Dry Dock Urca Vanilla Porter Pro Series All-Grain Kit

Mashing
1

Has anyone brewed this beer yet? I’m just wondering if I need to sanitize the vanilla beans before adding them to the secondary.

2

I have not made that particular beer. I have made a couple of vanilla porters. Split and scrape the bean. Add directly to the beer after fermentation is done. Primary or secondary.

3

I just brewed the Urca this weekend. I know the directions say to add the beans to the secondary and to let it sit a week, but is there any reason I couldn’t just add them to the keg after the primary?

4

claikens, you will want to contain them in something to avoid plugging the poppits. The toe of a new panty hose will work well.

5

Sometimes I just scraped them then add everything. I have also scraped then soaked them in a couple oz of vodka then dumped the whole thing in. Both have worked, neither has caused a problem.

I usually just add them directly to the keg. I don’t put them in a bag or anything just dump them in. Never caused any problems for me, but that doesn’t mean it can’t.

6

Thanks guys. I’ll keep that in mind. I guess it’s time to go buy some pantyhose.

7

Bottled this March 23. Followed the AG directions with the kit, hit OG right on. Have been sampling occasionally & still tastes like vinegar. This is the first of about 8 different AG kits I’ve done that was not delicious. Is there any hope or dump it? Any idea waht may have gone wrong?

8

I made that kit recently… I did not sanitize the beans… Just cut them up, with sanitized scissors, and dumped them in… Did Not have any sanitation issues due to the alcohol in the beer…

If I made it again however, I would cut them up and soak them in vodka before dumping it… Apparently that will extract more of the vanilla flavor. When I made this beer and just put the beans straight in, the vanilla flavor wasn’t as pronounced as I wanted…

9

To answer a couple of the questions on here:

  1. If you want a stronger vanilla character, yes you can split/scrape/soak the vanilla beans in vodka or grain alcohol and then add this extract to the keg or bottling bucket. You probably want to add small amounts and taste as you go, otherwise you could possibly end up drinking something thats so vanilla-y that its unpalatable.

  2. If your beer tastes like vinegar, then you have acetic acid present. This could be due to either massive cold side aeration after fermentation or an acetobacter infection. If it is acetobacter, then the amount of acetic acid in the beer will increase over time. Sanitation and/or racking procedures need to be improved in these situations.

Enjoy!