Brewing With Vanilla Beans

[Siberian]

I cut the beans in half down the middle then chop them into 1-2" long sections and toss them right into the secondary fermentor (you want fermentation to be over so the yeast activity doesn't drive off some of the vanilla aroma).

A 1 to 1 1/2 weeks is typically enough for you to have a noticeable vanilla character from 2 beans in most beers.

Last one I did with this was a vanilla java porter which turned out great.

 

[mrgrimm101]

Hmm after I scraped, I cut the bean shell into tiny pieces..maybe 1/4" - 1/2" long. I only used 1 bean. I'm going to leave the extract alone for about 3 weeks before I toss the whole mixture in.

 

[jvotava91]

Not trying to bring up an old thread but I have a question...I brewed a blonde ale today (I know its turning to winter but some people around me dont like the better beers) and I made a 2.5 gallon batch to play with. I bought a few vanilla beans and was wondering how many I should use. I plan on doing the soaking in vodka thing unless the taste will come through since its a blonde. OG was something like 1.046 I want to say..
Thanks in advance!

 

[chisena]

I split and scrape 4 Madagascar vanilla beans into 5 gallon secondary of porter for 10 days. Perfect. Not overwhelming at all IMO. Sometimes I ever simmer a chopped up bean with the priming sugar at bottling time for that extra cookie crunch.

 

[jvotava91]

so maybe 2 will do the trick then?

 

[mrgrimm101]

I only did 1 bean im my porter. I soaked it in 4 oz of vodka. Im sure i could have done more

 

[ChelisHubby]

Not trying to bring up an old thread but I have a question...I brewed a blonde ale today (I know its turning to winter but some people around me dont like the better beers) and I made a 2.5 gallon batch to play with. I bought a few vanilla beans and was wondering how many I should use. I plan on doing the soaking in vodka thing unless the taste will come through since its a blonde. OG was something like 1.046 I want to say..
Thanks in advance!

When I added 3 beans split and scrape to a mild cream ale I used to much V vodka about 6 onces worth and the flavor suffered but the vanilla was there tho it was weak. the beans soaked for 3 weeks.

 

[unionrdr]

Not trying to bring up an old thread but I have a question...I brewed a blonde ale today (I know its turning to winter but some people around me dont like the better beers) and I made a 2.5 gallon batch to play with. I bought a few vanilla beans and was wondering how many I should use. I plan on doing the soaking in vodka thing unless the taste will come through since its a blonde. OG was something like 1.046 I want to say..
Thanks in advance!

In your case, one bean might be enough. I used two soaking in vodka for the whole time of primary.