MoonMaster
Member
So about 6 months ago I tried my hand at making a vanilla porter and the results were pretty underwhelming. I added 2 or 3 beans, scraped and chopped up, and added them to the secondary for at least a week, maybe 2 but I ended up with no noticeable vanilla flavor. I have another batch in the primary and I want to do it right this time but I need to figure out the best way to extract that vanilla flavor.
I've been reading a lot about vanilla bourbon porters, which seem interesting but the bourbon is always added on bottling day... wouldnt it make more sense to steep the beans in the bourbon first, then add it all to the secondary? I've had far better results extracting the vanilla flavor when adding the beans to liquor so to me this seems like it would work better.
Has anyone ever tried this method? How much bourbon/vanilla beans did you add? Or alternatively, does anyone have another method that worked for them to produce a noticeable vanilla flavor?
I've been reading a lot about vanilla bourbon porters, which seem interesting but the bourbon is always added on bottling day... wouldnt it make more sense to steep the beans in the bourbon first, then add it all to the secondary? I've had far better results extracting the vanilla flavor when adding the beans to liquor so to me this seems like it would work better.
Has anyone ever tried this method? How much bourbon/vanilla beans did you add? Or alternatively, does anyone have another method that worked for them to produce a noticeable vanilla flavor?