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Vanilla Bourbon Porter
Do You think the vanilla will mellow out or decrease over time?
It would mellow, how much would depend on how long you let it age.
Vanilla doesn't mellow quite as much as other types of flavorings do, but it will mellow out. I was surprised at how quickly it picked up the vanilla. Denny states that he leaves the vanilla with the porter for about 11 days. I kegged mine two days ago, which was 9 days after racking to the secondary onto the vanilla. It had picked up plenty of vanilla in this time for me, but this is obviously a personal preference. I actually had a bit more of a problem with the prevalence of the alcohol more than I did with the vanilla.
The basic porter recipe included is pretty good (at least during my sampling), and I could easily see making this without the vanilla or bourbon.
I'd like to add this recipe to my list of "to tries" as well...can you tell me how it turned out?
It came out very well. I really do enjoy it. A good bourbon is definitely worth it, as you can really pick it up through the porter.
Agree with Norcalnewb, it was an excellent recipe. I used Markers Mark in mine and two vanilla beans from Whole Foods. To be honest, this actually tasted better mixed with my Pumpkin ale, but they were both great by themselves.
DT
Shouldn't you boil or soak the beans in alcohol before racking the beer onto them? To cut down on the risk of infection?
I used Maker's Mark in one I did as well. I like the idea of the brown and munich malts in there. I used a pound of oats and I think an ounce and half of American Oak chips that I charred with a blow torch. Mmm, damn good!
How much Burbon would you use for a 5gal batch? I suck at convertions.
Doolee wrote:
How much Burbon would you use for a 5gal batch? I suck at convertions.
The trick to answer this qestion is how long do you plan to keep the beer aging and how soon to drink? I have made Dennys recipe several times, adjusting the amount of vanilla and the amount of bourbon. Both of these will mellow out over time to the point where they will just be background notes, not full flavors.
So IMHO it is OK to overdo this just a tad, so you can enjoy them at their peak (maybe a month in the bottle, maybe 2) and if it is too strong, wait 6 months and retry . But if you crack one open 3 weeks after bottling and think its just right, then it will be gone when you get to finish the last of the batch.
With that, I use 3 vanilla beans in 1 cup of bourbon. The original recipe calls for 2 beans, and when you multiply out 10ml X 50 bottles (avg yield for 5 gallon batch, you get 500ml, or 1/2 liter, very close to 1 standard pint or 2 cups. This gives a really warm alcohol flavor that I think is off balance even with aging. When splitting the beans lengthwise and scraping the pods out, as well as adding the now scraped pods to the bourbon. I let that soak a few days, and it almost makes a flavor infused bourbon, then I just dump all that into the secondary and rack on top.
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