Just racked an oatmeal stout into the secondary. Want to give it a hint of vanilla flavor, thus my question is: do I need to soak the bean in vodka (as I have read)? My local brew store said it is not necessary since the beer has alcohol at this point. Is the soak for sanitation purposes only? Thanks for replying!
To soak or not to soak... that is the question
- Thread starter CDEEZ
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I spritz my vanilla beans with star-san. Then split open and scrape some inside the carboy. Then dump the beans in. Some soak, but some don't, no biggie.
1) For sanitation purposes. If it has any wild yeast on it, you might not want that in the beer. You are probably OK not doing it most of the time, but see (2), and you will probably always put it in some alcohol first.
2) Higher alcohol extracts the vanilla flavors/oils more efficiently.
2) Higher alcohol extracts the vanilla flavors/oils more efficiently.
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