Vanilla Beans

[Tex083]

I spake 2 beans in 700mls of Absolute Vodka and drank it on ice was amazing!
If your in Brunswick look up Savour Chocolate and Patisserie School, they sell beans by the 100g bags about $50 last time I checked but you got over 50 beans so works out cheaper than Coles.
I would split the bean in 2 and soak in Vodka and add to finished wort, maybe at the bulk prime stage.
The vodka will turn brown but the taste will be there.

 

[tipsy]

You can get them on ebay relatively cheap

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Vanilla-Beans-6-x-12cm-Grade-New-Guinea-/301082262282?pt=AU_Food&hash=item4619e6bb0a

 

[1974Alby]

so I ended up scraping out 5 beans and putting them with their cut -up casings into about 1/2 a cup of 12yo Canadian Club (dont drink vodka and wasnt going to buy it for this)...that will now soak for a week or two and rack the choc-porter onto it in secondary....Dont think the canadian club will add much in this small volume, but if it does, so much the better!

 

[LiquidGold]

Pretty keen to hear how the vanilla canadian club turned out. Any updates?

 

[ScubaSteve15]

What brand of extract have people used?

 

[1974Alby]

a belated update...the choc-vanilla porter I made using 250g cocoa powder in the boil and 5 vanilla beans soaked in canadian club in secondary was one of my greatest brewing triumphs and despite trying to make it last, I simply couldn't resist it and the keg was inhaled rather quickly. Really nicely balanced levels of chocolate and vanilla...Unfortunatley I let this success go to my head and upped the cocoa to 375g on the next attempt...Definately a case of less is more. The taste was described by some as Quick! still have half a keg of it cos while its drinkable, its just not very appealing!

 

[ScubaSteve15]

Update, added 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract to the secondary of a coopers Robochoc kit. No vanilla aroma or flavour, more next time.

 

[TheWiggman]

I've got a vanilla bourbon stout fermenting at present with the following (13l) -
3.150 kg pale
0.705 kg Vienna
0.320 kg Brown malt
0.225 kg chocolate malt
0.125 kg dark crystal

Northern Brewer for bittering, Challenger late to 36 IBU. Fermenting with West Yorkshire Ale.

1 vanilla pod, added at 4 days for 1 week
230ml of bourbon added at bottling.

Now the query is: I found a vanilla pod left over from my wife's cooking. It's in a nice, small PET canister. Based on the above info I cleanded it, sanitised it, then filled it with bourbon and dropped the pod in to soak. I'll add this tomorrow as the ferment is slowing down.
Is this the right approach? I've never done the vodka soak thing so I assume bourbon will perform the same way.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Cant see an issue, just soak the pod in a small amount of bourbon for a bit then throw the whole lot in the fermenter.

Bourbon should kill any nasties but wont add any flavour to the beer

 

[Black n Tan]

Personally I would add the tincture at bottling or kegging. No reason to let the yeast drag down the vanilla goodness. A few extra days in the bourbon will extract more flavour IMO, so another reason to hold off.

 

[TheWiggman]

Duly noted. I think I'll chuck it in with the bulk prime and bourbon.