Vanilla and cinnamon additions

[chadm817]

Brewed a vanilla milk stout and added 4 vanilla beans to the secondary. I used Madagascar beans.

I think everyone thought it was going to be too much vanilla but I really didn't even notice the vanilla in the 5 gallon batch.

My question is: I am going to make a cinnamon vanilla porter. It have never used cinnamon sticks.

Will two cinnamon sticks to the secondary be enough?

I also was planning on 4 or 5 vanilla beans.

Thanks!

 

[zmanzorro]

How are you cutting the vanilla beans? I've used 2 whole beans in a 5 gallon batch and thought it was too much. Cutting them lengthwise allows the most surface area for flavor extraction.

 

[chadm817]

Cutting them length wise and each bean into thirds

 

[r2eng]

Not really answering your question, but keep in mind - sneak-up on your amounts. Sounds like you are doing it right. As long as your base beer is good, lower amounts of adjuncts are OK. It's still drinkable!

I added way too much spice one time and dumped it! Stupid mistake!

My vanilla beers have the beans added in the last 5-minutes of the boil. One bean, scraped, was pretty strong! It may be better to boil it. Keep us posted.

 

[Sbarnard80]

Cutting them length wise and each bean into thirds

Agree with r2eng, scrape out the mealy center where all the flavor comes from and getting some heat on it like at the end of the boil should help it dissolve.

Regarding the cinnamon sticks, same goes for them putting into the hot wort. Don't know the exact number of sticks per the amount of heat time but I made a tea with 2 sticks and boiled for a few minutes for a recent Xmas ale and it turned out with a good amount of cinnamon flavor.