Vanilla vodka or plain vodka

[chadm817]

IM going to soak vanilla beans in vodka. Should I use vanilla vodka or just regular plain vodka.

In addition I know you scrape out the seeds, do I add what I scrape out of the bean or add the exterior or add both?

Last thing, do I dump the vodka, and the insides or exteriors into the secondary or do I strain it and just use the liquid?!?

Thank you!!

 

[Paps]

This is a subjective question as everyone will have a different opinion.
I personally would use a plain vodka vs a flavored one because of the prominant use of artificial flavorings.

Look on youtube for "make your own vanilla extract" for methods on bean scraping.

Some people will add just the extract and some add that and the beans.It's a matter of prefference and neither is really any better/worse than the other.

 

[chadm817]

So you said you can use the beans or just the extract and that's preference. However what did u do with the seeds that u scraped out?

Is that garbage or do you use it?

 

[Calder]

Use cheap plain vodka. The alcohol helps to extract the vanilla flavor.

Open the beans, scrape out the insides, and put everything in the vodka.

Leave beans in the vodka for as long as possible. 6 months would be great, but most people only have a week or so. The longer you leave it, the greater the flavor extraction from the beans.

If you put this in the secondary, put it all in. The longer the beans are in contact with liquid, the more flavor is extracted. NOTE: higher alcohols extract more, so steeping in vodka for a week gets more out of the beans than just putting straight into secondary.

If you add this at bottling, you probably want to keep any sediment out and only add the liquid.

 

[jro238]

I personally think vanilla vodka is one of the most disgusting tastes known to man.....regular vodka all the way on this one.

 

[unionrdr]

I'm using plain vodka in the jar the beans came in with the beans scraped out & chopped. The insides are like a brown paste. so scrap out the insides,chop the beans,& add it all to the small amount of vodka in the little jar they come in. I filled the lil jar/beans about half way with vodka a couple days before brewing the robust porter I'll be using them in. I'll strain the liquid into the priming solution & prime the batch with that. I figured after soaking a couple weeks,the beans would give the best flavor when priming. We'll see.