Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Bourbon Vanilla Porter (AG)

BrewSwag 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I made a mini mash/LME version of a very similar porter. I soaked the prepped beans in a half cup of makers mark for two days and poured it all into the secondary. Oh my!! used 1 1/2 beans... you can barely taste the bourbon in the aftertaste and just a hint of vannilla....Super exelent!!!
 
Must make this again, only 5 bombers left!!! Also looking to brew Denny's 'Old Stoner' Barleywine recipe soon. The man's a genius!
 
so i'm getting ready to move the porter into secondary this weekend. I sterilized a 14oz mason jar and poured in 12oz of Makers Mark, the sliced open two madagascar vanilla beans and picked out some of the powder and dropped it all into the bourbon. Than I put a piece of plastic wrap over it and will let it sit until the weekend. Do I need to do anything else about sterilizing or will the makers mark do the job so I can just dump the mason jar into the secondary?

any thoughts??
 
GRRRRRRRR!!! Perhaps someone can tell me what I have done wrong.... again. Seems the last few times I have made a high gravity beer, I get little to no carbonation in the bottles. It has been two weeks since I bottled this porter and although there is a slight release of CO2 when I remove the cap, the beer is completely flat.

I can only come up with three ideas.... I didn't use enough priming sugar (although I did question everyone on here, used the program that determined how much to use and did just that), I have not waited long enough (wishful but doubtful) or the yeast that I substituted for American Ale yeast (because they were out... oh, and btw... I do not recall what it was) would not handle the high alcohol content.?.?

Any thoughts? :mad:
 
Try warming up the bottles a little before giving up on them. If they're in the basement bring them upstairs. If they're in a dark closet take them out to the kitchen or something. Conditioning at slightly warmer temps won't affect the flavor. Its wierd how some batches won't condition very well in the same temps that others will. Most of my batches I just condition in my basement and it works fine but I had a triple a while back that I remember having to warm up a bit to get it to condition.
 
vicratlhead51 said:
Try warming up the bottles a little before giving up on them. If they're in the basement bring them upstairs. If they're in a dark closet take them out to the kitchen or something. Conditioning at slightly warmer temps won't affect the flavor. Its wierd how some batches won't condition very well in the same temps that others will. Most of my batches I just condition in my basement and it works fine but I had a triple a while back that I remember having to warm up a bit to get it to condition.
Click to expand...

+1

bring them into a room at about 68-70F for 1-2weeks and retest. Wouldn't hurt to shake the bottles to stir up the yeast and priming sugar when you do that. Might just be something extra I have done, but the voodoo worked.
 
DrBrewDC said:
GRRRRRRRR!!! Perhaps someone can tell me what I have done wrong.... again. Seems the last few times I have made a high gravity beer, I get little to no carbonation in the bottles. It has been two weeks since I bottled this porter and although there is a slight release of CO2 when I remove the cap, the beer is completely flat.

I can only come up with three ideas.... I didn't use enough priming sugar (although I did question everyone on here, used the program that determined how much to use and did just that), I have not waited long enough (wishful but doubtful) or the yeast that I substituted for American Ale yeast (because they were out... oh, and btw... I do not recall what it was) would not handle the high alcohol content.?.?

Any thoughts? :mad:
Click to expand...

Give it one more week. Mine at week 2 was almost flat but exactly a week later it was perfect.

Hang in there
 
im at 3 weeks on in the fermentor, and 1 week on the vanilla bean.. I really want to keg this tonight, so I can enjoy it this weekend...... Any thoughts on the timing? How long are you guys waiting?? BTW, I tried it last night, and its fliping amazing....
 
Just bought the supplies for this. I cant wait to try it out! My truck smelled mike chocolate on the way back to the house. mmmm
 
Brewed this one and bottled today, was slightly modified from the recipe, tasted great! Cant wait to see how much better it will get in the bottles.

ABV 8.5%
 
Anyone have anymore pictures of this beer? Has anyone done extract/grain version of this? If so what was your ABV?
 
