Greetings! I’ll be brewing Mr. Denny Conns Bourbon Vanilla Imperial Porter this weekend for a festival in October. I plan on adding the vanilla beans after primary fermentation is complete, but was thinking of adding them right to the primary bucket. Just looking to eliminate the step of transferring into a carboy. Any thoughts on this?
Should be OK, although I wouldn’t recommend leaving it in the bucket for more than 4-5 weeks total. I have to admit, though, that this is one of the few circumstances where I use a secondary. Probably OK without it, but old habits die hard.
I wouldn’t do it as you suggest. I think that active fermentation would dissipate most of the vanilla character you’re hoping to capture and the beans would be mired down in the trub and yeast.
I had a very tasty version of the BVIP at NHC that i made using a tincture for the vanillla. Take two beans (per 5 gallons), split, scrape, quarter and place in 60 ml of vodka. Cover with cellophane and a rubber band and let set in a dark cupboard at room temp for a week. Rack your beer to a secondary on top of the vanilla tincture vodka, beans, gunk and all. Ferment another week or two depending on how strong you like the flavors. Good luck and enjoy, you won’t regret trying this brew.
IMO, too much effort for no gain. Just put 'em in the fermenter. Primary (after fermentation) or secondary (my preference).
Denny! Thanks so much for the quick reply…I think I’ll just do the sure thing and transfer to secondary. Plus, if I decide to leave it a couple extra weeks then I won’t have to worry about it sitting on the primary yeast cake to long. Can’t wait to brew this and thanks again for the reply!
Not to be argumentative, but it’s really not that much effort to put the beans in a shot glass and pour a little vodka on them on brew day and set aside. I would say it may provide better vanilla extraction and also provide some degree of protection from infection from the beans. That’s some gain IMHO.
I’ve done a couple of beers w/ vanilla beans and I do as Denny does w/ his and that is to scrape them out, chop the pods up and toss it all in. I could be wrong, but the chance of infection is very small if you ad after active fermentation. From what I gather from others, fermentation changes the pH and the alcohol produced helps thwart infection. My basic vanilla porters came out great w/out any signs of infection. I didn’t use a secondary fermenter w/ this 1.052 beer.
I do like Pinski, but I soak the beans in Maker’s Mark for a week then add it all to the beer a week or so before packaging.
If you like it, do it. I tried it and found no benefits myself.
I do it this way too, but I put the beans in the bourbon the day I brew the beer and pour just the liquid into the keg when the beer is racking from the fermentor.
I could go either way on this one. There is variability among vanilla beans, and doing it as a tincture lets you add to taste. On the other hand, I know Denny uses really nice flavorful beans so it’s not like you should get too much flavor doing it his way no matter what beans you use.
While we’re discussing it, the best beans I’ve ever found are from…
Thanks for the link Denny, I’ll definitely give their products a try. I’m of the type that has a very high preference/tolerance for vanilla.
I’m about to use vanilla beans in a stout. I just want to make sure I understand correctly- you scrape the “caviar” and add it as well, correct? I guess you’re scraping it to make sure it’s fully exposed?
correct on both
Ok great, thanks Denny!
Denny- How long should they be in the beer?
Until it tastes good to you. Can’t give you a definite time since it depends on the beans you use.
Although vanilla beans are a PITA to split, I cut mine in 1"-1.5" chunks before splitting them. I have done both scraping and not scraping them out and soak in vodka for about a week, then add the tincture and all to a secondary (also one of the few times I secondary). It works for me either way.
Thanks guys! The base beer is an 8.5% Tropical Stout, that will get the vanilla and a generous amount of toasted coconut. I have two beans split and scraped, soaking in Sailor Jerry.