Vanilla Urca Porter question

Extract/Partial Mash Brewing
1

Brewed up the Vanilla Urca Porter partial mash kit on 11/2. Enter life. Didn’t get it to secondary yet, still sitting in primary in my water bucket rudimentary temperature control. Planning to brew this Sunday so I need the primary. I’m sure it’s done fermenting but I won’t tap this until closer to Christmas as I just got two new kegs on tap. Instructions say to add the vanilla beans one week before bottling/kegging.

Question is, should I just keg it this weekend instead of bothering with a secondary? I’m thinking yes is the right answer to that one. Second question is when to add the vanilla beans? Should I dump them into the keg immediately or wait until one or two weeks before I’m ready to put it in kegerator? I know that vanilla fades over time. Brewed this up for my sister for Christmas so hoping to make it the best I can.

:cheers:
Rad

2

Since you have time on your side, put it in the secondary with the vanilla beans for 10-14 days. Then when you keg it, put a half of a bean in the keg (new or used) which will keep the vanilla from fading. I do this all the time with BVIP and the vanilla is great for a year.

3

Thanks for the tip, I’ll give that a try.

:cheers:
Rad