Vanilla Bourbon Stout

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johnsonbrew

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This is my first time brewing this beer. It was in the primary for 14 days before I racked it over onto 8 oz of bourbon and 2 bourbon soaked vanilla beans. It has been in the secondary for 7 days. I couldn't wait any longer and wanted to see how this beer was coming along. I have to say I am impressed with this recipe.

My question is this. Since the beer has been in contact with the beans for 7 days, how much longer do you suppose I could go before the flavor of the bean is saturated and will no longer be an issue for a stronger vanilla flavor.

Like all the other beers I have brewed, the flavor seems to be most intense at kegging time, and after a few more weeks it tends to mellow out and not be as noticeable. I dont want this beer to get too strong on the vanilla side of things but I want to make sure that after a couple weeks the flavors are still going to come through.

Any ideas on what I should do?

I was also planning on adding some oak chips to this beer but I am thinking now I dont need them. I was trying to patter this beer after a local brewery but did not have a recipe and went off of one I found online. So far I think I have gotten fairly close to what I wanted and do not want to over do it with the oak. Again, any thoughts?
 
I know this doesn't help you much now, but when I make this recipe (or one similar) I soak oak cubes and the vanilla beans in the bourbon in a mason jar (per each 6 gal carboy) for about a month or so in advance to brewing the beer. Then I'll pour the liquid through a SS strainer into the keg when I'm kegging.
 
Im interested to hear how this turns out for you. This beer is next up for me. Already have everything but the vanilla beans.

One process question i had was the order of bucket vs carboy. I was thinking it might be handy to primary in my carboy, then secondary with the bourbon and vanilla in my bottling bucket. Then bottle straight from there. Will that work or do i have to do secondary in the carboy?
 
Oh, and I would probably not do the oak chips, personally. I just think that might make for too many flavors going on. a bourbon vanilla porter is already going to have a lot of different things going on. Just my 2 cents.
 
I have a maple whiskey stout at around 9% in primary, about to throw it in the secondary on the oak and whiskey.
Have around an ounce of oak on 3 ounces of jameson.
I see that you used 8oz and was wondering how much it really came thru?
I want to have a nice whiskey backbone with the oak to compliment but nothing over the top.

Sorry to hijack!
 
i started with 4 o ounces and could not really get much flavor from the bourbon so i added 3 more ounces, want quite there so went for one more. i figured i could always add more burbon if necessary. some people use extract vanilla, i may go that route next time but for now i used beans. the beer that got me into this has a significant vanilla and biennium taste and so far am very happy. i am a little afraid of it settling out too much and losing some flavor in the k keg. its happened with my really hoppy beers and don't want that to happen here.
i have opted out of the oak, i don't think this one needs it.
 
i don't have any plastic, i was thinking plastic primary bucket would be easier to clean than a glass carboy so i may be using one from now on
 
Oh, and I would probably not do the oak chips, personally. I just think that might make for too many flavors going on. a bourbon vanilla porter is already going to have a lot of different things going on. Just my 2 cents.

I agree that this beer has a wonderful complexity going on w/out the oak, but the oak (cubes) melds wonderfully to form a perfect amalgamation of vanilla bean, oaky vanilla, earthy, and malty - to name a few. I've tried it both ways, and I'll never omit the oak in my bourbon/vanilla/oak mixture again. Mind you, it's only an ounce of cubes, and they aren't added to the beer, just the bourbon mixture pre-made before brewing.

The members of my homebrew club agree. Try it!
 
I will be making this again for sure so there will be time for experiments. I am going to leave it as is. I also decided a little longer in secondary. I tasted again today and decided it could use a little more time. Yesterday I seemed to have tasted more borboun and less vanilla, today it was the other way around. Its going to be good either way.
 
Could you also supply us with the ingredients and step by step. That's always helpful. Or if you just ordered a kit and added bourbon and vanilla that works too.
 
I looked at a bunch of different recipes on Hopville and decided on this one.