I have this beer on tap right now. It comes out nearly black. I ended up with about a 7.4% abv before i added in 300 mL of Buffalo Trace bourbon. When i figured it up, that game out to roughtly 1/4 of a shot of bourbon per pint. It is a great beer and i have had several people give rave compliments on it. I even had one person say that as it warmed up, the flavors came out more and got even better. It is heavy and rich. Definitely not a beer to sit around and drink all night whilst shooting the bull with friends. I could imagine it being great to drink with a cigar.
 
Talljake6110 said:
I have this beer on tap right now. It comes out nearly black. I ended up with about a 7.4% abv before i added in 300 mL of Buffalo Trace bourbon. When i figured it up, that game out to roughtly 1/4 of a shot of bourbon per pint. It is a great beer and i have had several people give rave compliments on it. I even had one person say that as it warmed up, the flavors came out more and got even better. It is heavy and rich. Definitely not a beer to sit around and drink all night whilst shooting the bull with friends. I could imagine it being great to drink with a cigar.
Click to expand...

Was this your first time brewing this? I am more interested in your choice of Bourbon as Buffalo Trace is one of my favorites if not my favorite bourbon and wanted to know how it compares to other brands. I plan on using Buffalo Trace later this year if I can get another bottle at a decent price.
 
OddNotion said:
Was this your first time brewing this? I am more interested in your choice of Bourbon as Buffalo Trace is one of my favorites if not my favorite bourbon and wanted to know how it compares to other brands. I plan on using Buffalo Trace later this year if I can get another bottle at a decent price.
Click to expand...

Well, right before I decided to brew this beer, I started drinking a variety of bourbons. I started by drinking old fashioneds, but that was too much work, so i was just drinking bourbon on the rocks. I was just going to the liquor store and picking up a bottle of whatever looked good at the time. I too really began to enjoy Buffalo trace. When it came time to add the bourbon, i had a half a bottle left. There are several other brands that i really enjoy, but that was what I had available, plus it was a fairly reasonably priced bourbon. And yes, it was my first time brewing this beer.
 
I too used Buffalo Trace as my bourbon for this beer. May as well use what you like, after all if you dont like what you brew whats the point of doing it? I put in 450+ml so as I said in my thread above, my abv is 8.5% with a really nice bourbon/vanilla taste. Good bourbon flavor in drinking it as well but not too over powering.
 
OddNotion said:
Was this your first time brewing this? I am more interested in your choice of Bourbon as Buffalo Trace is one of my favorites if not my favorite bourbon and wanted to know how it compares to other brands. I plan on using Buffalo Trace later this year if I can get another bottle at a decent price.
Click to expand...


A decent price? I can find it here for $23 for a liter bottle. Where do you live? haha
Im going to be using makers mark, its a sweet bourbon so I think it would pare well. I was thinking about using gentleman jack but nah.
 
If i had had it on hand, 1792 would probably have been my bourbon of choice for the beer. It is an excellent bouron that is mildly sweet and very smooth.
ridgemontresreve1792.jpg
 
texwake said:
A decent price? I can find it here for $23 for a liter bottle. Where do you live? haha
Im going to be using makers mark, its a sweet bourbon so I think it would pare well. I was thinking about using gentleman jack but nah.
Click to expand...

I live in new York city and here or NJ I can't find it below 35 if I can even find it at all
 
couldn't find whole vanilla beans, but did kind pure vanilla extract. Any one know about how much to use. Checked back through the posts and could only find "to taste". Do i still add to the secondary or wait untill bottling and add with the burbon. Gonna check one more place for the beans.
 
I've seen then online. There is a store around me called the spice house. They have them for like 1.84a bean.
 
Allll done! Its in the bottles aprox 3 1/2 weeks since breweing. Does this take awhile to prime in the bottle?
 
OK I just read back into the thread about someone having trouble priming, which I am...I think I used 2.5 OZ of priming sugar. Going to give it another week (total 4 1/2) and see if anything changes.
 
Has anyone tried Basil Hayden bourbon in this? That is my favorite bourbon, but wonder if it would pair well.
 
