BeeGee said:For a chocolate stout I would consider adding a vanilla bean or vanilla extract...it really enhances and brings out the flavor of the chocolate. Cherry is, however, interesting. You could, in fact, add vanilla extract to taste at bottling time, if you were so inclined.
ahoym8e said:So why does the beer get better in the secondary, and not in when bottled?
Whether I have one big pot of soup in the fridge or 15 small pots, the flavors still meld, do they not?
Usually 1-2 beans will do the trick. I'm not sure how much extract as I usually just use whole beans. Split them open and shove 'em in.Megiddo said:How much vanilla are we talking about? For 5 gallons that is.
I would disagree on the soup. Imagine a soup that calls for 3 bay leaves. If you divided that into 15 pots only 3 (at most) would get any flavor from the bay leaves and it would be overwhelming, at that, as the bay leaves were meant to be distributed amongst the entire pot. The idea is the same for beer. In other words, one bottle might get a little more alpha acid from the hops than another bottle resulting in a different flavor profile. Letting it bulk age in a secondary gives all of the flavor components time to spread out evenly and mellow through the entire beer instead of just one bottle.ahoym8e said:So why does the beer get better in the secondary, and not in when bottled?
Whether I have one big pot of soup in the fridge or 15 small pots, the flavors still meld, do they not?
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