Vanilla Stout

I have a stout which is two days from being transferred to a secondary.

The vanilla beans have been scraped and cut into small pieces, placed in a mason jar and covered with vodka. Yes, the mason jar is sealed.

The only instructions I have so far is to let this set for 36 hours. So here are my questions.

Are two beans enough? I have Tahitian 6-7" beans.
Do I just dump everything into the secondary or strain it?
How long do I need to let it stay in the secondary before kegging?

Thanks for your replies. If you have any helpful hints...let me have em!

Dan

2 beans are enough.... Vanilla goes a long way.

Strain it through a coffee filter.

A week? You could also just add the vodka/vanilla extract at bottling. Wonder what would happen if you used one bean soaked in vanilla vodka? Hmmmm....

I didn't want to start a new one. I'm doing a simillar brew. If I just wanted to slice up a bean and throw it in the secondary would I need to wash it first?

Thanks

Gambit

gambit88 said:

I didn't want to start a new one. I'm doing a simillar brew. If I just wanted to slice up a bean and throw it in the secondary would I need to wash it first?

Thanks

Gambit

Click to expand...

What I did is take the bean and put three slits into it length wise. Then I soaked them in a vile with vanilla vodka and then put them into the secondary. The vodka will kill and bad toxic crap and add a touch more vanilla flavor. I poured the vodka into it as well. I used a white labs vile

I did a stout with just one bean for fear of two being overpowering. I did the standard soak in vodka for a couple of days and poured the lot in.
Stout "part" turned out... okay. Drier than I expected, but not bad. No vanilla flavor at all, though. I'm assuming either I did something wrong, or I next time I experiment a little more and do two beans.

I also plan on leaving a liter or so out to stale. I would love to try for a mix of the Guinness "sour" flavor with the vanilla. /dreams

My suggestion would be 2 beans split and scraped soaked in vodka and all added to secondary for at least 3 weeks and don't strain anything, throw everything in the party

I would definitely say it's enough. Vanilla bean is one potent bastard. I remember a few months ago throwing an entire vanilla bean in a bottle of eggnog thinking it would give it a nice vanilla-y taste. I was incredibly wrong....I tried it a week later and it tasted like straight vanilla extract. Those things are potent! lol