Using Vanilla Bean

[tomandjeanie]

I have a recipe that calls for adding a vanilla bean (scraped) to the primary and then another to the keg. I don't really see any way I can do this in a sanitary fashion. Trying to decide if I should dip it in sanitizer before putting it in...thoughts?

 

[bruteforce]

I have a recipe that calls for adding a vanilla bean (scraped) to the primary and then another to the keg. I don't really see any way I can do this in a sanitary fashion. Trying to decide if I should dip it in sanitizer before putting it in...thoughts?

I always just soak it in vodka for a few days then dump the bean and vodka in together.

 

[m00ps]

I like to chop it up, cover in water, and boil for a minute to sanitize and quickly extract flavor. I then dump the entire mixture into the fermenter

 

[unionrdr]

I use fresh vanilla beans in my Snowbound porter. I split, scrape & chop 2 beans & put them in the small jar they came in with vodka to cover. Seal it up & set it aside during primary. Then strained it into the priming solution. I felt I'd get the most flavor & longevity this way. Worked quite well, but a bunch of the celery seed-size beans got into the bottles. It would've been better to pur the resulting solution through a coffee filter into the priming solution to keep the tiny beans out of the bottles.

 

[arnobg]

I split in half, scrape the seeds, then cut into 1/4's in length. Take all of the resulting bean and seeds and soak them in vodka or bourbon depending on the beer they go in for 2-4 weeks in a mason jar. When it is time to dump them into the beer I put a sanitized paint strainer over the top of the jar and dump the solution in. The strainer holds back everything very well.

 

[tomandjeanie]

Thanks everybody, I appreciate all the great ideas!

 

[IslandLizard]

+1 to scraping and cutting up then soaking in vodka, bourbon, or rum. You can even add a few pieces of oak to it for some barrel flavor.

But add the whole contents to your primary/secondary. There's a lot of flavor left in the skin and seed pulp, don't waste it! When racking, tie a piece of muslin or voile (fine mesh hop bag, whatever) to the bottom of the racking cane/siphon.

 

[wyccad915]

I just did a stout where I added vanilla beans. I soaked 3 chopped up beans in vodka for about 5 days and when I added the mixture, it smelt great. I would do this over the boiling water method any day.

 

[Quaker]

I just split and dropped one into a keg of my annual my RIS. When I saw this post, I recalled I should have soaked in booze first - which is what I've done previous times I've used them. I was in hasty excitement after just buying them on the way home from work. Hopefully the 11% alcohol present will cover my ass.

 

[hotwatermusic]

I also use the tincture method. The one time I tried to be all cavalier and chuck the scraped bean innards in a porter, I ended up with a gusher. A week or two in just enough vodka to cover it is all it takes.

 

[Rhetorik]

+1 to scraping and cutting up then soaking in vodka, bourbon, or rum. You can even add a few pieces of oak to it for some barrel flavor.

This is what I did for a milk stout. Soaked the vanilla beans and oak cubes in about 6oz of bourbon for a week then poured the whole thing into secondary.

 

[unionrdr]

Sitting here drinking some Oculto 25oz cans, I just got the idea to do maybe a brown with a lil vanilla & white oak soaked in tequila? Things that make ya go hm...

 

[tomandjeanie]

So I didn't have time to do the vodka thing since I was brewing today, so I split it, scraped it, and boiled it in water for a couple minutes. Then just threw it into the primary. Seems like it should work...we'll see. Thanks again everybody.