem heavier/thicker.
The Oak had very minimal character imparted from the scotch. The harshness from the last tasting has receeded some, but the oak character is bigger. It makes the beer seem thinner, perhaps a tad more boozy... both likely due to the bitter sensation the oak adds. It is similar to what the oak did to the dopplebock I aged the same way, as far as oak quality. A little strong, but this is what I was going for since the oaked doppelbock's oak flavor mellowed more than expected during bottle conditioning so I wanted to ramp up the oak a little more this time.
The Oak/Vanilla was a beautiful melding of vanilla and oak. A medley of complex and robust flavors. I can't wait to drink this one carbed and chilled.
