Vanilla Bourbon Porter - Thoughts

[ScrewyBrewer]

I plan to flavor 5 gallons of an American Porter that I brewed 2 weeks ago with vanilla beans soaked in Bourbon. The 2 vanilla beans I have came packaged in a glass tube and cost just under $9.00! I had no idea they would co$t so much. Having never done this before what is the best way to go about it?

I was thinking about splitting the beans open, scraping the seeds out, cutting the beans into 1 inch lengths and soaking that in 4 ounces of Bourbon for a week. The beer is going to be transferred to a corny keg tomorrow, refrigerated and carbonated for 7 days. I plan to pour the by now flavored Bourbon, without the beans or seeds, right into the corny keg and hope for the best.

I'd like to hear what The Borg thinks of this approach, and any suggestions they may have.

[Beer-lord]

I did a vanilla stout once and used 2 beans, split but I kept all the guts. I put them in vodka for 24 hours and my only complaint was that the aroma seemed to last but the vanilla flavor waned out pretty quickly. Now I can't recall if I put them in the fermenter a few days before kegging or in the keg when transferred and can't find my notes but I do remember thinking 2 were not enough. However, you're using bourbon so that's going to add lots of flavor so 2 is likely just right.
Sorry, I can see that I'm not much help!

[Dawg LB Steve]

The consensus that I've read on different sites has been split, scrap, cut and soak, then add the tincture. Might extract more flavor if you soak for a week, I know the longer I left the cinnamon in the vodka the more aroma and flavor came thru.

[LouieMacGoo]

When I used vanilla beans in my Citra-Nilla IPA and a Vanilla Stout I did I just sliced the beans length-wise then cut them into about 1 inch pieces then boiled them for about 5 minutes in a cup of water.

Below is a recipe that one of my Homebrew club members shared with me. This is a great recipe that he makes quite often. At the bottom of the recipe is how he handles the vanilla and bourbon.
Vanilla Bourbon Porter

Recipe specifics:

Style: Baltic Porter
Batch size: 5.0 gal
Boil volume: 6.0 gal
OG: 1.086
FG: 1.022
Bitterness (IBU): 35.0
Color (SRM): 43.8
ABV: 8.5%

Grain/Sugars:

11.00 lb Two-row (Canadian), 62.9%
2.50 lb Munich (German), 14.3%
1.50 lb Brown Malt (British), 8.6%
1.00 lb Crystal 120L, 5.7%
1.00 lb Chocolate Malt (US), 5.7%
0.50 lb Crystal 40L, 2.9%

Hops:

0.75 oz Magnum (AA 14.0%, Pellet) 60 min, 29.8 IBU
1.00 oz Kent Golding (AA 5.0%, Pellet) 10 min, 5.1 IBU

Yeast/Misc:

California Ale yeast, 1.0 unit(s), Yeast
After primary fermentation is complete, prepare a tea of 1 cup water brought to a boil, then reduce heat and add 2 vanilla beans. Steep for 5 minutes to kill any nasties. Chill tea and pour in secondary.
Rack fermented wort onto vanilla tea. Let sit 2 weeks.
When ready to bottle/keg, add 11 ounces of bourbon to bottling bucket/keg and rack beer from secondary onto the bourbon.

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[MadBrewer]

I think your plan sounds good. I th8nk 2 beans is the starting point. Also dont be afraid of vanilla extract if you feel it needs more. There are some very good extracts out there. I believe extracts produce more flavor impact tban aroma. The real beans produce lots of aroma but seem mellower in the beer. I like a good Vanilla Porter, I can do without the bourbon or oak that is also popular.

[ScrewyBrewer]

Today I cut 2 vanilla beans into 1 inch sections after scraping the seeds out, then covered them all with 1.5 ounces of Blanton's Bourbon. Tomorrow I'll keg the beer then wait until next weekend to dump the tincture in a 5 gallon batch. I like the ideas posted by the Borg, it's a good reminder about pure vanilla extract to increase the flavor.

[mashani]

I'll just add in case some newbie reads this... do not use cheap artificial vanilla extract if you go that route. That will taste... fake... at best... in the finished product.

[ScrewyBrewer]

I'll just add in case some newbie reads this... do not use cheap artificial vanilla extract if you go that route. That will taste... fake... at best... in the finished product.

Great point to mention, using pure vanilla extract is definitely the way to go.

Here is the tincture yesterday after putting the beans, seeds and bourbon in a glass. This morning its so dark that you can't even see the beans without holding it up to a bright light. This is the first time trying this but I wonder how much more benefit soaking for 1, 2 or 3 weeks would make, since it looks and smells really strong after 1 day?

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[ScrewyBrewer]

Last night I added the vanilla bean/bourbon tincture to 5 gallons of American Porter. The 2 beans soaked in 1.5 ounces of bourbon for 5 days at room temperature to extract the vanilla flavor. Before pouring just the bourbon into the keg, I didn't add the beans for fear of clogging the beer pickup tube, I cold crashed the tincture by putting it in the freezer for 4 hours.

After chewing on the bourbon soaked beans left at the bottom of the glass I noticed they tasted like black licorice, to me that was an interesting flavor and not expected to come from bourbon soaked vanilla beans. The real flavor taste testing will have to wait until the weekend, when I sample a taster first thing in the morning. Based on what I find a little more bourbon may be added, or tablespoon of pure vanilla extract, time will tell.

American Porter-1a.jpg (76.04 KiB) Viewed 7648 times

[ScrewyBrewer]

My son in law and I sampled both the straight up American Porter and the 5 gallon batch with the bourbon and vanilla beans in it. I like the straight Porter more right now, I think the bourbon batch may need a few weeks to mellow out yet. There isn't a lot of vanilla flavor that I noticed though, I may have to add a teaspoonful of pure vanilla extract to enhance the flavor a bit.

[ScrewyBrewer]

Just an update on the American Porter, the version without the bourbon and vanilla bean flavorings won 1st place in our North vs South homebrewing competition last night. Next month it'll go on to represent our Monmouth County NJ club in the final round judging with the winner of the Ocean County NJ home brew club. As for the bourbon vanilla batch, its still conditioning in the keg at 36F. It's true what they say, it doesn't take much bourbon, I added just 1.5 ounces to 5 gallons of Porter, to add a lot of bourbon flavor.

[Beer-lord]

Congrats Vince. Best of luck on the next round.
I've not found the vanilla lasting all that long so drink those quick to enjoy the flavor and aroma.

[ScrewyBrewer]

Congrats Vince. Best of luck on the next round.
I've not found the vanilla lasting all that long so drink those quick to enjoy the flavor and aroma.

Funny you should mention it Paul, I still have a 5 gallon keg of bourbon porter I haven't tasted in nearly 2 weeks. Before leaving for vacation I remembered the bourbon flavor as being prominent, I may add a tablespoon of pure vanilla extract this weekend it I feel it needs it.

[Hayzer]

I'll just add in case some newbie reads this...

Great point to mention, using pure vanilla extract is definitely the way to go.

Here is the tincture yesterday after putting the beans, seeds and bourbon in a glass.

Bringing up an old thread here, because of the roll-out of Vanilla Crown Royal. What if we soaked the two Vanilla Beans in this new Crown Royal Vanilla that is on the market? I was wondering if pouring a couple ounces in the tube with both beans, allowing it to soak for several days and adding that to the secondary would give us more vanilla flavor that might not wain as it aged in the bottles?