Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Bourbon Vanilla Porter (AG)

[hunterlab]

My Og on Saturday (brew day) was 1.082 it is now after 4 days 1.024. Tasted and smelled amazing.

 

[tbright0223]

Just a quick question for this recipe. Does everyone mash all of the specialty grains in with the rest of the grains and do you mash the whole time. I have read different things about adding a harshness to the flavor of these dark type of specialty grains are mashed for long periods. I made this recipe about 2 weeks ago and just racked onto the vanilla bean and took a sample and I do find the flavor somewhat harsh. Maybe it just needs to sit and mellow out for a while. Anyone have any input??

 

[hunterlab]

I mashed all my grains together and I say just wait it out. Everything seems to mellow out after awhile !

 

[booherbg]

Yeah I've never not mashed all my grains together. I think that's part of the normal process.

 

[60sd]

I made this today, with a few minor variations:

The brew shop didn't have brown malt, so I used special roast. I prefer to use dry yeast, and the brew shop was out of us-05, so I used us-04 (two packets).

I sparged with 6.5 gallons and boiled for nearly 3 hours to get to the proper volume. My set-up is pretty inefficient, so I add 1 lb of corn sugar to the boil to bring the og up to the target. With all that, I hit 1.085 og. I was pretty stoked! It's only been in the primary for about 20 minutes now, so no other info to share.

 

[StainlessBrewing]

Bubbling away!

 

[Jayhem]

This recipe reminds me of my awesome bourbon barrel vanilla stout! You can use Southern Comfort bourbon instead of wasting money on Makers Mark!

 

[StainlessBrewing]

I'll probably just go with Jim, Ezra or Evans.

 

[60sd]

Just so I'm clear, you guys recommend 10 oz of bourbon and 2 tablespoons of pure vanilla or 2 whole vanilla beans. (I'm not sure I can find vanilla beans) Also, I was thinking of adding the bourbon to the secondary along with the vanilla, then letting it sit for as long as I can stand (3-4 weeks). I'll be kegging this one and my brother is telling me to let it age in the keg. What are your thoughts.

PS: I'm 16 hours in and its bubbling quite nicely!

 

[60sd]

Sorry, one more thing:

I've heard that when adding bourbon it's ok to get the cheap stuff, and I've also heard that it's better to use the good stuff. Both sides seem equally convinced. This will be my first batch using bourbon. Any input would be appreciated!

 

[Jayhem]

Just so I'm clear, you guys recommend 10 oz of bourbon and 2 tablespoons of pure vanilla or 2 whole vanilla beans. (I'm not sure I can find vanilla beans) Also, I was thinking of adding the bourbon to the secondary along with the vanilla, then letting it sit for as long as I can stand (3-4 weeks). I'll be kegging this one and my brother is telling me to let it age in the keg. What are your thoughts.

PS: I'm 16 hours in and its bubbling quite nicely!

I ordered my vanilla beans off Ebay! They were only like $10 for a pack of 8 beans. With my bourbon stout I always add the bourbon and the vanilla beans to secondary and then rack the beer onto them. If you soak the beans in the bourbon for a bit it will sanitize them.

Sorry, one more thing:

I've heard that when adding bourbon it's ok to get the cheap stuff, and I've also heard that it's better to use the good stuff. Both sides seem equally convinced. This will be my first batch using bourbon. Any input would be appreciated!

The way I see it it makes no sense to get top shelf bourbon and then waste it by diluting it into a big beer. Get a bourbon that has good flavor and aroma and don't worry about it being the best smoothest out there. Southern Comfort is good stuff, works great in a beer like this and costs about 1/3 of Maker's Mark.

 

[TrainSafe]

Your LHBS will have vanilla beans

 

[dfc]

Sorry, one more thing:

I've heard that when adding bourbon it's ok to get the cheap stuff, and I've also heard that it's better to use the good stuff. Both sides seem equally convinced. This will be my first batch using bourbon. Any input would be appreciated!

It's only 10-13 oz. per 5 gallons of beer. I found a 12.5 oz. bottle of makers mark that wasn't too expensive. If we were talking 30-40 oz. I could see where cost may be a problem.

 

[idigg]

I have some Denny favorite 1450, would that be okay to use with this beer?

 

[brewmasterorr]

I have some Denny favorite 1450, would that be okay to use with this beer?

Yes, Denny's Bourbon Vanilla Porter goes well with Denny's yeast.

 

[wowbeeryum]

I've had this sitting on 2 vanilla beans for about 2 weeks now and just took a sample. It has a slight vanilla aroma, and a smooth but not what I would pick out as vanilla flavor. Basically, it tastes like a good porter but I don't pick out the vanilla. This might have to do with fermentation finishing high (1.032). Should I add another bean or some extract? Also, should I put my bourbon in now or wait until bottling time? I had planned on bottling this weekend but could pour it in now if that would help.

 

[idigg]

I've had this sitting on 2 vanilla beans for about 2 weeks now and just took a sample. It has a slight vanilla aroma, and a smooth but not what I would pick out as vanilla flavor. Basically, it tastes like a good porter but I don't pick out the vanilla. This might have to do with fermentation finishing high (1.032). Should I add another bean or some extract? Also, should I put my bourbon in now or wait until bottling time? I had planned on bottling this weekend but could pour it in now if that would help.

