How much Vanilla Bean in a barrel?

[RockerDlicious]

So a friend of mine scored a freshly emptied Jack Daniels barrel. I'm ramping up to brew an imperial stout. I was going to combine 5- 11 gallon batches in the barrel. I'd really like to make this a "Vanilla Bean Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout," which leads me to the question... How many vanilla beans do I put in a barrel? I'm sure gravities play a role, SRM, IBU... I'm really looking for some sort of "law of averages" here for the style guideline. If I shoot from the hip I'm guessing 20 beans.

One more question. What sort of pre-processing goes into the vanilla beans? My guess is they don't need to soak. Maybe just sliced and scraped?

THANKS!

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

as far an amounts, that's subjective, time on the beans and the beer on the beans plays a lot into this.
for processing the beans, maybe soak them in bourbon to extract some aroma and flavor before adding them to the barrel.

BTW, nice score for your friend! you guy's are pretty lucky to have a fresh bourbon barrel to play around with.