How much vodka/spirits to use per vanilla bean?

[Rob2010SS]

Is there a general rule of thumb of how much alcohol you should use when making homemade vanilla extract with beans?

Currently, I have a couple of small mason jars filled with 3oz vodka each. 1 jar has 1 vanilla bean (scraped and chopped) and the other jar has 2 vanilla beans (scraped and chopped). The jar with only 1 bean is significantly lighter color (obviously, there's only 1 bean...).

My concern is that I used too much vodka for 1 bean, hence my question. How much do you guys use?

 

[Denny]

I use none. I just put the beans indirectly.

 

[RPh_Guy]

I put all of my beans in one jar (I but 5 at a time). There's no reason to separate them. Get the best quality vanilla beans you can find within your budget.

I cut them into small pieces with scissors. When making an extract, opening and scraping is pointless. You did keep the inside stuff you scraped, right?

I add just enough bourbon to cover them. No more, no less.

If I need it in a hurry, I put in on a stir plate with just enough power to keep it all moving.

The extract I get is heavenly and very potent.

 

[Rob2010SS]

I put all of my beans in one jar (I but 5 at a time). There's no reason to separate them. Get the best quality vanilla beans you can find within your budget.

I cut them into small pieces with scissors. When making an extract, opening and scraping is pointless. You did keep the inside stuff you scraped, right?

I add just enough bourbon to cover them. No more, no less.

If I need it in a hurry, I put in on a stir plate with just enough power to keep it all moving.

The extract I get is heavenly and very potent.

So the reason I separated them is because I have a 4.5 - 5 gallon batch that I wanted 2 beans for and I have a 2 gallon batch that I wanted 1 bean for. If you combine them, how would you ensure you're using 1 bean or 2 beans? In my case, would I simply pull off 1 oz from the 3 oz container and call that 1 bean?

Yes, I kept all the scraped insides and pieces. Those all went into the vodka and I'm giving them a good shake whenever I walk by them.

This is my 4th time using vanilla beans. Typically, I did just as you said. I cut and scraped them and covered them with just enough vodka or bourbon to cover them. I started wondering though, would you get better flavor if you used a bit more spirits to cover them, which is why I went with 3oz of vodka this time.

 

[CharlieW]

I agree. I have used Vodka, but, Bourbon sounds pretty good!

I put all of my beans in one jar (I but 5 at a time). There's no reason to separate them. Get the best quality vanilla beans you can find within your budget.

I cut them into small pieces with scissors. When making an extract, opening and scraping is pointless. You did keep the inside stuff you scraped, right?

I add just enough bourbon to cover them. No more, no less.

If I need it in a hurry, I put in on a stir plate with just enough power to keep it all moving.

The extract I get is heavenly and very potent.

 

[RPh_Guy]

If you combine them, how would you ensure you're using 1 bean or 2 beans?

I add to taste using a bench trial.

Vanilla beans vary in flavor, like any agricultural product. I want to control the amount of vanilla flavor, and a bench trial is the best way to do that.

I would not use more spirits than necessary unless I want the particular spirit to be noticable in the beer.

 

[Rob2010SS]

I add to taste using a bench trial.

Vanilla beans vary in flavor, like any agricultural product. I want to control the amount of vanilla flavor, and a bench trial is the best way to do that.

I would not use more spirits than necessary unless I want the particular spirit to be noticable in the beer.

That makes sense. The few times I've used extracts, that's typically how I've done it as well - pull a few measured samples and dose them each differently and then do the math to figure out how much extract you need for the total batch. I'm assuming that's what you mean by a bench trial... I'll keep this in mind for the next time I use beans.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Yep, exactly.

Like I said, the vanilla extract I make is pretty potent. I'll start with one drop in a 50mL sample. I sometimes need to increase the size of the sample.

I know my dropper gives 22 drops per mL, which allows me to scale up. I've gotten by fine without a pipette.

I know this scientific approach isn't for everyone, and that's fine.

 

[Rob2010SS]

Yep, exactly.

Like I said, the vanilla extract I make is pretty potent. I'll start with one drop in a 50mL sample. I sometimes need to increase the size of the sample.

I know my dropper gives 22 drops per mL, which allows me to scale up. I've gotten by fine without a pipette.

I know this scientific approach isn't for everyone, and that's fine.

That's usually how I like to do it. Like I said, that's how I do the brewer's best extracts. I have a box of 1mL syringes and a box of 3mL syringes that I use for these tests. For the same reason you use the dropper, I can take these measured volumes and scale that up. For some reason, I didn't think it would work with extract made with vanilla beans. I think i was afraid of consistency issues with the homemade extract - like if you pulled closer to the bottom, it'd be stronger. Now that I say it out loud, doesn't really make sense, LOL.

What kind of dropper do you use? Got a link? That sounds like it might be more convenient...

 

[RPh_Guy]

What kind of dropper do you use? Got a link? That sounds like it might be more convenient...

Warning, Big spender:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Medicine-Dropper-Ezy-Dose-Straight-and-Bent-Tip-Glass-Droppers/117773851 (I user the straight tip dropper)

With a syringe it may be difficult to add small quantities like 0.05mL because it probably won't accurately drop off the tip.