I've made a Vanilla Pale/Cream Ale and Vanilla Kolsch. Both were hits of parties by the lighter drinking crowd. Lots of people will say "Vanilla doesn't belong in a Cream/Kolsch Ale!". Most recently I think Papazian did in the latest BYO mag. But F* that noise. Its not "to style" but can be pretty tasty.
2 Vanilla Beans in the last 15 minutes of the boil gives a nice hint of the flavoring. 3 pronounces it a bit more, and was very good. I'd suggest starting with 2 beans per 5G of finished product, added with 15 minutes left of the boil. Tweak your recipe from there.
A couple of recipes I've used:
Vanilla Ale
Boil Size: 13.29 gal
Post Boil Volume: 11.44 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 10.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 10.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.049 SG
Estimated Color: 5.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 15.1 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 82.5 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes
Ingredients:
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13 lbs 15.1 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
2 lbs 0.4 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)
1 lbs 0.2 oz Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM)
1 lbs Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM)
0.51 oz Nugget [13.00 %] - First Wort 90.0 min
6.00 Items Vanilla Beans (Boil 15.0 mins)
0.94 oz Mt. Hood [4.00 %] - Boil 2.0 min
3.0 pkg Nottingham Ale Yeast (White Labs #WLP039 Yeast
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 14.0 Days
Vanilla Kolsch
Boil Size: 12.38 gal
Post Boil Volume: 11.13 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 10.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 10.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.052 SG
Estimated Color: 5.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 16.2 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 77.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 80.9 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Ingredients:
11 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
3 lbs 4.0 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM)
1 lbs Munich Malt (6.0 SRM)
1 lbs Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM)
8.0 oz Acid Malt (3.0 SRM)
8.0 oz Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM)
8.0 oz Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM)
0.50 oz Nugget [13.30 %] - First Wort 60.0 min
4.00 Items Vanilla Beans (Boil 15.0 mins)
1.00 oz Cascade [6.30 %] - Boil 5.0 min
3.0 pkg German Ale/Kolsch (White Labs #WLP029)
The acid malt in the Kolsch was for water treatment - so handle your water as you would for a light beer. Next time I would cut that Acid Malt in half, or by 75%. pH of the mash for this one was 5.2, would prefer 5.35.