St Pats Vanilla Porter

[Wings_Fan_In_KC]

Malts
1.87 lb St Pats Irish Stout
1.50 lb Briess Light Pilsen DME
.25 lb Crystal 40 (steeped)

Hops
Cluster .25 oz at @ 15 Min
.
Willamette .25 oz @ 0 Min (Dry Hop a few days before bottling)
2-3 Vanilla Beans infused into 1/2 cup of vodka for 1 week (Add with dry hops)




Still toying with this one. Anyone in the Collective see anything that's a terrible idea?

[BeerRust]

Malts
1.87 lb St Pats Irish Stout
1.50 lb Briess Light Pilsen DME
.25 lb Crystal 40 (steeped)

Hops
Cluster .25 oz at @ 15 Min
.
Willamette .25 oz @ 0 Min (Dry Hop a few days before bottling)
2-3 Vanilla Beans infused into 1/2 cup of vodka for 1 week (Add with dry hops)




Still toying with this one. Anyone in the Collective see anything that's a terrible idea?

Pumpkin would be a nice addition!......


Actually sounds awesome ......

[MadBrewer]

Looks good to me. I'm starting to like Cluster as a bittering hop. Willamette always goes nice in late additions with dark beers. I guess the only think I would do differently would use Amber DME or Golden in place of Pilsen just to get more flavor. It depends on how much vanilla you want to come through, but I've heard 2-3 beans being enough for a 5 gallon batch so that will be something to watch and taste it to your liking. Is the vodka soaking really necessary, I've always heard of people tossing them in the 2ndary no problem and to also split them open and cut them into quarters to get all that goodness out of the beans.

I'm thinking of doing some vanilla beans in a Porter I'm doing myself. I really like Breckenridge Vanilla Porter.

[Wings_Fan_In_KC]

Is the vodka soaking really necessary

I don't know but it sounds fun!

LOL

[Wings_Fan_In_KC]

This one's up next weekend.

I've now got Fuggles on hand and I didn't when first posting this.

Would Fuggles go better as late addition than Willamette for a Vanilla Porter?

Newest hops acquisitions include:

Perle
Tetts
Galena
Fuggles
Columbus
Saaz

I think I'll stick with Cluster to bitter and maybe swicth to Fuggles for late additions unless someone thinks that's a horrid plan??

Thanks - let me know!

[Wings_Fan_In_KC]

Decided to stick with Willamette on the dry hop. The only reasoning is the Willamette hops were already opened and resealed once and I wanted to keep the Fuggles unopened in their vac-pak.

Brew day went off without a hitch. The wort on this one was dark and rich. I cannot wait to bottle, condition and drink this one.

I stuck with the pilsner DME since it's my understanding that a porter was originally a hybrid between a stout and a milder, lighter ale.

Have the LBK in the wine chiller at 65F and it's been a slow starter but I see krausen starting to builk this morning after limited (if any) activity overnight.

[asnider]

This sounds like a great brew. If it turns out well for you, I may just try it myself.

[Wings_Fan_In_KC]

I'm adding the vanilla to the secondary today.

[Wings_Fan_In_KC]

Actually I misspoke, I'm not doing a "secondary" as in racking the brew. I added the vanilla to the LBK during the secondary fermentation phase......yeah, that's what I meant.

I gently stirred the vanilla in (decided to use pure extract rather than soaking beans) with a sanitized spoon and tasted what was left on the spoon when I was done. Nice robust flavor so I'm hoping the vanilla melds in there over the next week.

Most of what I read says you don't have to worry too much about the extract since it's vanilla and alcohol but I heated it up in a double boiler to 150 and held it there. After it cooled, I added it.

Excited as I've never done this type of addition before!

[BrownstotheBone]

Sounds cool. Can't wait to hear how it comes out.

[Wings_Fan_In_KC]

Bottled this one last weekend and the bottling sample was great. The vanilla part is subject to your own taste though.......in any recipe that uses it. As my first attempt at a vanilla porter and due to the fact that I love vanilla and didn't want myself or anyone else to be saying, "is there vanilla in this?" I went ahead and put 3/4 of the 2 ounces of pure extract I had into the LBK about a week and a half before bottling. Some people might go for less than that if they only want a "hint" of vanilla.

In my sample, the flavor came out nicely but wasn't (in my opinion) overpowering. I know that over time it might dissipate so I'd rather have it stronger up front and then wane over time. Going to let these condition for 4 weeks and try one but I know that 6 to 8 weeks is going to be the sweet spot on it since the base was a St Pats Stout. The hops bitterness of the Cluster is about right and there is some aroma from the Willamette hops and the vanilla.

I didn't get a real heavy body sense from the sample (or as Dave says "chewy") but that was straight out of the spigot prior to bottling. I got eighteen 1/2 liter bottles out of the batch - ten swing tops and eight 1/2 liter PETS.