Vanilla Porter recipe

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Leard
Tippler
Posts: 26
Joined: Sun May 22, 2016 10:42 am

Vanilla Porter recipe

Post by Leard » Wed Mar 07, 2018 1:24 pm

I want to try my hand at creating a nice vanilla porter, here's what I've put together so far:

11L
OG: 1.053
FG: 1.019
ABV: 4.48%
IBU: 55.81

2kg (72.7%) Maris Otter
200g (7.3%) Chocolate malt
100g (3.6%) Roasted barley
200g (7.3%) Extra dark crystal
200g (7.3%) lactose/milk sugar

20g Northern Brewer 60 mins
10g Northern Brewer 30 mins
10g Northern Brewer 5 mins
10g Northern Brewer flameout

I'm a little unsure about the hop additions. I'm restricted by what hops I have available, and I also don't know how bitter I should be making a vanilla porter. Any tips here would be useful.

As for getting the actual vanilla flavour, what ways are best? I was thinking of just using some vanilla extract straight in at the end of the boil. What other methods work well?

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Meatymc
Drunk as a Skunk
Posts: 836
Joined: Mon Sep 01, 2014 8:36 pm
Location: Northallerton, North Yorkshire

Re: Vanilla Porter recipe

Post by Meatymc » Wed Mar 07, 2018 2:49 pm

This was mine from 18 months ago - turned out well although I think I got away with it as I simply chucked the split pods straight into the secondary.

21L
Mash 75mins at 65C
Pre-boil 1046
Post boil 1054
FG 1008

4KG Optic
1kg Munich
700g Dark Crystal
100g Wheat
50g Black

10g Columbus 75mins
20g Columbus 20mins
10g WGV 10 mins

Safale S04

Fermented out and split into 2 brews - 1 with 1L 100% tart cherry juice (added another 3g of yeast to ferment out) and the other with 1.5 vanilla pods. Removed pods after 10 days and bottled. Will defo' be doing this again but will probably up the pods to 2.

Leard
Tippler
Posts: 26
Joined: Sun May 22, 2016 10:42 am

Re: Vanilla Porter recipe

Post by Leard » Wed Mar 07, 2018 3:18 pm

Been reading and one method is to use vanilla pods with bourbon or vodka and let them rest for a few days before throwing in the secondary. I think I'll try that.

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Barley Water
Under the Table
Posts: 1429
Joined: Tue May 22, 2007 8:35 pm
Location: Dallas, Texas

Re: Vanilla Porter recipe

Post by Barley Water » Thu Mar 08, 2018 4:25 pm

I have fooled around with adding vanilla to beer several times over the many years I have been doing this hobby. First of all be warned, you can really f*&k up a beer by adding too much vanilla (been there, done that, got the t-shirt). I strongly suggest you take the vanilla beans and soak them in vodka (or some other neutral spirit) making up a tincture then add some of that to a sample of the beer until you get it how you like it. After that, just scale up the vanilla addition to the rest of the batch. This will help you avoid problems because you know, if you don't add enough you can always add more but the converse is obviously not true. Other nifty things to try are oaking the beer as well as adding bourbon (as you mentioned). By the way, why add lactose? If I were going to jack up the body I think I'd use oats in a Porter (and I know our boy Seymour would approve). I think you will find that adding vanilla will make the beer seem much richer and for some reason it gives the impression that the body of the beer is bigger (for what reason I couldn't say). Finally, consider adding those grains that don't need to be mashed at sparge time (or cold steep), you will reduce any astringency issues making the beer smoother and I can pretty much guarantee you will love it. Good luck and have fun. :D
Drinking:Saison (in bottles), Belgian Dubbel (in bottles), Oud Bruin (in bottles), Olde Ale (in bottles),
Abbey Triple (in bottles), Munich Helles, Best Bitter (TT Landlord clone), English IPA
Conditioning: Traditional bock bier, CAP
Fermenting: Munich Dunkel
Next up: Bitter (London Pride like), ESB
So many beers to make, so little time (and cold storage space)

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