How long in primary? 1.032 is way too high unless you mashed really high. You don't want bottle bombs. Maybe try to gently rouse yeast and bring temp up for 2-3 days.

 

[timewasted]

This looks delicious. I'm headed to the LHBS to get the ingredients today. I think I will be going with the original recipe to start. Thanks for sharing!

 

[timewasted]

Looks like mine will be a little different, due to ingredient availability. I could only get .75lbs on the brown malt. We also changed the 1lb and .5 of crystal malts to a single 1lb of crystal 80. Using warrior instead of magnum for bittering. I also decided to double pitch some us-05 instead of liquid yeast.

This should be fun!

 

[StainlessBrewing]

$8.00 at Fry's/Kroger 1% of proceeds go towards organic farming and education.

 

[ddrrseio]

if you can find them at costco, beans are 10/$12.

 

[Just_Mike]

So SWMBO has been after me to do a porter. I have settled on this one with a small twist.

Start by saying that if it contains alcohol I make it. Right now I have a chocolate raspberry port that I just moved into a new American oak barrel. The plan is to move this port into that barrel, 2.5 gallons of it. The other 3 gallons will be finished as per recipe.

I figure about a month due to the small volume of the barrel. What I plan on ending up with is a raspberry port porter. Once that comes out, I have a couple of gallons of clear liquid that we refer to as motorcycle fuel,wink wink, that I will leave in the barrel for a undetermined amount of time.

Next comes a couple of whisky barrel beers until the oak is gone. Then the barrel will get some bugs and be used for sours.

That's the plan anyway.

 

[Haputanlas]

Brewed this 3 times with US-05. Turns out fantastic!

However, I've never had the chance to try the original yeast for a comparison. Either way, this is always going to be a beer that I brew regularly. It's that good.

 

[dsmith1279]

I'm drinking my batch right now. If it only gets better from here then I'd say this is quite possibly my favorite recipe........ thus far My OG wasn't great, 1.068 but I got it down to a 1.014 and it isn't to "warm" with alcohol. I did a big starter of US-05 and was really impressed with the fermentation. I about maxed out my 72qt cooler for the 10G batch. I think I'm going to have to up the size the mashtun for the next batch. Cheers to a phenomenal recipe. Brew it, take your time and enjoy! Here's of a pic of the "vanilla" slick that the Madagascar Vanilla Beans, that I ordered from Amazon, left. They were AWESOME!

 

[jtkratzer]

What's the expected preboil volume for an 11 gallon batch? I'm marginally optimistic that I can get 34 lbs of grain and 1.25 qts/lbs of mash water into a half barrel mash tun. Claims have been made that it's been done successfully. What's the preboil volume needed to get 11 gallons of 1.078 wort into fermentors at the end of the day?

 

[Haputanlas]

...... Deleted ...... Missed the point

 

[jtkratzer]

What's the expected preboil volume for an 11 gallon batch? I'm marginally optimistic that I can get 34 lbs of grain and 1.25 qts/lbs of mash water into a half barrel mash tun. Claims have been made that it's been done successfully. What's the preboil volume needed to get 11 gallons of 1.078 wort into fermentors at the end of the day?

Bueller? Anybody?

 

[Hanso]

What's the expected preboil volume for an 11 gallon batch? I'm marginally optimistic that I can get 34 lbs of grain and 1.25 qts/lbs of mash water into a half barrel mash tun. Claims have been made that it's been done successfully. What's the preboil volume needed to get 11 gallons of 1.078 wort into fermentors at the end of the day?

The expected preboil volume is 11 gallons plus whatever your boil off rate is. Have no idea what/why you are asking regarding preboil volume.

34 lbs of grain at 1.25 takes up a little less than 14 gallons of space so there's no need to be optimistic when you have math on your side. (34*1.25/4)+(34/11)=13.7ish, assuming 11 lbs of grain takes up a gallon of volume. If the volume inside your mash tun for mashing is truly a half barrel you should be fine.

 

[jtkratzer]

The expected preboil volume is 11 gallons plus whatever your boil off rate is. Have no idea what/why you are asking regarding preboil volume.

34 lbs of grain at 1.25 takes up a little less than 14 gallons of space so there's no need to be optimistic when you have math on your side. (34*1.25/4)+(34/11)=13.7ish, assuming 11 lbs of grain takes up a gallon of volume. If the volume inside your mash tun for mashing is truly a half barrel you should be fine.

I'm seeing a lot of talk about 90 minute boils and higher sparge volume to keep the gravity up with a longer boil and wanted to make sure the preboil isn't any higher than 14 gallons to give room for boiling. I want 11 gallons of finished wort to go into my fermenters and that's going to mean about 11.5 gallons post boil or so.

Maybe I'm over thinking it, but I got two full 5 gallon kegs and 18 12oz bottles out of my last "10 gallon" batch of another recipe and nailed the OG. I'm getting better than 70% efficiency, but haven't bothered to do the math yet.

Just didn't want to drop $80 on ingredients and find out it doesn't fit my system.

 

[jclark1299]

Has a Breckenridge Vanilla Porter tonight and thought it was too vanilla-ey. I already bought the grain bill and have been wanting to make a pecan porter down the road. Since I am not feeling the Vanilla, I am going to go for it. Researching tells me to roast them several times at 350 and soak the oils up with paper bags between each roast. My question is, would this be a good idea? Additionally how much pecans would I use?

I also plan on adding bourbon to half the bottles, how much per bottle should I add?