Bourbon and Vanilla Porter Strategy

[RabbleRouser]

Hello all,

I know this type of recipe has been thoroughly discussed but I'm hoping I'm trying something new. If this has already been asked I apologize. I was thinking about boiling vanilla beans in some bourbon and probably some brown sugar to make a sort of vanilla bourbon syrup. Mainly because in the past I have had trouble getting the vanilla to come through, maybe I had some old beans. Also I like the idea of being able to add more bourbon flavor and boiling off the alcohol so that it doesn't add too much burn. I haven't tried it yet but I was hoping you all will be able to guide me on how much bourbon to use or if this is even a good idea. Thank you all in advance!

 

[philipCT]

Sounds delicious!

I am no expert, but I've been reading these boards to find out the best way to brew a Star Anise Stout that I'm planning and got some great advice about getting the right balance of Star Anise, a very powerful spice. Maybe this could help you get that more pronounced vanilla flavor you're looking for.

I am preparing a traditional tincture. The star anise comes as whole star-shaped flowers, dry. I dumped about an ounce into a clean pint jar with about half pint of 80 proof vodka (100 proof preferred, but shamefully I didn't have any). I'm going to let that sit for about a month. Then I will decant the liquid, filtering it through a cheesecloth, into another clean pint jar. So much for the tincture.

Then the fun begins. Into four glasses of a good, solid stout (I bought a few bottles of Sierra Nevada Stout for this), I will use a 1-CC syringe to add small amounts of tincture until I have just the flavor balance I'm looking for (almost unnoticeable - just a brightness).

Once I get the right measure, I'll just scale that up and add it to five gallons of stout in secondary.

I guess you would be adding the tincture directly to the Bourbon, or you could simply prepare the tincture using Bourbon instead of vodka. I don't know if Bourbon would extract flavor differently than vodka, but I would bet it would be pretty similar as long as you were using 80 proof plus Bourbon.

Why am I capitalizing Bourbon?

Given that by most reports, it takes a month to prepare a tincture, if I were you I might prepare two at the same time just to see the difference.

Hope this helps!