Vanilla wiezen question

[joepezHB]

So... I am moving my vanilla wiezen into secondary today. Recipe calls for a vanilla been pod into the carboy.

I'm curious as to how to sanitize the pod and the actual beans inside. I'm thinking of boiling but I'm worried I might boil the essence away. What do you guys think.also,

 

[joepezHB]

Would adding vanilla extract, which it does call for risk contamination? How should I sanitize that?

 

[TromboneGuy]

Soak it in some rum or bourbon. Kills most of the germs and helps pull out more flavor.

 

[TromboneGuy]

Extract is mostly alcohol, too. No contamination risk there.

 

[res291que]

Vanilla extract is usually about 35% ABV so no worries there in my opinion and experience. Also have used whole vanilla beans dunked in starsan then split, inside of bean should be clean just outside of bean needs to be sanitized.

 

[joepezHB]

Sounds great, excited.

 

[velocity]

I made a vanilla bourbon porter that used beans, I cut the beans lengthwise on one side and soaked them for two days in about 12 oz of bourbon (Maker's Mark). I then poured all the bourbon (+ another 8 or so oz to complete the recipe) into the carboy. Then I completed halving the pods and scraped them out and racked into atop all of it. I used 3 beans and didn't achieve much vanilla taste after a week or so in secondary (sat in primary for about 4 weeks). Beer turned out fantastic, just subtle vanilla set in a complex palette.