Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer None More Black Vanilla Stout

Nothing to do about it now. Wait until about 3 days after it stops bubbling and taste it. Your bitterness might be a little off, you might get some cooked corn or vegetable qualities from Dimethyl Sulfide. I have seen a pellicle on liquid extract, so you could get an infection. It's hard to know what will happen until you taste it.

Thanks for the response Mystery. I suspected this is where we were headed- wait and see.

I had come to think liquid malt was the unhopped equivalent of the beer kits I have been brewing. I have never boiled those and never had an issue. Are these analogous?

I had to google Dimethyl Sulphide. Do you think the smell might have been in the malt off the shelf (and I missed the chance to boil it off) or that by not boiling I missed the chance to kill any Dimethyl Sulfide producing bacteria in the malt? I am just asking so I know what is happening next time I cock up a brew

So far airlock smells good although its mainly a hops smell.

What about using all DME for this recipe. I have just been taught that most LME is a waste of money because your paying for alot of water.

hokieguy95 said:

What about using all DME for this recipe. I have just been taught that most LME is a waste of money because your paying for alot of water.

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Sure can, I made this almost two years ago with all DME, still very tasty (having moved a couple times since, I still find surprise bombers tucked away in the basement).

dkennedy said:

Sure can, I made this almost two years ago with all DME, still very tasty (having moved a couple times since, I still find surprise bombers tucked away in the basement).

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Wha'dya say? About 6 to 6.5 lbs total DME?

I don't have my notes handy, but that sounds about right, pretty sure that I went through at least two 3 pounders.

Paulfrank said:

Anyone try adding some lactose to this? Seems like it would be good with some added body and sweetness. No?

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I made something very similar to this and added lactose. VERY good sweet stout.

I'm looking to remake this recipe for the first time since my original post. I have since converted to All Grain but I am limited to 12 lbs of grain due to only having a 5 gal mash tun. Anyway, my question is how many Vanilla Beans should I use and what is the process is getting the most flavor out of the Vanilla Beans.

So far I know to split them length wise, soak in Bourbon, then add to secondary. How much Bourbon should you use and how long and do you just add the Bourbon and Beans to the Secondary?

histo320 said:

I'm looking to remake this recipe for the first time since my original post. I have since converted to All Grain but I am limited to 12 lbs of grain due to only having a 5 gal mash tun. Anyway, my question is how many Vanilla Beans should I use and what is the process is getting the most flavor out of the Vanilla Beans.

So far I know to split them length wise, soak in Bourbon, then add to secondary. How much Bourbon should you use and how long and do you just add the Bourbon and Beans to the Secondary?

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Just enough bourbon to cover the vanilla beans. As for how many beans, that's up to you. Two or three should probably be sufficient and just dump the bourbon and beans in the secondary. Note that the vanilla flavor WILL fade with time.

histo320 said:

I'm looking to remake this recipe for the first time since my original post. I have since converted to All Grain but I am limited to 12 lbs of grain due to only having a 5 gal mash tun. Anyway, my question is how many Vanilla Beans should I use and what is the process is getting the most flavor out of the Vanilla Beans.



So far I know to split them length wise, soak in Bourbon, then add to secondary. How much Bourbon should you use and how long and do you just add the Bourbon and Beans to the Secondary?

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Funny you ask as I've had a hard time getting the vanilla to come through, but this is what i have done.

While the beer is in primary fermentation I put the oak chips, about 10-12 oz, in a mason jar, I hen poor enough Bourbon to cover the top of the oak. For the Vanilla I find the best vanilla, I get mine from Penzey Spices, split length wise and scrape out all of the goodness, then all of that goes into the Bourbon oak mixture and give it a good shake. When it cones time for secondary every bit of what is in the mason jar goes into the carboy.

Oh and I have used as much as six Mexican Vanilla Beans

I brewed a minor variation on Saturday night.

Fermentables:
6 lbs dark LME (3 lbs at beginning of boil, 3 lbs at knockout)
1 lb dark DME (at knockout)
0.5 lb lactose (at knockout)

Steeping Grains: (30 minutes @ 150-155*)
1 lb Chocolate Malt
0.5 lb Roasted Barley
1 lb Quick Oats

Hops:
1 oz Cluster (6.8% AA) - 60 minutes
1 oz EKG (7.2% AA) - 10 minutes

Yeast: Safale-04 pitched at 70*

OG: 1.058

Put the fermenter in a water bath @ 60*

I saw the occasional bubble after 12 hours. This morning, it was bubbling at once per second. Cannot wait!!!

Bottled this tonight in 24 12oz and 8 32oz bottles.
OG was 1.058, FG was 1.024, which gives me about a 4.5% ABV.

The nose is nice and chocolatey. The taste was very slightly sweet, with a pleasant roastiness, and a very subtle vanilla flavor.

I can hardly wait for it to carb up!

This looks really good... going to have to try it!

This recipe is awesome by itself or as the basis for some experimentation. I started a batch last night adding in smoked malt, chocolate malt, and roasted barley. OG was originally about 1.06 so I topped it up a bit and am hoping I will actually end up with 5 gallons of beer (or so).

