Doc's Imperial Vanilla Bourbon Porter

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Vanilla extract, not essence, is the go. Add as little or as much as you want in the keg with the bourbon. Every time I have brewed with vanilla beans I just can't get the taste out of them. Cheaper too.

Cheers.
 
Vanilla extract, not essence, is the go. Add as little or as much as you want in the keg with the bourbon. Every time I have brewed with vanilla beans I just can't get the taste out of them. Cheaper too.

Cheers.

Hi Duff,

How much extract do you tend to use per 19/L keg ?
I have tried adding it to a glass of Porter/stout in the past but find that I would need a few bottles to equal the flavour that I was getting in the glass.
And you are right essence is not good.

Cheers
 
Hi Dicko,

Not a great deal, only around the 20ml mark.

The vanilla extract comes from up the road from here at Daintree Vanilla

They are now one of the only growers of vanilla beans in Australia and are sold at the local markets in Port Douglas on Sunday. The grower was telling me one day that the CSIRO tested them and his vanilla has around 5 times the concentration of the beans imported which he is very pleased, so a little goes a long way. Let me know if you can't find it down your way.

Cheers.
 
Hi Dicko,

Not a great deal, only around the 20ml mark.

The vanilla extract comes from up the road from here at Daintree Vanilla

They are now one of the only growers of vanilla beans in Australia and are sold at the local markets in Port Douglas on Sunday. The grower was telling me one day that the CSIRO tested them and his vanilla has around 5 times the concentration of the beans imported which he is very pleased, so a little goes a long way. Let me know if you can't find it down your way.

Cheers.

Thanks for that info Duff,

I have had a quick look on the website but they dont seem to mention bottles of extract being available.
I will have a look around down here to see what I can find.

Cheers
 
I trialled extract, essence, imitation vanilla and beans for a RIS I did. I liked the beans, but the cost to get the flavour in a 19L keg is prohibitve, so I went for extract.
 
I trialled extract, essence, imitation vanilla and beans for a RIS I did. I liked the beans, but the cost to get the flavour in a 19L keg is prohibitve, so I went for extract.

Hi Kirem,

What brand of extract did you use?

I have experimented with "Queen" brand extract and it gave off a real licorice flavour and on the label it says it contains fructose, glucose, extract of vanilla beans, water, and preservative 202.

The Queen brand essence is imitation vanilla and contains a host of undesirables.

Unfortunately according to my wife, the Queen brand is the only type available to me in Port Lincoln, even the two vanilla beans I just bought were Queen brand.

The Daintree Vanilla site looks interesting and their beans are a lot cheaper that buying the ones from Woolworths

Cheers
 
I think I will go with the beans for it.

The chocolate malt will have to be JWM I think as that seems to be lighter, with that much of the british choc malts its up at 100ebc
I have JWM choc given as 750ebc which puts the beer in at 85 ebc odd, that seems much more reasonable.

Reading through the thread a little more is another change it should be 1lb medium 1/2lb dark crystal for 5,5gallons, which also seems more reasonable.
 
I am just about to bottle a 23L SMOTYish toucan in which I infused some vanilla. I used half a vanilla bean which I chopped up and soaked in about 30mL of vodka for two weeks. I pitched it into the beer at the start of the primary ferment. The beer has a distinct (but not overpowering) vanilla smell and a very faint taste, exactly what I was looking for.

In terms of getting beans, its worth trying a Euro/Italian bulk grocer. For those in Sydney there is one at St Lenoards that sells 10 Tahitian beans for $8 a pack. They are nice and moist, dunno why they are so cheap?
 
Hi Duff,

How much extract do you tend to use per 19/L keg ?
I have tried adding it to a glass of Porter/stout in the past but find that I would need a few bottles to equal the flavour that I was getting in the glass.
And you are right essence is not good.

Cheers

This revival of Doc's old post (Thanks Jayse) comes just in time as I'm about to rack my first Vanilla Mocha Porter to secondary tomorrow & am still having 2 bob each way whether to add my two (Diced) vanilla beans to secondary or to add Queen Vanilla EXTRACT to the keg?
TTBOMK dicing up vanilla beans & then soaking them in vodka for a day or two = vanilla extract & adds much more flavour to the Porter than just tossing in the vanilla beans themselves so adding the extract is the way I'm leaning ATM.

Duff & others,
If you added 20ml of Daintree vanilla extract (Daintree vanilla sounds VERY interesting) how much Queen vanilla extract do you reckon should be added to the keg as a starting point?

TP
 

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