Brewing With Vanilla Beans

[mrgrimm101]

I am planning on brewing a Pumpkin Spice Porter and I want to add some vanilla. I've read that it will help replicate the flavor of pie crust.

From what I read, most people transfer their beer to a secondary vessel and add the vanilla to that. Is it best to add it to a secondary vessel? Would adding it during the last 5 minutes of the boil have any negative consequences? (just curious)

I read that the vanilla flavor is best extracted by soaking the beans in some vodka or bourbon for a week and then adding that to the beer in a secondary vessel. Is it necessary to soak the beans in alcohol first?

I also see that many people will split the beans and scrape out the seeds, then chop the bean shell into small pieces and add the whole thing to a secondary vessel. Is this necessary, or can I just toss the beans in without opening them up?

Lastly, say potentially I can't find whole vanilla beans..would vanilla extract work instead?

Thanks for any help/advice!

 

[Kblandfo]

All those methods are used.

It depends on what your recipe calls for and in the end youll have to find what taste works for you in which beer. I make my own vanilla extract using vodka and rum. I have had it sitting for over a year. I like my extract for other purposes (baking, flavouring yogurt etc.) so it is my method to add extract to my brew. I think I will eventually try just adding chopped up beans to secondary though. That sounds easy. I would chop the bean if I were you. The flavour will be more easily extracted if chopped and seeds exposed.

 

[mrgrimm101]

Ok great. My plan is to let it ferment for a few weeks and then transfer to secondary and add the vanilla. How long should I leave the vanilla in secondary until I bottle? Would a week be long enough?

 

[metanoia]

If you have time to wait on shipping, order your vanilla beans online. If you buy them in the store, you'll get about 2 beans for $8-10. For that same price, you can score 10-20 beans on Amazon or even on some homebrew store sites.

As for the vanilla, I'm brewing up a batch of Gingerbread Brown tomorrow and will be using my last vanilla bean from a couple years ago (still smells heavenly!). Last time I did this I made a vodka tincture with the bean, cinnamon, and fresh ginger, but this year I'm using all powdered spices so I'm debating what to do with the vanilla bean. I'm thinking of tossing it into the primary once fermentation is complete, probably during the second week, and tasting a sample each day and bottling once there is just enough vanilla flavor. I'm thinking that this will give the most control over the flavor, instead of having to play around with extract.

 

[Newsman]

One good reason to soak the vanilla beans in vodka or other spirits is to sanitize them. Plus, the purpose of splitting the bean and scraping is to get access to the good stuff -- the most flavor is in the meat of the bean, not in the shell. And if you chop it up into small bits, it gives you more surface area for the flavoring to seep out.

 

[mrgrimm101]

I was going to split them, scrape out the insides, and then chop up the shell and use all of it, rather than discarding the shell once I've gotten the "meat" out. This way the whole thing is being used. I was also planning on adding it once fermentation is complete, so I figured sanitation of the beans was not too critical, as there is already alcohol present in the beer when I add the beans. Should I still try and soak them or sanitize them?

 

[unionrdr]

Also, the beans are about the size & color of celery seeds. It's the brown pasty loveliness inside the beans that have the flavor. That's why we scrape & chop the beans before soaking them in neutral alcohol like vodka. I use the little 3oz or so jar the two beans I bought came in with 2oz or so of vodka to soak during primary fermentation. I strained the liquid into the priming solution myself. But the beans are so small that they went right through the fine mesh strainer. So a funnel & coffee filter would work better. Otherwise, adding the liquid vanilla to the priming solution worked great.

 

[mrgrimm101]

I strained the liquid into the priming solution myself. But the beans are so small that they went right through the fine mesh strainer. So a funnel & coffee filter would work better. Otherwise, adding the liquid vanilla to the priming solution worked great.

Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly are you referring to as the priming solution?

 

[unionrdr]

The solution made up of 2C of water boiled a couple minutes that the weighed amount of priming sugar is added to that will carbonate the beer in the bottles. It's added to the rising column of beer as it racks into the bottling bucket from primary or secondary. I just added the fresh vanilla liquid to that to get it into the beer. I thought it might taste the freshest that way. It did indeed have that fresh, smooth vanilla flavor in my opinion.

 

[mrgrimm101]

Oh gotcha. So you just used the vanilla at the time of bottling, rather than adding it to a fermenting vessel?

 

[unionrdr]

Yes. It was the quickest, cleanest way to get it into the beer in my opinion. Works quite well too. Just be sure to stir the beer gently after you're finished racking into the bottling bucket. This will ensure the even distribution of the vanilla flavored priming solution.