I have seen questions about dry yeasts. I have used S-05, Muntons Ale Yeast, and another cheap dry yeast that was all my lbhs had available, and it has turned out great every time.

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This looks like a solid recipe. May be my next beer. Just finished an imperial honey porter. Will be a while til it conditions. How long are u waiting til u bottle and how long after did u wait to drink it


Stan Tha Man

I am bottling a batch tonight that did 3 weeks in primary. My last batch was 2, and the batch before was 3. It will be okay after 2 weeks in the bottle. I never get to bottle conditioning because it disappears so quickly

I finally got a chance to brew this one today. I had originally planned on doing it last year, but then we decided to move and it took about a year before I had the space and time to brew again.

I followed the recipe in the original post and tried the late extract addition method. I added one 3.3 lb container of LME at the start of the boil and then did another 3.3 lb container of LME and 1 lb. DME at 15 minutes with the Irish Moss. That is the size LME my LHBS carries and I ended up with an OG of 1.060.

The weather was beautiful and the brew day went well with my first outdoor brew on my SQ14. A huge step up from the old electric stove at the townhouse.

The only real issue was that the sink in the new house is super shallow and it took forever to cool things down. I'll probably have to invest in a wort chiller at some point. I can probably sell my wife on that if it means the wort is in the house less.

I tried a small sip of the hydro sample and it seemed to have a strong EKG flavor. Has anyone else had the same impression? I've heard that the late extract additions can somehow change how much the hops contribute to the brew. It wasn't a bad flavor, just a bit stronger than I expected.

The wort also foamed up a lot when I poured it into the fermenter. Has anyone else had that happen?

I'm going to clean up my mess and then work on the vanilla beans. My plan is to do 4 beans (cut open and scraped) in 1 c. of Jack Daniels. I can't wait!!

Less than 12 hours after pitching, my airlock was going crazy. It isn't a constant bubbling, instead it will produce lots of bubbles every 3 seconds or so. This was the first time I'd done a starter and there is a clear difference. I'll definitely keep doing one, except perhaps very low gravity recipes.

My next topic to research is yeast washing. Any thoughts on if the yeast from a batch of this brew would be a good candidate?

What would be the drawbacks of tossing the bourbon and vanilla directly into the primary? I have a 6 gallon BB that I could use as secondary, but since I'd like to have this ready before I leave for a trip on July 3, I thought about just tossing them in to allow the yeast to do yeasty things.

If I do rack to secondary, I would end up with 12 days in primary and 6 days in secondary with the bourbon and vanilla. Would that be good enough?

mdbrewer1 said:

What would be the drawbacks of tossing the bourbon and vanilla directly into the primary? I have a 6 gallon BB that I could use as secondary, but since I'd like to have this ready before I leave for a trip on July 3, I thought about just tossing them in to allow the yeast to do yeasty things.

If I do rack to secondary, I would end up with 12 days in primary and 6 days in secondary with the bourbon and vanilla. Would that be good enough?

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Im gonna guess that you will lose some of the flavor and aroma from the bourbonand vanilla during the vigourous primary fermentation.
Instead, how bout putting the vanilla beans and boubon in a mason jar in thefridge now, then at the 12 day mark, rack to secondary and add or at kegging day, rack to the keg and add?


"Sometimes Im right half of the time ...."

TrustyOlJohnson said:

Im gonna guess that you will lose some of the flavor and aroma from the bourbonand vanilla during the vigourous primary fermentation.
Instead, how bout putting the vanilla beans and boubon in a mason jar in thefridge now, then at the 12 day mark, rack to secondary and add or at kegging day, rack to the keg and add?


"Sometimes Im right half of the time ...."

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I forgot to mention that I've had the vanilla beans and innards soaking in bourbon for about a week now. The brew has been sitting in primary since last Saturday.

I guess I was just hung up on the 2 weeks for primary. Tomorrow is day 12 so I'll just plan on racking to the BB with the vanilla bourbon concoction. As a bonus, I'll be able to save some of the yeast like I had been hoping to do.

Personally, if kegging, Id leave it in primary til the day before, rack it to the keg and add boubon vanilla to taste, and pressurize overnight at about 35 psi.


"Sometimes Im right half of the time ...."

TrustyOlJohnson said:

Personally, if kegging, Id leave it in primary til the day before, rack it to the keg and add boubon vanilla to taste, and pressurize overnight at about 35 psi.


"Sometimes Im right half of the time ...."

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I'm still bottling, but hope to move to kegs within the next year or so. I'll keep that in mind for next time.

I went through the thread again and I think I'll give it the full 2 weeks in primary and then rack to secondary with the bourbon/vanilla. It will still have 5 days to sit in secondary before I bottle it the day before my trip. Considering the beans have been soaking for almost a week already, that seems like it would be plenty of time for the flavors to distribute.

I think that'll work perfect!!


"Sometimes Im right half of the time ...."

Nice. I'm super excited to get this bottled and carbed up.

