Vanilla porter???

Hey guys I'm on my 4th beer and I decided to make a vanilla porter. I don't want to do flavoring so I'm going to go with vanilla beans any suggestions? How man? Where to get them? Or just any helpful hints would help. Thanks in advance

rack to secondary for 5 days w 4 whole beans for 5 gallons

I split and cut in 1/2 1 bean and soaked it in some Captain Morgain's private stock (regular spiced rum, or even vodka would be fine) for 1 week and then added it bean and all to the beer a little under a week before bottling. It ended up being nice and subtle but definitely there. I think I'll use 2 beans the next time I do it adding 1/2 of one to the last 5 minutes of the boil and the other 1.5 the same method as before.

As for where to procure them, my LHBS sells them by the bean.

Also you can get them from Amazon.com

Search on-line. Not sure where I got mine, got a pound for about $20, from somewhere called Vanilla bean company (that's probably completely wrong name). You get somewhere around 40 to 60 beans in a pound; much cheaper than buying them individually. They are easy to store too.

I did 6 oz of extract into the secondary and it taste like someone superglued a Vanilla Bean to Chuck Norris's foot and he roundhouse kicked you in the tongue! I call it my "Roundhouse Porter" I wanted alot of Vanilla and i got it and I LOVE it.

If you want a great deal on beans check out http://www.beanilla.com/index.php they have a large variety of beans and were pretty quick and cheap when I orgered mine. I recently added a couple ounce of homemade vanilla extract to a coffee stout that gave me just enough aroma and flavor. The extract I usually will make for baking is about 8-10 beans split, scraped and chopped in a pint of vodka for about 6 weeks or so.