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

[Haputanlas]

Hi guys,

This is my second batch of this awesome brew. However, I hooked the keg up to the gas over 2 weeks ago and it's still not carbonated. Not even a little. I also connected a keg of another brew at the same time and that one is fully carbonated. I don't remember if it took this long the last time I did this porter. Anyone else experience an extremely slow rate of carbonation with this beer? There's definitely gas pressure in there as I've drawn some to taste and also pulled on the vent ring and it gases out. I just disconnected this keg and shook the living hell out of it and reconnected. Will give it another week before I taste test again.

Something's wrong. What temperature and what pressure did you have it at for 2 weeks?

I've never had to wait more than a few days to get at least a little bit of carbonation. I'm not suggesting you can get this to speed up, I'm just saying that you should definitely notice something by now.

I would normally suggest that you check for a leak. However, if there was a leak with no carbonation after 2 weeks, your canister would be empty by now.

Obviously check that the valve is all the way turned on and you could also try to remove the ball/pin lock and clean it up.

Another question. When you re-connect the gas line after opening and re-sealing the lid, did you hear the gas going into the keg?

 

[EineProsit]

Gotta try this I'm torn between this and Edworts Robust Porter. Guess I will just have to do them both.

 

[DarkUncle]

Something's wrong. What temperature and what pressure did you have it at for 2 weeks?

I've never had to wait more than a few days to get at least a little bit of carbonation. I'm not suggesting you can get this to speed up, I'm just saying that you should definitely notice something by now.

I would normally suggest that you check for a leak. However, if there was a leak with no carbonation after 2 weeks, your canister would be empty by now.

Obviously check that the valve is all the way turned on and you could also try to remove the ball/pin lock and clean it up.

Another question. When you re-connect the gas line after opening and re-sealing the lid, did you hear the gas going into the keg?

Both kegs are on the same bottle of cO2 which are connected through a manifold. The one keg of beer is fully carbed but the porter isn't at all. There is gas in the keg, yes. I hear it go in, there is serving pressure on the line and when I pull the vent ring on top of the keg, gas is clearly in there and under pressure. So weird. I've never had this happen with any beer. There is no leaks either. Sprayed starsan around the inlet/outlet and the lid. No bubbles indicating a leak.

 

[gibsonmi]

Both kegs are on the same bottle of cO2 which are connected through a manifold. The one keg of beer is fully carbed but the porter isn't at all. There is gas in the keg, yes. I hear it go in, there is serving pressure on the line and when I pull the vent ring on top of the keg, gas is clearly in there and under pressure. So weird. I've never had this happen with any beer. There is no leaks either. Sprayed starsan around the inlet/outlet and the lid. No bubbles indicating a leak.

Maybe a leak in the pressure relief valve? You could try disconnecting the keg for a few days and then try to release pressure, if nothing comes out then you will know if you have a bad o-ring somewhere. Sounds like something is definitely wrong though

 

[coy94]

I have the exact same problem as DarkUncle. Mine has been kegged for about two months. Three other kegs have been carbonated well. There is still CO2 in the tank so I know it can't be a large leak. I depressurize and hear the gas going back in. I've popped the top and reinserted with more keg lube several times. Nothing.

On the bright side, the beer tastes great even without a lot of carbonation. This is my second batch and first doing it all grain. The first batch took multiple weeks to carb as well. Hmmm....maybe too much bourbon?


Coy

 

[JoeMomma85]

I have the exact same problem as DarkUncle. Mine has been kegged for about two months. Three other kegs have been carbonated well. There is still CO2 in the tank so I know it can't be a large leak. I depressurize and hear the gas going back in. I've popped the top and reinserted with more keg lube several times. Nothing.

On the bright side, the beer tastes great even without a lot of carbonation. This is my second batch and first doing it all grain. The first batch took multiple weeks to carb as well. Hmmm....maybe too much bourbon?


Coy

On one of my used kegs I have to back the post out a quarter to half a turn otherwse the poppet doesnt depress and I get a very slow flat pour that would take 2-3 minutes to fill. pint.

Transferred this beer to a secondary for bulk aging today. 1.086 > 1.019 and it is very boozy and hot. Time for some reating time with my good pall Elijah Craig and Bulleit.

 

[DarkUncle]

Well after 3+ weeks on the gas I'm finally getting some carbonation. Beer tastes great by the way. I don't know. Maybe higher alcohol content has some influence on the rate of carbonation? I've never heard that or read that anywhere though. Who knows. I'll grab another pint in a week and see how it goes. It's in a keezer at around 37 degrees with no detectable leaks anywhere on the keg and has plenty of pressure on the serving line. I fill a pint up in less then 5 seconds.

 

[GrizzAndFish]

I have the recipe from a TrueBrew Porter Kit I brewed a while back, and am thinking of just applying the hops and yeast from this recipe to it and then adding the vanilla in secondary and bottling with Bourbon. The recipe, then, is as follows

Type: Extract
Yeast: American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056)
Batch Size: 5 Gal.
OG: 1.043-1.045
FG: 1.012-1.014
IBU: 32?

