I need advice on using vanilla beans

[J2W2]

Hi,

I have an oatmeal porter that's going into the secondary this weekend. I plan to let it sit there for two weeks at room temp, then cold crash it for a week before I keg it. I'm planning to add vanilla beans in the secondary (my first attempt at this). I've read about it and watched a YouTube video; everyone seems to do it a little differently.

I have the basics down - cut the bean down the middle lengthwise, scrape out the insides, cut the shell up into small pieces, and soak everything in alcohol for a while. I'm planning to soak them in vodka, and I'm planning to put them in a nylon bag before I put them in the secondary.

I've seen advice on soaking them anywhere from an hour or two to up to several days. Since mine will be in the secondary for three weeks, will a soak for an hour or two to sanitize everything be sufficient?

I assume that even after that short time the vodka will absorb a fair amount of flavor, so I'm thinking I'll just pour everything into the nylon bag and let the little bit of vodka go into the secondary. Anything wrong with doing that?

Finally, from what I've read, two beans seem to be the recommendation for a 5-gallon batch. I'm using Madagascar Bourbon beans. They are about 6" long, and they appear to be larger than the ones in the YouTube video. Should I go with two whole beans or cut it back to 1.5 or so? I definitely want to taste the vanilla (or I wouldn't even be doing this), but I want it to be an undertone and not the dominate flavor.

Thanks for your advice!

 

[LLBeanJ]

The vodka should sanitize the vanilla pretty much immediately, so I'd give it an hour or two just to be sure and then dump it in. While the vodka will pull out a lot of the vanilla flavor, so will the alcohol that is already in the beer, so it's pretty much the same difference. If you were just making vanilla extract to add to the beer, rather than the entire contents/pieces of the beans, I'd say soak it all in vodka for several weeks, strain out the solids, and then just add the resulting extract, but when adding the beans themselves, you don't need to pre-soak them for very long.

And yes, add it all to the beer, including the vodka. You should be fine with 2 bourbon vanilla beans, I would not cut it back.

 

[J2W2]

Exactly what I needed to know.

Thanks!

 

[mwfripp]

I just recently bottled a vanilla porter and I used 2 good sized beans I did exactly what you are going to do and let them sit in vodka for a couple weeks. I barely tasted any vanilla flavor.

 

[J2W2]

Did you add the beans to your beer, or did you just add the vodka? I'm kind of guessing here, but I would think a couple of beans in a small amount of vodka would reach a saturation point and not extract the full flavor from the beans.

I'm just going to soak mine in a little vodka for an hour or two to sanitize them, then I'll let them sit in my beer for three weeks to hopefully extract all the vanilla from the beans. I'm going to dump the vodka into the secondary as well, to add whatever extract it contains.

I guess I'll know for sure sometime next month!

Thanks!

 

[Citizen86]

I bottled an oatmeal stout quite a few weeks ago. Added about 10 cups of coffee and only one vanilla bean that had been soaking in vodka for a week. The vodka came out really dark and smelled strongly of vanilla. Dumped the coffee and the vanilla-infused vodka into the bottling bucket.

Long story short, very strong coffee flavor still, vanilla is gone. So definitely next time I'll be scaling back on the coffee and using 2-3 vanilla beans. Might also throw the beans in to the fermenter for a while as well, as I strained the vodka as it went into the bottling bucket.

 

[LLBeanJ]

If you're looking for very noticeable vanilla notes, you may also want to add a split and cut bean or two to the end of the boil and maybe three more during fermentation and/or packaging. One bean at the end of the process isn't going to do much for a dark brew like a stout or porter.

 

[Wldthang87]

I've added the beans straight to the fermenter after fermentation is complete.

the thought process behind which is that the bean, have very little contamination to being with with and also the alcohol level in the beer is already enough to kill anything from reproducing. all i did was split the bean.

Ive also cut beans into small pieces and soaked them in bourbon and added that. bourbon and all. the bourbon extracted the vanilla flavour.

if you are soaking in vodka, i would add the vodka to the beer as well, as to not miss out on any vanilla flavour that would be left behind.

 

[Citizen86]

if you are soaking in vodka, i would add the vodka to the beer as well, as to not miss out on any vanilla flavour that would be left behind.

Right, that's the point, in addition to sanitizing the vanilla bean, to extract the flavor from it. Vodka, as strange as it is to say, is one of the most neutral spirits you could choose from.