Tincture Help!

Hey all. Planning on adding Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Beans to my upcoming stout and need some help. First off this is a 5 gallon batch and I would really like a huge character of the vanilla/bourbon in my beer. To do this how many would you recommend? I was thinking about using 3.

Also I was going to add this using a tincture. I see this done with vodka a lot but was wondering if I could use Bourbon. How much Bourbon would I use per vanilla bean? Finally how much would I add once this is created and how do I take in account the alcohol I am putting in my beer?

Sorry for the rambling but I am currently on my way out the door and wanted to post this quickly!

Thanks for the help!

I use 3 beans for a balanced vanilla flavor. I would use 5 if I wanted a huge vanilla flavor. The bourbon is fine for making the tincture. Split the beans and scrape out the guts. Cut the beans into 1" pieces and put them along with the scrapings in a small sanitize jar (I use a soy sauce bottle. Put in just enough bourbon to cover the beans and seal the jar. Give it a good swirl a few times a day and top up the bourbon as needed to keep the beans covered. Leave this for anywhere from 3 days to several weeks. Pour the entire contents into your fermenter for the last week before bottling. An alternative is to pour this through a filter into the bottling bucket so you just have the tincture. I've done it both ways and they both work well. It's such a small amount of alcohol (2-4 oz in 5 gal of beer) that you really don't need to worry about it.

@bluehousebrewhaus

You are awesome. Huge help! Thanks so much!!

Bluehouse does it about the way I do. I soak the beans & liquor in a small sealed jar during primary on my comp desk. I then add the tincture to the priming solution & add it to the bottling bucket for the freshest flavor.