Going to brew my first Vanilla Porter soon and was wondering how everyone adds the vanilla. I’m going to be using whole vanilla beans. I’ve read where some soak the beans in vodka before adding them. Is soaking them in vodka necessary? Thanks.
Split them. Scrape out everything inside and add to secondary. Chop the pods and add to secondary.
How much do you plan to add? I’ve been debating a vanilla milk stout and I have no idea how many beans to put in.
Soaking in vodka is frequently used as a precaution before adding something to beer. It may also help to extract some vanilla flavor.
I have done both splitting and adding to the keg or secondary and splitting soaking in vodka and adding. Both have worked very well.
I’m planning on 2-3 beans.
I think I may skip the vodka the first time. I think I’ll scrape and chop as you suggest and add them about a week before I keg.
I make a vanilla porter and have always soaked them in vodka. Split, scrape and add the whole thing to secondary. I use 3 for a 5 gallon batch and it turns out great. You keep a lot more aroma with 3 than you do with 2.
Vodka at the very minimum. I’ve had this conversation with two pro brewers (including one from Sam Adams). Raw vanilla beans are absolutely loaded with bacteria. The SA guy said it’s the most troublesome ingredient they’ve ever used. Both pros pasteurize their beans in sealed containers, and then flush the whole thing into a bright tank without ever exposing the beans to air. Keeping it sealed this way they manage to keep most of the aroma, and still avoid infection.
OTOH, I’ve never used vodka or anything else to sanitize the beans and it’s never caused me any problems.
I soak mine in Maker’s Mark bourbon(about 1/2 cup) for a month, then add the liquid to the keg(or bottling bucket). It’s really a great flavor
I used 4 is 5G of stout several years ago and it came out great. I just split and threw them into secondary. I didn’t chop thinking they’d be easier to separate that way at racking.
I’m going to use vanilla sugar to prime my dunkelweizen when I bottle it in a couple of weeks. I’m shooting for a subtle effect, so I’m hoping that by adding it at bottling that the yeast won’t scrub out too much of the vanilla. I’m going to bottle a gallon’s worth with plain priming sugar for comparison. Pretty interested to see how it turns out.
Oh, I know most people get away with it, most of the time. The pros I know won’t chance it anymore. They know other pros who have had to dump batches.
Yet another advantage to being a homebrewer and not a commercial brewer…
Whatever you do, keep in mind that vanilla is a pretty unstable ingredient. The aroma fades out quickly in my experience…just means youll hafta drink more…darn!
Soaking the beans in vodka (or bourbon, for a little more interesting flavor) does the trick. I don’t like to add too much liquid, as the flavor can get overpowering. The last batch, I added one bean, split and soaked in vodka, for about a week and the vanilla flavor was just right.