 

[mrgrimm101]

How can you be sure that you didnt do too much vanilla?

 

[unionrdr]

I used 2 beans in a 5 gallon batch soaked in some two ounces of plain vodka for the couple weeks of primary before adding them as described. Seemed like a good balance of malt, hops & vanilla flavor in the robust porter I added it to.

 

[castillo556]

Yes, extract will work great.

In the future, save yourself some cash and make your won.
Go on Ebay and buy bulk Grabe B Vanilla beans. They are just over 50 cents a piece in bulk. 2 beans split and scraped in a liter of vodka for a few months and viola! You have your own extract.

As far as your beer goes, I pour the vanilla extract and some more pumpkin spice in a glass for a few hours then add that to the priming solution when racking to the bottling bucket.

How much you want to use is up to you.

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah, making fresh vanilla extract definitely tastes better to me. Fresh has a different flavor quality to it.

 

[mdbrewer1]

Costco also sells vanilla beans at a pretty good price. It's been a while since I bought any, but I remember it being in the $1.50-$2.00/each range. I've never tried the eBay route, but I might look into it if it is that much cheaper.

For my vanilla bourbon stout, I did 3 beans cut and scraped and then soaked in 1 c. bourbon for about a week. I transferred everything to secondary and let that sit for 5 days I believe. I also added 1 1/2 tbsp. extract at bottling. I wish I had either added more beans or less bourbon, but the vanilla flavor was definitely there.

I added one bean's worth to a couple ounces of rum and dried pumpkin pie spice and let that sit for about 3 days for my 2.5 gallon batch of Pumptoberfest. I also added a little extra cinnamon, which was borderline too much. It masked the vanilla a little, but there was still a hint of it. Next year I'll leave out the extra cinnamon and it should be a nice, balanced beer.

 

[mrgrimm101]

Well I'm not looking for a big vanilla flavor..just a slight vanilla flavor to hopefully slightly replicate the flavor of graham cracker crust. I've read that vanilla will do this. There's already pumpkin pie spices going in so I don't want to muddle the flavors with too many spices

 

[mdbrewer1]

Well I'm not looking for a big vanilla flavor..just a slight vanilla flavor to hopefully slightly replicate the flavor of graham cracker crust. I've read that vanilla will do this. There's already pumpkin pie spices going in so I don't want to muddle the flavors with too many spices

That was my motivation for adding the vanilla beans as well. Sadly, the extra cinnamon detracts a little from the other flavors, but there is still a graham cracker presence.

I say go for it. Maybe start with one bean's worth soaked in vodka in secondary for a few days and then add some more at bottling if the flavor isn't yet to the level you're after.

If you bottle and want to experiment a little, bottle part of the batch with a lesser amount of vanilla and then add a little more as you go along. Looking back, I would have liked to have tried that with mine. I wasn't sure how to tame the cinnamon flavor at the time, but it would have been interesting to see how various levels of vanilla would have changed the flavor.

 

[mrgrimm101]

That was my motivation for adding the vanilla beans as well. Sadly, the extra cinnamon detracts a little from the other flavors, but there is still a graham cracker presence.

I say go for it. Maybe start with one bean's worth soaked in vodka in secondary for a few days and then add some more at bottling if the flavor isn't yet to the level you're after.

If you bottle and want to experiment a little, bottle part of the batch with a lesser amount of vanilla and then add a little more as you go along. Looking back, I would have liked to have tried that with mine. I wasn't sure how to tame the cinnamon flavor at the time, but it would have been interesting to see how various levels of vanilla would have changed the flavor.

Brilliant idea. I do bottle, so I will do exactly this. Thank you.

 

[mrgrimm101]

So basically, I will cut and scrape the vanilla, then add it to a small container with a couple cups of vodka, rum, or bourbon, and let it sit for about a week. Then I will add the whole mixture into either the primary or secondary (haven't decided if I'm going to transfer or not) after fermentation is complete and then take a sample before bottling to check the vanilla flavor.

Should I use vodka, bourbon, or rum? Would the flavors really carry over?

 

[unionrdr]

Unless you're going to process a lot of vanilla beans for a large batch of vanilla extract, you won't need a couple cups of plain vodka. 1 bean in 2ozs would be fine for what you want in this beer. But if you're using 6 beans or something, a couple cups of plain vodka would be good. The plain vodka won't carry over any flavor of it's own. The others would, but it depends on what you're looking for in the finished product.

 

[mrgrimm101]

Perfect I will only use a couple oz of vodka then. I'm using canned pumpkin and pumpkin pie spices in this recipe as well, so I'm really not sure how the rum or bourbon flavors would play off the (hopeful) pumpkin pie flavors I'm trying to create.