Ingredients:
Dark Malt Extract - 1 Can (7lbs?)
Dark DME - 2lbs
Malto-Dextrin - 8oz
Choc. Grain Malt - 6oz
Hops 0.75 oz Magnum [14.00%](60 min)
Hops 1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (10 min)

Ferment as normal, 2 vanilla beans in secondary, 2.5 oz/gal bourbon with priming sugar at bottling.

I'm going to bring this to my LHBS for advice, but I'd love all the input I can get. I'm looking forward to this.

 

[Hanso]

I have the recipe from a TrueBrew Porter Kit I brewed a while back, and am thinking of just applying the hops and yeast from this recipe to it and then adding the vanilla in secondary and bottling with Bourbon. The recipe, then, is as follows

Type: Extract
Yeast: American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056)
Batch Size: 5 Gal.
OG: 1.043-1.045
FG: 1.012-1.014
IBU: 32?

Ingredients:
Dark Malt Extract - 1 Can (7lbs?)
Dark DME - 2lbs
Malto-Dextrin - 8oz
Choc. Grain Malt - 6oz
Hops 0.75 oz Magnum [14.00%](60 min)
Hops 1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (10 min)

Ferment as normal, 2 vanilla beans in secondary, 2.5 oz/gal bourbon with priming sugar at bottling.

I'm going to bring this to my LHBS for advice, but I'd love all the input I can get. I'm looking forward to this.

That will turn out horribly bitter. I'm assuming the OG of 1.044 is accurate, not the 7lbs of extract. If you apply that much hops to a malt bill that yields 1.044 it will be 1. Too low of gravity and won't be similar to this recipe as a result. 2. The same hops in a lower gravity environment will extract even more alpha acid than it would from the original recipe (higher gravity).

Using Tinseth I get 49 IBUs, which is off the charts in terms of bitter:sweet balance. You should be shooting for 16-18 IBUs if the gravity is 1.044 and you want to approximate the balance of this recipe. Probably means boiling with a smaller amount of much lower alpha hops, like 0.5 oz of Fuggles at 60 instead of 0.75 of magnum, keeping the EKG where they are.

As for the bourbon and vanilla I don't know how that would impact a light beer.

 

[GrizzAndFish]

That being the case, can anyone suggest a tried and true extract recipe for this beer? I read the first 25ish pages of the forum before my eyes started to bleed, and their were a few people trying extract versions. One issue I saw come up rather often is loss of head retention due to oils from the vanilla beans. Some solutions that I saw suggested were the addition of flaked oats, barley or cara-something (pils?), would these work if steeped with the chocolate and brown malts, or do they need to be mashed? Thank you in advance for all your help.

 

[Ravenor]

Hi,
I have just one question and I don`t know if it has been asked before, but how long do you age this beer.
I was thinking of brewing it now in order to have it drinkable at around x-mas. Is it to long to age this beer for three to three and a half month?

 

[rpe290]

Hi,
I have just one question and I don`t know if it has been asked before, but how long do you age this beer.
I was thinking of brewing it now in order to have it drinkable at around x-mas. Is it to long to age this beer for three to three and a half month?

No! I bet mine was drinkable in a month if I kegged, add 2 more weeks for bottling (Month and a half).

You will lose a ton of vanilla by 3.5 months. It's still a good beer, just not a Bourbon VANILLA Porter.

Be sure to pitch plenty of good yeast and keep temps under control, though!

 

[tv187u]

No! I bet mine was drinkable in a month if I kegged, add 2 more weeks for bottling (Month and a half).

You will lose a ton of vanilla by 3.5 months. It's still a good beer, just not a Bourbon VANILLA Porter.

Be sure to pitch plenty of good yeast and keep temps under control, though!

I used a small bottle of pure vanilla extract (about what I have seen recommended) every time I make this and then end up aging a minimum of 4 months. The vanilla is still very much there and I find this to be much more smooth and worth the wait. We killed a full 5 gal keg at a birthday party last weekend. I would go for it and then if too much vanilla drops out for your taste, add more.

 

[rpe290]

I used a small bottle of pure vanilla extract (about what I have seen recommended) every time I make this and then end up aging a minimum of 4 months. The vanilla is still very much there and I find this to be much more smooth and worth the wait. We killed a full 5 gal keg at a birthday party last weekend. I would go for it and then if too much vanilla drops out for your taste, add more.

You could always bulk age until you got closer, then start the vanilla soaking closer to time, too.

 

[adamg8504]

Well I just checked my gravity after being in fermentation for 10 days and it's down to 1.015 from 1.078. I don't plan on putting it into secondary until saturday (~ 3 more days). I just took it down to the basement where ambient is probably closer to 55F just to stop any more fermentation from taking place. Is that a good idea?

Also, when I rack to secondary and put my vanilla bean in, should I keep it at 55F or move it back to 70F? Or does it really matter? I know when I bottle it should be back to fermentation temps (~70F) so it will carb up.

