vanilla beans

Rum sanitizes them nicely. My first vanilla porter I put two unsplit beans in the last 15min of the boil and it added a little flavor. The second time I split them and it made a bigger difference. I haven't tried putting them in the secondary although I have an RIS in the fermenter right now that could use some bean and nib action.

 

I have a couple soaking in 1/4 cup of Maker's Mark bourbon right now. When I brew my porter I'll pour the bourbon into the keg and throw the beans away. It give the beer a very slight hint of bourbon but a nice dose of vanilla. And I normally don't like vanilla flavor in anything.

 

I take the beans and split them long ways down the center. Then I scrape the insides out into a mason jar with a few oz of bourbon in it and the chop the outer portion of the bean into about 1/2 inch long sections and toss that in with the gunk. I let that sit for a few days to a week then add the whole thing to the beer after primary fermentation is complete. I find I need more vanilla beans than others suggest, its all a game of learning your ingredients and tastes.

 

Ditto. If its a big stout its typically 3-4 beans / 5 gallons, although I use vodka instead of bourbon because its cheaper.

If you're going to add directly to your beer, wait till fermentation has finished and add the beans to minimize scrubbing of vanilla aromatics and to aid in extraction (alcohol helps). I've tried adding at flame out and it really doesn't produce much vanilla flavor.

EDIT. If throwing in a whole pie, you can skip the vanilla when using pumpkin or pecan as there tends to be a good deal of vanilla in those pie varietals.

 

I've got a similar situation coming up. On Sunday, we brewed a big imperial porter (OG 1.11) and I plan to add vanilla beans and coffee to secondary. I've read that the best way to do this is to add 2-4 whole beans split down the middle with the gunk scraped-out and disposed of, and the beans cut into quarters. Thoughts about this? How long will I want to soak the beans in vodka beforehand?

 

What are you brewing and how do you want it to taste?

 

The gunk is where most of the flavor is, so don't dispose of the gunk unless you want a vanilla-less vanilla beer.

Standard protocol is split bean down middle, scoop out gunk, cut up beans and add gunk and cut beans to bourbon/vodka/spirit of choice, age for a couple days to a week and toss mixture in at bottling or kegging to taste.

Do you know how you're going to add the coffee? If doing cold press and adding cold pressed, I'd add right at bottling/kegging, as you don't want the coffee sitting around. If dry beaning, add beans (coarsely crushed in muslin bag) for 24 - 48 hours, rack beer to bottling bucket or keg.

 

I haven't decided yet about how to add the coffee. I'm concerned about head retention issues from the oils in the beans, and therefore I was thinking I'd probably brew the coffee, cool it, and add it. I haven't looked into the proper amount to add yet either - any suggestions? I'm figuring primary is going to last at least a couple weeks, so I've got some time

 

I tend to dry bean exclusively and have never had any head retention issues, in fact the head tends to be a little stronger with the coffee added in. If dry beaning 0.5-1 oz/gallon (less prevalent, more prevalent).

If adding cold pressed or brewed and cooled coffee, add it to taste. For espresso, I typically add around 12 oz per 5 gallon batch, but for cold press its all over the map due to the varying strength of the cold brewed coffee. I'd avoid doing a hot french press as you'll get much more bitterness and astringency from the coffee than doing a cold french press.

 

Good to know! I'll most-likely do this then.

 

Yea, when I make vanilla ice cream you get ALL the flavor from the stuff scraped from inside the pod.

 

I'll echo barfdiggs on this. I add 2 oz of coarse ground beans at flameout (beanstand) and let sit for about 15 minutes, and then dry bean in secondary with 2 oz coarse ground for two weeks before bottling. It has worked well for me. I plan on doing this again with some chocolate this fall when I brew the BYO mag FBS clone.

 

I'm definitely going to add coarse-ground beans to secondary. The only discrepancy I see is the amount of time in secondary. Thoughts?

 

I cant say that I have brewed many coffee stouts, just the one, but the time in secondary worked for me. I do think that I may cut the time back this go round but haven't decided.

 

It depends on what you want in the beer and the temperature you're going to dry bean at. I've tried different times, but for me, the best results have been from 24 to 48 hours at 38-40 F. I like doing it at colder temps because there is less chance for off flavors, but if cold isn't an option, 24 hours at room temp will do it.

 

Interesting. Yeah, I have a large deep freezer I usually cold-crash in. That's something I hadn't considered.

 

I'm not an expert on brewing with coffee. But if it's like most secondary flavor 'extraction' additions, you really need to taste to decide when the flavor is where you want it. Assigning some specific time frame, even one that worked for someone else, may end in disappointment.

 

and if there is no gunk on the inside the beans are too dry and probably won't give you much vanilla flavor at all. Always use fresh, high quality beans.

 

For the people who don't have a local source. I have had good luck with Vanilla Products USA. You can order their products on Amazon.