 

[metanoia]

Costco also sells vanilla beans at a pretty good price. It's been a while since I bought any, but I remember it being in the $1.50-$2.00/each range. I've never tried the eBay route, but I might look into it if it is that much cheaper.

For my vanilla bourbon stout, I did 3 beans cut and scraped and then soaked in 1 c. bourbon for about a week. I transferred everything to secondary and let that sit for 5 days I believe. I also added 1 1/2 tbsp. extract at bottling. I wish I had either added more beans or less bourbon, but the vanilla flavor was definitely there.

I added one bean's worth to a couple ounces of rum and dried pumpkin pie spice and let that sit for about 3 days for my 2.5 gallon batch of Pumptoberfest. I also added a little extra cinnamon, which was borderline too much. It masked the vanilla a little, but there was still a hint of it. Next year I'll leave out the extra cinnamon and it should be a nice, balanced beer.

How much cinnamon did you use initially? Or was it all in the pumpkin pie spice? I'm trying to determine how much to use in my brew tomorrow, I've seen such varying amounts. I'm thinking of sticking low with only 2tsp cinnamon and ginger, plus 1tsp allspice and nutmeg for a gingerbread brown. Plus, 8-12oz of molasses in the boil with the spices, and 1 sliced vanilla bean in the fermenter until it extracts enough flavor.

 

[mrgrimm101]

I was contemplating using brown sugar in my porter, but union suggested demerara sugar instead. Just curious, what are you hoping to get from the molasses?

 

[unionrdr]

Well, I like the demerara because it's cleaner by comparison. Some think that bit of molasses flavor from brown sugar adds to the flavor of a porter or stout. Personal preference really.

 

[YeastMode]

I just went through this process with a porter. As has been stated, the most "tried and true" method would be to take the beans (1 or 2), scrape them, cut them in pieces, and soak them in a few ounces (I used about 4 or 5 for 3 beans). If you are carbonating in the bottle, then add the vanilla mixture to your bottling bucket with your priming sugar solution, rack on top and bottle as normal. If you decide to force carbonate using a keg (either now or in the future) I, like others, will place the vanilla bean vodka solution in the bottom of my secondary fermentation vessel and rack on top, which in my opinion, assists with distribution of the flavor.

Vanilla flavor tends to lessen over time, so I would use 1.5 to 2 beans. That said, i have never added them when carbonating in a bottle, so 1 bean may just get you where you want to be flavor wise. I would use vodka as opposed to bourbon for this recipe, as a little too much vodka will not impact your flavor as much as a little too much bourbon. I usually add my beans to a mason jar, cover with vodka, close the lid and leave it for a week. Has worked great.

Finally, as has been suggested in other threads, I have used the below company in the past with good results. Not the prettiest beans, and they arrive vacuum packed as opposed to in a glass vile, but they are affordable, have great flavor and ship fast and free. https://www.beanilla.com/madagascar-vanilla-beans

Best of luck.

 

[metanoia]

I was contemplating using brown sugar in my porter, but union suggested demerara sugar instead. Just curious, what are you hoping to get from the molasses?

Some of the molasses flavor to come through, like a gingerbread cookie, plus it'll bump the ABV up a little too (nothing wrong with that ). It worked out well last time, but I'm trying some different kinds of spices this time so it's all about trial and error right now.

 

[unionrdr]

Come to think of it, the two beans in the little jar from Giant Eagle's Market District were from South Africa. 2 beans for $4-$6.

 

[metanoia]

Finally, as has been suggested in other threads, I have used the below company in the past with good results. Not the prettiest beans, and they arrive vacuum packed as opposed to in a glass vile, but they are affordable, have great flavor and ship fast and free. https://www.beanilla.com/madagascar-vanilla-beans

Best of luck.

Someone needs to tell these people that their sale pricing is off. 84 cents a bean if you buy 10, 91 cents a bean if you buy 25. Someone was drinking a little too much vanilla bourbon stout when they put these on sale...

 

[mrgrimm101]

Some of the molasses flavor to come through, like a gingerbread cookie, plus it'll bump the ABV up a little too (nothing wrong with that ). It worked out well last time, but I'm trying some different kinds of spices this time so it's all about trial and error right now.

My only concern with using dark brown sugar is that I will end up with beer that is maybe too dry for my liking. I want to boost the ABV slightly and wouldn't mind a slight flavor contribution. I've already increased the LME by about 1/2 lb, but maybe I'll just increase that by another 1/2 lb and ixnay the brown sugar.