Vanilla bourbon porter issue

I brewed this recipe a while back.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f126/bourbon-vanilla-porter-ag-30185/
I followed the recipe exactly except I used pure vanilla extract rather than beans and put in 3 ounces.
I also added in a pint of makers mark.....Anyway my son declared this the best beer ever brewed and asked for it to be brewed again as a christmas gift.
I gave him a 6 pack last night and today he told me they were AWFUL. he said that of the 6, 2 were just like before and really tasty.. 4 were nothing like the other 2 and had zero vanilla flavor at all. I opened one and poured it out after tasting it.
I added the bourbon with the priming sugar at bottling. The vanilla a couple of days earlier so I could taste it to get the level right. Sanitation is good IMO.. not an infection and not a carb issue.

I bet the extract did not stay mixed well in the fermenter. Did you batch prime in a seperate bucket?

Beer_Guy said:

I bet the extract did not stay mixed well in the fermenter. Did you batch prime in a seperate bucket?

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yes.. batch primed so it SHOULD have remixed even if it did seperate.

Clearly a mixing issue, if some tasted like vanilla and some did not...

Just a suggestion, rather than extract you can soak the vanilla beans in the bourbon. Here's my notes from my Vanilla Bourbon Porter below.


Racked to secondary onto 16 oz of burbon
8oz's of wild turkey
8oz of knob creek
Bourbon had 2 vanilla beans, split and halved soaking in it for aprroximately 2 weeks. and 1 oz of oak CUBES for 1.5 weeks.

Primary 2.5 weeks
Secondary 1.5 weeks
Bottled for 3.5 weeks before I tried it.

Ray

rcreveli said:

Just a suggestion, rather than extract you can soak the vanilla beans in the bourbon. Here's my notes from my Vanilla Bourbon Porter below.


Racked to secondary onto 16 oz of burbon
8oz's of wild turkey
8oz of knob creek
Bourbon had 2 vanilla beans, split and halved soaking in it for aprroximately 2 weeks. and 1 oz of oak CUBES for 1.5 weeks.

Primary 2.5 weeks
Secondary 1.5 weeks
Bottled for 3.5 weeks before I tried it.

Ray

Click to expand...

I am gonna try it again and use beans this time since what was good was REALLY good.....My issue is also that the ones without the vanilla taste were not only not vanilla tasting , they were not good.... Mind giving me your thoughts on how yours turned out with the oak added? Also why the two different bourbons?

wyzazz said:

Clearly a mixing issue, if some tasted like vanilla and some did not...

Click to expand...

I would assume that also but why are they all well carbonated.. If the priming sugar mixed why not the vanilla?

Even if it was a mixing issue I don't get why the beer would taste awful without the vanilla in it....

Personally I keep a batch of oak cubes and vanilla beans in some Bourbon and just pour in a couple ounces at bottling. Plenty of flavor for my tastes. I couldn't imagine a whole pint.

My goal with the oak cubes was the same as I have with salt in food. I didn't want overpowering oak flavor but I wanted something to be missing if the oak was gone. I left a few bottles unoaked and I think I succeeded.

The Reason I used 2 Bourbons is because that's what I had. MY FIL would kill me for waisting knob creek if he found out.

A pint of Bourbon seems like a lot but it's 10ml per 12 oz bottle, about 1/3 of an ounce and you lose quite a bit to the oak cubes so it's closer to 1/4 ounce per bottle.

Can you describe the taste the bad ones had?

Might be an issue with bottle contamination.

Whenever I use an extract at bottling I drop it in after I start the "whirlpool siphon", this starts the mixing process. I'll also let the bottling bucket sit for 30 minutes, mixing gently with a spoon every 10 or so minutes to ensure the extract is mixed in well.