vanilla beans and cocoa nibs?!

I'm brewing a repeat recipe that I love - it's a Sam Smith Oatmeal stout clone.

This time around I'm adding vanilla beans and cocoa nibs.

This is the first time that I've brewed and added anything to my brew after racking....too scared of contamination I guess!

Anyways - I have a 5 gallon batch. I was planning on cutting the beans (how many for 5 gal/!?) lengthwise, sanitizing them, and pitching them directly into the carboy. I was planning sanitizing (?!?!?) the cocoa nibs too - just hte package that I bought - and directly throwing them in as well. Should I add them to a dry hop bag/cheese cloth? Pitch directly in? Boil them first to sanitize? I realize that thrwoing anything in there's always a risk but I'd like it to be at a minimum....
Also how long would the conditioning have to be to maximize the flavor? This recipe I generally condition for 2 weeks before kegging.

Thanks guys/gals
Eric

For racking purposes, I would use a hop bag or grain bag. I wouldn't bother with sanitation of the nibs if you're using a new bag that you just opened. I'd dunk the bag itself in my star san first, as I do my dry yeast.

For beans, I cut 3 lengthwise and soaked in bourbon; this was for a bourbon porter. If I weren't doing the bourbon porter I would have soaked the beans in vodka for a day.

I read somewhere that you can crush up the nibs to increase surface space and impart more flavor. I've read a couple of weeks will have a faint hint of the aroma and maybe not much flavor. I intend to do a chocolate vanilla bean beer and my process will be to crush the nibs, drop in secondary using a hop bag so it doesn't clog my racking cane and leave for a month. In my bourbon porter I used 3 vanilla beans. I love the vanilla taste in some beers and want it to really come through. I would do two, if I were you, taste it and you can always drop one more in.

The nibs I would just throw in. The beans you can either slice down the middle and dump in or you can slice and soak in a small amount of vodka for a week (or even over night). The chance of infection after fermentation is pretty small. Alcohol and the hops in your brew take care of that. No worries. If your super paranoid, soak the beans and the nibs in some vodka. Not too much, cause you can pour the whole thing in.

I added 2 vanilla beans to a porter recently. I cut them in about 1.5 to 2 inch pieces, split them and scraped them put it all in a sanitized mason jar with enough vodka to cover them. make sure to add all the scrapings too, that's the good stuff. When I kegged this batch about a week ago it had a nice subtle vanilla that came through but was not overpowering.

I am doing the same thing with a sweet stout. I will be adding the beans (2) and nibs to the secondary on Thursday. This will sit for 7 days then bottling. I have been getting lots of hints on how as well, and consistently hear that soaking is unnecessary because of the alcohol. Cut lengthwise, and scrape. I'm very interested in your results.

Thanks for the replies. I think that the alcohol post-fermentation will allow me to keep from soaking the vanilla beans in bourbon or vodka first...but maybe not? I like the idea of throwing them in a hop bag so I dont' clog my racking cane though. As for the nibs, I was thinking about crushing them. I was speaking to another home brewer and he basically said good luck getting a lot of chocolate flavor out of nibs. I always read about people who throw in a bottle or half a bottle of chocolate syrup. He was brewing a cask for Flying Dog Brewery and said he threw in a package of Swiss Miss. Seems like cheating, to me. I'd like some chocolate flavor but I don't want to throw that shi*t in there.
I wil cut the beans lengthwise and gut them. Fermentation should be done in a few days - I'm stoked!!!
I'll let everyone know how it goes. The recipe itself for the oatmeal stout is pretty killer so seems like no matter what it will be delicious.

Ah OK I will add the innards as well...maybe soaking them in chunks in vodka for a few days isn't a bad idea. Or bourbon. I'll have to see what the lady thinks about this

I've taken the cut-n-scraped beans and the nibs and put them into a mason jar with just enough vodka to wet them, leave them for the entire primary fermentation. Once a day I roll the jar to ensure that the nibs are getting touched by the vodka. When I get ready to rack onto them, I sanitize a hop sack and dump the entire jar into the bag, tie it off and drop it into my keg, then rack the beer on top. The vodka helps pull the soft cacao flavors and aromas and the flavor of the beans (you will get more vanilla flavor than cacao flavor in any case) and it sterilizes any bugs that might be on either the beans or the nibs.

OK - update - I took 4-5 vanilla beans, sliced them lengthwise and cut into small pieces. Mixed them w/ 4oz nibs and put them into a mason jar. I added just enough bourbon to cover them and let them incubate...I jostled the jar every couple days or added more bourbon to make suer that they were covered the entire time.
Tastedt he oatmeal stout - it was dry and perfect. I racked the stout, poured in the liquid directly into hte carboy then added the beans and nibs to my hop sock and threw it in, suspended by some floss. I'll tell yo uwhat - the mason jar smelled flippin amazing...vanilla-choc bourbon. It immediately started diffusing and we're letting it condition for 1 more week (it will have been 2 weeks) before we keg it.
Can't wait to taste the pre-keg product...
Stay tuned.

I bottled mine Jan 22. It'll sit in the bottle for a month then I'll try one. I let the nibs and scraped beans sit in the secondary for 7 days before bottling.

OK! Beer is kegged, carbonated, and fantastic. Subtle hints of chocolate and vanilla, which is perfect for what we were aiming for.

So what do you do with the vodka after you use up the beans. I mean i suppose if you are trying to jack up the abv then you can add it to the brew. But how is it to drink?

So I ended up soaking everything in a few shots of bourbon...just enough to cover everything or at least keep everything wet when I would jostle the mason jar. The bourbon contained all of the goodness so everythign went into a hop sock and I dangled it into the carboy by some dental floss. You could see it start diffusing immediately. I believe I let it sit like that for 2 weeks before kegging. A few shots of bourbon really did not do anything to the flavor and probably not much to the ABV, either...I could calculate it but I think it'd probably a tenth or hundredth of a percent. The mason jar smelled of rich chocolate and vanilla though so it was perfect.