Bourbon barrel aged vanilla porter

[Brewslikeaking]

I'm brewing on Wednesday and I wanted to make a porter. My chef buddy has given me some nice vanilla beans. My girlfriend bough me a 5liter oak barrel which has been holding bourbon. I would like to brew a porter, age 5 liters of it in the barrel before bottling and add the vanilla beans to the mix at some point. I need all the advice I can get on this one. Does anyone have any similar experience? First off what type of porter would you brew? Robust? Baltic? American? Secondly, would you add vanilla beans in the secondary for a few weeks and then age 5 liters in the barrel and bottle rest or what order would you do things in? How many vanilla beans for a 5 gallon recipe? It's easy to find recipes but hard to find recipes with these kinds of additions. Links to similar recipes would also help. Thanks home brew world

 

[dkennedy]

My $0.02: first, you're a lucky guy to have an SO buy you a barrel! I'd do a Baltic Porter, something worthy of barrel aging, and hold additional vanilla from the barrel portion until you get a feel for what the barrel is going to contribute...be a shame to overdo vanilla notes of you get some from the oak. I did a vanilla stout with 3 or 4 vanilla beans soaked in Irish whiskey, and that had very noticeable vanilla.

Might be neat to make a little vertical from this- pure Porter, barrel aged, vanilla, blend of the barrel aged and not...