Would taking the FG reading after adding the vanilla/bourbon mix have a big impact on the reading? I'd love to get a sneak peak of the taste on Saturday.

Thanks for the feedback!

If you take the FG reading before adding the bourbon, you will have an accurate number to calculate ABV (assuming you have the OG). Then you can adjust your ABV based on the amount and proof of bourbon that you add to the bucket. However, it will have surprisingly little affect on ABV.


"Sometimes Im right half of the time ...."

Well, everything is in the BB now. I forgot to take the hydro sample prior to adding the beer to the vanilla/bourbon, so that probably messed that aspect up. The reading was 1.020.

The sample was good, but I couldn't detect any vanilla. I'm hoping the flavor just hadn't spread throughout yet since I used my thief to pull the hydro sample off the top and the vanilla/bourbon mix started at the bottom. I tasted some of the seeds that had clung to the bowl they were soaking in and there was no vanilla flavor left at all. Hopefully all of that flavor got soaked up by the bourbon and is spreading throughout the beer as I type.

I was down earlier checking on the beer and it has started bubbling again and there were scattered bubbles on the top. I counted about 5 bubbles a minute. Is that to be expected?

mdbrewer1 said:

I was down earlier checking on the beer and it has started bubbling again and there were scattered bubbles on the top. I counted about 5 bubbles a minute. Is that to be expected?

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It could still be fermenting a bit, or it's just Co2 coming out of solution. Normal either way.

johnsnownw said:

It could still be fermenting a bit, or it's just Co2 coming out of solution. Normal either way.

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Thanks.

It was down to less than 1 bubble per minute last night, so I'm hoping to bottle tonight when I get home. The plan is to add some vanilla extract to the bucket if the vanilla flavor isn't quite there.

mdbrewer1 said:

Thanks.

It was down to less than 1 bubble per minute last night, so I'm hoping to bottle tonight when I get home. The plan is to add some vanilla extract to the bucket if the vanilla flavor isn't quite there.

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If you're unsure if it's still fermenting...do not bottle. You are just asking for bottle bombs. If your next gravity sample is less than the last one you took, do not bottle. Air-lock activity isn't a good indicator of fermentation.

johnsnownw said:

If you're unsure if it's still fermenting...do not bottle. You are just asking for bottle bombs. If your next gravity sample is less than the last one you took, do not bottle. Air-lock activity isn't a good indicator of fermentation.

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It's been fermenting for 17 days which I thought would have been plenty for this beer.

I pulled a hydro sample and it is still the same as when I did it 5 days ago. It is still bubbling a fair bit so I'm going to wait until tomorrow and see how things look then.

Is offgassing the same as fermenting? I'm still getting bubbles every 30 seconds or so right now. It was hardly bubbling at all before I lugged it upstairs. Is it possible I put some yeast back in suspension while carrying it up the steps?

mdbrewer1 said:

Is offgassing the same as fermenting? I'm still getting bubbles every 30 seconds or so right now. It was hardly bubbling at all before I lugged it upstairs. Is it possible I put some yeast back in suspension while carrying it up the steps?

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Off-gassing is not the same as fermentation. Lots of factors can cause off-gassing, including changes in pressure and temperature, but also disturbing the carboy/bucket.

That was my concern though, when you transferred you put yeast back in suspension and they started up again. However, if your hydro sample was the same after 3 or 4 days in secondary it's probably not fermenting. I'd check one last time, and if the hydro sample hasn't changed...go ahead and bottle.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll pull another sample tonight and see what it says. It is about 5 degrees warmer upstairs, plus I had to put pressure on the BB when I picked it up and put it down.

Hopefully I'm good to go or I'll have to wait until I get back from vacation. Would there be any problems if it sat on the vanilla and bourbon for two weeks in secondary?

mdbrewer1 said:

Thanks for the feedback. I'll pull another sample tonight and see what it says. It is about 5 degrees warmer upstairs, plus I had to put pressure on the BB when I picked it up and put it down.

Hopefully I'm good to go or I'll have to wait until I get back from vacation. Would there be any problems if it sat on the vanilla and bourbon for two weeks in secondary?

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No problems at all, assuming you don't have a lot of head space. Too much head space in secondary may run you into oxidation issues.

The gravity was the same as yesterday, so I went ahead and bottled it up. I had a bit of trouble with foaming, but I lowered the bottling bucket to be closer to the bottles and tightened my hose connections and those two things helped a lot. I added 1 1/2 tbsp of vanilla extract and it still wasn't as strong as I was looking for, but I'm hoping maybe that improves once it carbs up and I didn't want to overdo it. We shall see in about two weeks.

The last time I made this beer I waited till bottling to add the vanilla- it was basically non-existant for about 3 weeks, then good and strong, and then the couple bottles I had left at about the 2 month mark were mostly absent of the vanilla smell or taste.

Then again, I usually add chocolate malt and unmalted barley to this recipe, so those other flavors probably overpower the vanilla.

Sounds like there is a good window for inviting people over. I'm going to invite some of the new neighbors over the next time I brew early next month. That should probably work out great.

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