Dry hopping with vanilla beans

Riverainstruments · Joined: 08 Feb 2015 Posts: 2 Location: Walkersville, MD

Anyone willing to share your experience using vanilla beans? I have a really nice porter recipe i'd like to dry hop with vanilla beans. Just not sure how long to dry hop for. I am looking to get a similar profile as with the vanilla porter by Breckenridge brewery.

silverspoons · Joined: 21 Dec 2010 Posts: 555 Location: Webster NY

I have done so several times.. love it! dry "hop" for 5 to 7 days or as long as you're in your second fermentor. Be aware that the vanilla flavor diminishes pretty quickly. I bottle and the flavor is great for about 3 weeks and then seems to almost go away. I also have added about 3 tablespoons of good vanilla extract to the bottling bucket ( 5.5 gal batches ).. this added flavor last a bit longer.

silverspoons

Riverainstruments · Joined: 08 Feb 2015 Posts: 2 Location: Walkersville, MD

Thanks for the advice. I appreciate the reference how after a few weeks the vanilla flavor diminishes. I will give it a shot and continue tasting while in secondary. This will be an interesting experiment as i will bottle 5 gal and keg the other 5. Plan to serve the kegged BVP with Nitro. Will let you know how it comes out.