Considering a change to a pumpkin-spice-vanilla recipe to bring out more flavor-
Vanilla bean seconday only (done in the past)
or: primary
or: primary and a new bean in seconday
or longer time in the secondary?
OG 1059
WLP008 East coast.
Just got done with the brew and have three vanilla beans staring at me.
Thanks - Mark S.
I wouldn’t bother with the primary as much of the aroma will be driven off by the evolving CO2. More beans in secondary. Maybe for longer. Are you slicing the beans length wise? or chopping them up? that might help. Soak in vodka/rum/bourbon. Add extract to taste as bottling time.
Having made a lot of beers with vanilla in them, I’ve found the real key is the quality of the vanilla bean. The best I’ve ever used came from hawaiianvanilla.com .
+1 high quality ingredients are always a good idea
EDIT also freshness. Vanilla beans lose flavor and aroma fairly quickly if they are not stored correctly and eventually they lose it anyway.