So I'm looking to add a hint of vanilla to a stout. Now, I know that adding vanilla bean to a bag of regular table sugar results in vanilla flavored(ish) sugar. What I want to know is if that vanilla sugar is added to my boil, will it give off part of the vanilla flavor while providing extra (fermentable) sugar for the yeast? Or will this do nothing at all? I've never worked with vanilla bean before and only am looking a subtle hint of vanilla flavor into the stout. Thanks for the help!
If you want vanilla flavor in your beer why not just add vanilla to your beer? Why add the extra step of putting the vanilla into the sugar and then putting the sugar into the beer?
^^^That. Also, take 2 beans. Take a knife and split the bean down the middle long wise. Throw the 4 halves in the stout after it's hit FG. This can all be done in a primary fermenter. Give it a week. Taste. Give it another two days and taste.... I don't think that you'll want more than 2 weeks. Vanilla can get cloying and it is NOT a flavor that will settle out in the beer. If you go too far, you'll have to brew a second beer to blend into your vanilla bomb. It's funny how your mistakes just keep feeding the monkey. After you've racked, I'd still try to get some use out of the beans. Wash them off and put them in some high grade vodka or maybe some rum. Ball jar it up and let it sit for a few months. You've got vanilla extract for life. It has to be high grade booze. If shit goes in, shit comes out.
I used 2 beans for 2 weeks in secondary with my 1.114 og imperial stout. It is very vanilla forward. If you want subtle I would use one bean and taste it at one week.
I suppose adding sugar infused vanilla could help you control how much vanilla you add, once you have an understanding of how much vanilla flavor is in the sugar. It might take some experimentation, or maybe you would get lucky and whatever you add would be just the right amount. A better approach could be to infuse some vodka and add dropwise to a glass of finished beer until you hit the desired level of vanilla, then scale up the addition to batch size.