OK its been about 7 weeks no carbonation in the bottles...but it still tastes awesome...I really dont want to throw it out. Can I open the bottles and throw in some carbonation tablets? Will that ruin the beer? I need help!
 
texwake said:
OK its been about 7 weeks no carbonation in the bottles...but it still tastes awesome...I really dont want to throw it out. Can I open the bottles and throw in some carbonation tablets? Will that ruin the beer? I need help!
Click to expand...

What temp you storing the bottles at and how much priming sugar did you use?
 
I've noticed several people with priming problems here. Is it possibly because the whiskey is killing off the yeast?

What about adding a tiny pinch of new yeast to the bottles like they do for soda? Too risky for bottle bombs?

Can't wait to make this. This is definitely my next brew.
 
Just went back and read the old posts. Didn't realize the high alcohol issue was already covered. Feel free to disregard.
 
Beavdowg said:
Quick update: I entered this beer as a Vanilla Porter in the Oregon Homebrew Festival competition and won 1st place in Cat. 21. You can't go wrong with this recipe! People love this beer! Again, I didn't do the bourbon thing, I just called my a vanilla porter. Anyway, thanks to Lil' Sparky for the recipe!!:mug:
Click to expand...

So I'm seriously considering entering this beer into a few competitions. I'm wondering what style I would call it though. It's listed as a Robust Porter on here but I'm not sure it technically is according to the BJCP guidelines.

The 2008 BJCP guidelines don't mention the use of adjuncts as being acceptable so I'm thinking I should enter it as a Category 23 - Experimental Beer

What do you guys think?

Note:This is hands down the best beer I have brewed to date. In terms of quality of beer and complexity of flavor, it's incredible. I highly recommend this one!
 
uncleben113 said:
So I'm seriously considering entering this beer into a few competitions. I'm wondering what style I would call it though. It's listed as a Robust Porter on here but I'm not sure it technically is according to the BJCP guidelines.

The 2008 BJCP guidelines don't mention the use of adjuncts as being acceptable so I'm thinking I should enter it as a Category 23 - Experimental Beer

What do you guys think?

Note:This is hands down the best beer I have brewed to date. In terms of quality of beer and complexity of flavor, it's incredible. I highly recommend this one!
Click to expand...

I entered mine in 23A - it gets judged tomorrow...
 
texwake said:
Its finnaly priming! Took a damn long time!
Click to expand...

I was quite concerned after a few weeks myself. I brought all the bottles out of the basement (which was probably in the mid 60's) and brought them up to about the mid 70's. At the same time, I gave each bottle a bit of a gentle shake to bring the yeast back into suspension. Left them there for about a month and then put a few in the fridge for about 2 weeks. They have continually improved over about 3 months and are perfect now. Not sure if it was anything I did... or just the time... but either way, hang in there. They will probably work out just right! :mug:
 
uncleben113 said:
Good luck to you. Let us know how it goes
Click to expand...

I haven't seen the judging sheets, but the results are up on the website. I got first place in the specialty beer category out of 17 entries :rockin: I'm looking forward to reading the notes and seeing the score!
 
Took 2nd at BABO with my version of Dennys OAKED BVP for wood aged beers, i blended 4 different types of whiskeys and oaked for a month...

James - I was one of the judges for that competition (I judged Fruit and IPA's). You did VERY well. Your beer was discussed and regarded very highly. I was also a steward at the BOS table. Your BVP, if i remember correctly ALMOST won best of show. It was in the top 4 out of 250 entries, the judging panel was torn. GREAT JOB!

Score sheets go out next week.
 

Similar threads

Zippy123
Feedback on recipe to split mash for two different beers
Replies
2
Views
401
Zippy123
Zippy123
S
Autumn Wheat Ale
Replies
5
Views
1K
kwilson16
kwilson16
PashMaddle
Brew day #2 is done.
Replies
22
Views
1K
lumpher
lumpher
F
what grains do i need to turn my straw pilsner into a golden lager
Replies
7
Views
748
hottpeper13
H
hiphoppotamuss
Orange Creamsicle Ale
Replies
13
Views
3K
IslandLizard
IslandLizard
Williams Brewing 300

Latest posts

Back
Top