Vanilla Beans & a Whiskey Barrel

Hey Kyle. Good to see you on the forum. When the barrel is freshest, it will leech oak flavor faster than after you use it two or three times. I wouldn't be afraid to take tastings every couple of weeks. This is especially true if you have extra to top off with. As for the vanilla beans, I can't emphasize it enough, you need to drop some money on some quality stuff. I'm talking Tahiti shit. Stay away from the $3 Brewers Best. Two beans should be enough if you split them in half and toss them in. I'd do this at the end. It could take 2 weeks. It could take a month, after adding a third bean. I know it takes about four beans and 5 or 6 months to make a pint of vanilla extract in vodka. It just depends on how prominent you want the flavor. More flavor, more time. I'd have a few extra beans on hand to toss in there in case the oak flavor starts to run away with the show. If you have to cram six beans in there, you can recover them and throw them at some vodka when you're done.

 

I've only added vanilla beans (cheap brewers best) that sat in a carboy for several months. The flavor wasn't overpowering. I actually diced them like small green onion chunks. If you plan on adding them to a barrel (and pulling them eventually), I might suspend them in the barrel via fishing line or floss.

Just like anytime questions like these come up, I always advocate starting with a smallish amount and tasting along the way. There are no definitive answers that I've come across for timing or amounts. I think you'd find the same answer from commercial breweries as well.

Cheers!

 

Yes, vanilla/rye makes for a delicious concoction. I did a rye whiskey porter (was around 7% abv though), and just made a mixture of 2 oz oak cubes, 12 oz good rye whiskey, and 2 bourbon vanilla beans. Let it sit on that mixture for about a month and a half and got good results with the vanilla coming through. It sounds like you've got the upper hand though, having a rye whiskey barrel and all.. Wish I had rye whiskey barrels show up on my porch!

I think 2-3 vanilla beans, with 1-1/2 months time will give you the flavor you're looking for, but just keep on tasting it throughout. I'm sure it'll taste awesome nonetheless.

 

I just racked my brandy vanilla dark lord clone out the brandy barrel and thus, at least have some experience with what you're planning to do. I just scraped the goo from 4 beans and threw that into the 12.5 gallon brandy barrel about a week after racking. The beer sat in the barrels with the goo for ~3-4 months (can't remember off top of my head), and has turned out perfectly, albeit with a medium-high amount of vanilla flavor (per my tasting notes on actual vanilla brandy dark lord).

I did not throw in the shells because I was worried about picking up that waxy mouthfeel and suntan lotion flavor that some vanilla beers I've tried have. Since I didn't pick up this off flavor, I'm considering what I did a success and feel ok about recommending it to someone else.

 

Some great info in this thread guys. I'm just curious for those that have them, where did you aquire your barrels and how much did that run you?

My neighbor and I are considering bourbon barrel aging a Xocoveza clone we're brewing.

 

I have never owned one personally. If you can get a 5+ gallon barrel for about $150, you're doing something right. If you have any local distilleries, you can see if they're willing to unload one that's well used.

It's a great idea to go in with a friend on the price. You can both brew some big batches and throw them both into a large barrel for secondary.

 

Thanks, sounds great. I'm really looking forward to it.

 

For my Vanilla Porter I used two whole vanilla beans for our 5 gallon batch, not sure where my partner got them from, slit them open and added to the carboy for fermentation. It left a wonderful vanilla note in my beer, but not over powering at all. I would think if you are aging in a barrel three beans should be the right amount.

Good luck!

 

For my previous barrel aged beer with vanilla I waited until the barrel character was getting close to the level desired. At that point I added the beans (uganda beans from beanilla.com) because the flavor extraction of the beans is initially quite fast. You can get better efficiency aging with the beans, but I was looking to nail a flavor profile, not get the most out of each bean. Over the course of 2 weeks I added beans until it was where I wanted, then kegged the beer. You need to gauge how quickly your barrel is pulling oak and whiskey flavor. If it is quite fast you may not have 2 weeks to test, but 1 week should be fine.

I'd have to check my notes, but I think I ended up using 2.5 beans/5 gallons

One final tip, I've found that letting the whiskey barrel character go a little past where you would like it will result in a better packaged product because the whiskey character will fade with time. Especially if you can't purge your package.