Oh and I pitched two packets of re-hydrated US-05.

 

[LLBeanJ]

No, not a good idea if you're going to eventually bottle it. You don't want to prematurely stop fermentation until the yeast have consumed all of the fermentables, otherwise they could come back to life after bottling and leave you with bottle bombs.

 

[adamg8504]

No, not a good idea if you're going to eventually bottle it. You don't want to prematurely stop fermentation until the yeast have consumed all of the fermentables, otherwise they could come back to life after bottling and leave you with bottle bombs.

Do you think it will go any lower? I certainly wouldn't want it to...

 

[LLBeanJ]

I couldn't say. It may very well be done, but you need to give it time to confirm. Two readings of the same gravity 3 days apart will tell you when it's finished.

 

[LLBeanJ]

Gonna be brewing up this recipe for the second time on Labor Day. Last time I brewed it I went with a secondary for the oak chips and vanilla. This time the plan is to dump the oak-infused bourbon and the bourbon-soaked vanilla beans right into the keg after what I expect to be a 3-week primary, skipping the secondary altogether. By the time to keg comes around, both the oak chips and vanilla beans will have been soaking in bourbon for 4-5 weeks. We'll see how it comes out this go-around.

 

[coinhall09]

Hey quick question , I just siphoned off a gallon from a 5 gallo batch to bourbon oak , so the rest is still in primary waiting to get bottled this weekend . What's my chance of oxidation , high or low ?

 

[LLBeanJ]

Unless I'm missing something, it should be just like any other transfer, I.e., fairly low chance as long as you were careful.

 

[coinhall09]

Ok , I didn't slosh it around but I'm waiting to bottle / or keg the other 4 gallons so I just put the airlock back on .( after I sanitized it of course )

 

[LLBeanJ]

Should be okay then.

 

[coinhall09]

Thank you LLBeanJ!

 

[chapusin]

Hey guys, so this is my course of action. I did a 10 gallon batch after it's done fermenting, I plan to slice open 5 madagascar vanilla beans, remove and throw away the insides, then chop the beans into pieces and drop them in 20 oz of makers mark, age this for a week and then throw the aged bourbon and beans into the sanke keg for secondary where I will force carbonate as well. Does this sound correct? also, do you guys think the spear might clog with the beans if they get sucked out?

 

[LLBeanJ]

You don't want to discard the insides of the bean pods. Those are the actual vanilla beans. Slice and scrape out the beans (or "pulp" for lack of a better term) and put the contents into the bourbon. Chop up the outer pods into approx. 1" long pieces and toss those into the bourbon as well. After a week or two of soaking, remove the outer pod pieces and discard them. The inner "pulp" and bourbon then go in your brew.

 

[Squad1Guy]

I just finished my primary fermentation (1.065 to 1.016) and I had a couple of questions:

1) I let my initial fermentation temps get a bit high and I picked up some esters....not bad but they are still there (raisins and cherries seems to be the prevalent flavors). It is actually appropriate for the style and I think it might compliment the vanilla and bourbon well. Any thoughts on this? (Not that I can do anything about it now!!)

2) How much is my gravity likely to drop in the secondary? I planned on going for 2 weeks to give it a nice vanilla flavor, but it seems like it will not drop. I used S-05.

Thanks!

 

[PrivetDriveBrewery]

I'm thinking I'd like to follow this recipe but split it into two halves at the end. One half vanilla bourbon, one half vanilla java. I'm planning to do extract approximately 5 gallons with 2-3 vanilla beans and have a couple questions about what the best way to do this would be.

Once it's in primary, should I still cut and scrape the bean pods and put them in a little bit of bourbon and add to secondary? Then after secondary is done split the beer into two and add the bourbon to one half and coffee to the other? I don't want too much bourbon flavor to get into coffee half from soaking the beans. Is there a better way to add the beans into secondary without soaking them in bourbon?

I planned to add 10ml of bourbon per 16oz of beer at bottling. I've never added coffee to beer, any recommendations on how much and what the best way to do this is? What's the best way to make/prepare coffee?

Any other thoughts on how to do this? Any input is much appreciated!

 

[jkn09]

I don't know what the best method is for coffee, but I do know you could do vodka instead of bourbon for the whole batch, then switch to bourbon for the bourbon half. The vodka should be flavorless and keep the vanilla flavor through the java half.

 

[LLBeanJ]

+1 on vodka for the vanilla extract. You don't need much, maybe an ounce or so in a small plastic food storage container.

For coffee, you'll want to either add grains directly to the beer in secondary or add cold-brewed coffee at time of bottling. I've not gone the direct grains route, but I have used cold-brewed coffee before and it works very well. For a half batch, I'd combine maybe 5 or 6 ounces (by weight) of course ground coffee with about 24-32 ounces of water in a container. Let it sit out at room temp for a couple of days, shaking intermittently, then filter with a French press or run through a coffee filter. Add half the cold-brewed coffee to your bottling bucket and sample. Add more if needed until you get the coffee flavor where you want it.