vanilla bean experiment

[unionrdr]

I'm going to get the spring water today to brew my PB/PM BIAB robust porter tomorrow. I'd bought two South African vanilla beans a while back with the other ingredients for the beer. Giant Eagle's Market District top shelf brand beans. I scraped the paste out of the beans on a clean pie plate with a sharp paring knife. Then split the pods in twain & chopped into 1" slices.
I put it all in the jar they came in,about 3oz size. Then poured about 1.5" of cheap vodka in the jar with them & swirled occasionally. I was gunna fridge it,but idk. The vodka might be enough at room temp to preserve them/it.
Vanilla extract has alcohol in it,& we keep that in the pantry.
How do you guys prepare your vanilla beans for secondary usage? I'm curious,as this is my first experiment with them in a beer.

 

[duboman]

Just like you described and room temp in the vodka is fine.

The beans can be pretty potent so after you rack them in you'll want to start tasting around day 3.

I like to pull the beer when the taste is a bit more than desired as it will fade a bit, not a lot though.

Good luck! Should be great!

 

[unionrdr]

Thanks man. I was sitting here watching the pasty part slowly dissolve into the vodka,wondering how long in the beer would be good. Do you secondary on the beans,or just toss'em in primary after settling out clear or slightly misty?

 

[duboman]

I secondary that addition but only because I use them in a big bad porter I brew that I bulk condition, you could do them in primary once it drops bright but again, be sure to taste as they go because they can be pretty powerful and take over a beer if left too long.

 

[cheesehed007]

I did a porter with vanilla beans. My kit came with 5 beans. I didn't scrape the the meat out of the middle. I chopped them in to about1/2" pieces and put them in a jar with about a cup ofJim Beam. Let it sit in the jar 2 weeks then added to secondary and racked the beer on top of that. Let it all sit in secondary for a week. Still waiting for it to carb up, but the 1st bottle I had last night was great, just flat. Good luck and cheers!

 

[unionrdr]

Hmmm,it's split between primary & secondary. 3-5 days seems like a good,average amount of time. Probably have to taste as I go to see how quickly it gets the right amount of strength. It'll be interesting to see how quickly it gets up to snuff compared to bourbon soaked oak in my stout. 7 days & that one was a bit strong.

 

[unionrdr]

By the way,I swirled up the jar of vanilla beans & vodka this morning. It's looking a lil hazy today. I didn't sanitize the jar,as it has all that vodka in it. I hope it's ok?...

 

[ilv4xn]

About 2-3 heck maybe 3-4 years ago I put 6 split beans in a fifth of vodka. Put it in the cupboard and waited. Now we have homemade vanilla extract that we use all the time. It's always lived in the cupboard with no ill effect. I would figure yours should be fine.

 

[unionrdr]

Good to know. I pretty much figured with all that vodka it should be. i did see some tan colored grainy stuff re-settling. must be from the beans. The vodka is turning brown slowly but surely. Starting to smell good too. Kinda more "organic" sort of vanilla smell. Gotta wash the PB Blaster outta my hands though. DS headlight was being a prick to get changed on the Probe.

 

[duboman]

Not sure when you are brewing this but the beans really don't need to soak that long, a couple hours really, and since you scraped the meat out that's what you are seeing settling out, kind of like a tea. Not sure how much vodka you used but you might want to decant some if it, maybe you can crash it cold to settle out.

Definitely taste as it it goes, Vanilla can totally overwhelm a beer in a pretty short period of time

To the other poster, if you don't scrape the meat you get a lot less flavor so more beans are needed as all the flavor comes from the meat inside.

 

[unionrdr]

I got two beans in what looks like about a 3oz jar,but the weight is listed as .28oz. It's not quite 1/2 full of vodka & the bean stuff. Looking like the color of tea today. the pasty meat part was fairly firm when I scraped them out. So I figured after a couple weeks fermenting they'd be ready. So maybe an ounce of liquid plus the bean stuff in a muslin hop sock? might have to taste it,as it's going into 5 gallons of PM robust porter.
Here's a pic of the jar with a pack of cigs to give it some scale;
http://[URL=http://s563.photobucket.com/user/unionrdr/media/PICT0004_zpsfb76da01.jpg.html] [/URL]

 

[duboman]

Ya, I would crash it and decant, not sure I want all that in my beer

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah. My original thought was to pour all through a muslin hop sock into primary or secondary,tie it off & drop it in for at least 3 days. Then taste a shnooker of it? But since I'll be brewing the robust porter tomorrow,including primary time,I might just have the liquid part (vodka) strong enough to just use that?

 

[unionrdr]

Here's what the vanilla beans & vodka looks like today,1 week later.
http://[URL=http://s563.photobucket.com/user/unionrdr/media/PICT0004_zps55950565.jpg.html] [/URL]
Looks like I may get it strong enough by bottling day to just strain the liquid into the bottling bucket. Unless it contains some sugars from the pasty part of the beans? In that case,I might strain it into primary after FG is reached & give it a day or two?...

 

[davefleck]

Use vanilla splits rather than top quality beans. The splits make the best extract. The "top" grade don't do better. They just look pretty. No need to gut them it won't improve the end result. Just cut into 1/2" segments. 1/4 lb per quart. Give it a month and shake daily.

We found reasonable bulk pricing at
Www.vanillaproductsusa.com

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

Here's what the vanilla beans & vodka looks like today,1 week later. http://[URL=http://s563.photobucket.com/user/unionrdr/media/PICT0004_zps55950565.jpg.html][/URL] Looks like I may get it strong enough by bottling day to just strain the liquid into the bottling bucket. Unless it contains some sugars from the pasty part of the beans? In that case,I might strain it into primary after FG is reached & give it a day or two?...

When I made a vanilla Cream ale. I just dumped the vanilla flavored vodka in to the keg/bottling bucket and racked onto it with good results. I started my beans soaking on brew day and by bottling time the vodka was well flavored.

 

[unionrdr]

That's the hypothosis I'm getting now. It'll be quite dark colored by bottling day. I thought to just pour it through my fine mesh strainer into the bottling bucket. Only the tiny vanilla beans would get through. Sorry about the clarity of the pic. My old 5 megapixel digicam doesn't do close ups real well. The lil black specs on the jar are clumps of vanilla beans.

 

[pfgonzo]

I was just about to post a thread with this exact question. Is the consensus to toss the whole thing into secondary for some period of time, or to strain and add the infused vodka only, and keg it.