Chocolate Nibs and cheap vodka

[Crock_it_out]

I'm brewing a Mocha Oatmeal Porter and I'm soaking my nibs in vodka for about 72hrs. I'll dump them in the secondary and then rack my beer on top of it for a couple weeks. Am I on the right track? I'm scared that I've possibly put my beer in danger by using cheap vodka to soak my nibs in. Also I've read that adding a vanilla bean to the nibs helps smooth out bitterness and helps with overall flavor. Is any of this true? Thanks for the input ahead of time.

 

[peterj]

In my opinion, vodka is vodka. It's goal is to be highly filtered ethanol. I don't see much difference between "nice" vodka and cheap vodka, or for that matter "nice" vodka and industrial cleaning ethanol other than the percent alchohol (they often come from the same place and one gets watered down and sold as vodka). And with the small amount you're probably using you definitely won't be able to tell.

If you want vanilla flavor in there then you can definitely add the vanilla bean. I've never used vanilla bean though so I don't know about the flavor effects.

 

[boydster]

Vanilla helps to bring out the chocolate flavor. They play well together.

 

[geckholm]

Don't worry about the vodka, you'll not taste it anyway. I soaked 2 oz of nibs in 4 oz of jim beam, the bourbon flavor never came through.....