Hey guys,
I’m making a Dry Dock Urca Vanilla Porter and have the vanilla beans split, scraped, chopped and sitting nicely in a few shots of bourbon.
I don’t do secondary fermenting, so planning just to add the mixture to the primary a week prior to bottling. However, I’m conscious the beans and gunk may simply sink to the bottom and rest in the trub, lessening its impact on the flavour of the beer.
Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Chris
I would think the majority of the vanilla flavor would be extracted into the bourbon. My vote would be don’t worry about it for this batch.
Maybe you can make another tincture to hold for bottling day. If you want more, it’s there, if not, hey, vanilla bourbon. Worst case, dump it in a can of coke.
I don’t see any difference between doing what you are describing and just adding the tincture at bottling. The gunk isnt’ where the flavor is. You are using the alcohol in the bourbon as a solvent to extract the liquid-soluble compounds from the gunk, so you could theoretically discard the gunk. I’ll stop saying gunk now.
Thank you Gentlemen. I like the idea of making another tincture to add when bottling, just in case a flavour boost is required. Much appreciated.
