So I'm currently brewing a Belgian Tripel. The recipe I'm using is Randy Moshers Three Nipple Tripel. I've tasted this before when my cousin brewed it, but he set aside 1 Gal during secondary and added 1 vanilla bean to that gallon. The vanilla addition came out fantastic in comparison to the already fantastic homebrew. It didn't overpower with vanilla, in fact it was pretty hidden, which was nice. It also mellowed out the alcohol a bit, hiding the alcohol taste that can be found in some tripels.
Here's my concern. I'm brewing a 5 gallon batch, but after seeing his results I'm going to put vanilla in my entire batch, instead of just 1 gallon. My biggest concern is whether or not vanilla scales. Vanilla beans can be very strong, and the thought of adding 5 whole vanilla beans to my 5 gallons just seems like way way way too much. My thought on adjuncts in Tripels are that if you can taste them and pull them out, you've used too much. I don't want an overwhelming vanilla flavor, in fact I don't want to taste much vanilla at all.
Should I just stick with 1 bean to 5 gallons, or will that be so little it will hardly make a difference.
Here's my concern. I'm brewing a 5 gallon batch, but after seeing his results I'm going to put vanilla in my entire batch, instead of just 1 gallon. My biggest concern is whether or not vanilla scales. Vanilla beans can be very strong, and the thought of adding 5 whole vanilla beans to my 5 gallons just seems like way way way too much. My thought on adjuncts in Tripels are that if you can taste them and pull them out, you've used too much. I don't want an overwhelming vanilla flavor, in fact I don't want to taste much vanilla at all.
Should I just stick with 1 bean to 5 gallons, or will that be so little it will hardly make a difference.