9 lbs Dark Malt extract
8 oz Black malt
8 oz Roasted Barley
4 oz Carafa III
4 oz Briess Caramel 120L
2 oz Willamette 60 min
1 oz Cascade 15 min
1 oz Cascade 1 min
1 tsp Irish Moss 15 min
8 oz Bourbon (I decided on Jim Beam mostly due to price)
2 Vanilla Beans soaked in bourbon for 48 hours

It was in the primary for 2 weeks before adding beans and bourbon. Now I am just checking every few days to see how the flavor of the bourbon and vanilla is coming along I am considering racking for a 3rd time and letting settle for a few weeks before kegging, or I will just keg it and wait a couple of weeks before carbing.
 
Where did you get the vanilla beans?

Check your LHBS.

I have 6... yes 6 vanilla beans soaking in 2 cups of bourbon (knob creek single batch) The smell of that is quite nice. All that goes into my secondary on Saturday for 3-4 months
 
How many gallons are you brewing currently? I have a 5 gallon batch. I just checked it to see where the flavor is at and I feel like I have over vanillaed my beer. It does not taste bad, its actually pretty good but the vanilla flavor is coming through more than the beer itself and little to no bourbon flavor seems to be there. 6 beans seems like it would be a vanilla stout, heavy on the vanilla.....but maybe that is what you want. I wanted subtle vanilla and bourbon so I over did it. It has only been 2 days since I last tasted it yet and I thought it needed a little more time. Apparently 2 days was too much.

I got my beans at the grocery store. Two large beans for 6.49. My LHBS was 9.99 but I have seen where others have found them online for cheap. I am sure like anything there are good beans and not so good beans which may explain using 6 (unless of course it is a 10 gallon batch or something like that).

I suggest you check your been often. I was but then figured a couple days would be good, I let it go a little too long, but then again I have found that the flavors mellow and meld into eachother so maybe it will all work out. Like I said it still tasted good just not exactly what I wanted.

I thought about adding more bourbon but I dont know if that will help much or just mess it up.
 
How many gallons are you brewing currently? I have a 5 gallon batch. I just checked it to see where the flavor is at and I feel like I have over vanillaed my beer. It does not taste bad, its actually pretty good but the vanilla flavor is coming through more than the beer itself and little to no bourbon flavor seems to be there. 6 beans seems like it would be a vanilla stout, heavy on the vanilla.....but maybe that is what you want. I wanted subtle vanilla and bourbon so I over did it. It has only been 2 days since I last tasted it yet and I thought it needed a little more time. Apparently 2 days was too much.

I got my beans at the grocery store. Two large beans for 6.49. My LHBS was 9.99 but I have seen where others have found them online for cheap. I am sure like anything there are good beans and not so good beans which may explain using 6 (unless of course it is a 10 gallon batch or something like that).

I suggest you check your been often. I was but then figured a couple days would be good, I let it go a little too long, but then again I have found that the flavors mellow and meld into eachother so maybe it will all work out. Like I said it still tasted good just not exactly what I wanted.

I thought about adding more bourbon but I dont know if that will help much or just mess it up.

I am doing a 5 gallon.

My last RIS I used 2 vanilla beans with half as much bourbon, and oak chips. There wasn't too much vanilla that I could taste coming through, the oak might have covered it up too much, that's why I took it out this time around. I got 3 vanilla bead for like $3.xx I believe, I picked up 2 becaue I wanted to use 4 beans, but there were some vanilla beans that seemed pretty dried up( the black seeds ( are they seeds??) inside seemed fine, so I just tossed them alll in there. I am going for a heavy on the vanilla with a the bourbon in the background. I didnt notice the bourbon in the last one really at all, so I figure I would double it. I will check it in the secondary, but I have a feeling the vanilla wont get more and more stronger in taste.

You can add more bourbon you feel would be best for taste, yuo can keep adding until its where you want it.
 
I am contemplating it. I am going to keg it today and let it condition in there for a while and see what happens to the vanilla flavor. Hopefully it will settle and more bourbon will come through. If after a couple weeks the bourbon is still unnoticeable I will add more, I have heard anywhere from 4 oz all the way up to a pint. I tried 4 and got virtually nothing so I added 3 more and then 1 more until I thought it was detectable but not over bearing. Now I am thinking I may need to add more so we will see how it goes.

The beans I bought were very fresh and moist, packaged in a glass jar, and I think they were already infused with some bourbon already but I soaked them for 2 days before adding to the secondary. I was thinking about adding a half of bean to a fifth of boubon and letting it sit for a spell then pouring over ice it smelled really good going into the carboy.
 

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