Anyone ever add Vanilla Beans to their wine?

[smurfe]

My Raspberry is still in the clearing stage I guess. I haven't even looked at it and don't plan to for another month. I will then stabilize it and add finings if needed. I haven't tasted it yet and have moved it to our new house along with my other carboys.


Masta, did you use imitation vanilla extract or real vanilla extract? I would have no problem using real extract and most recipes I have seen call for it. I did use some imitation extract in my Kumquat mead and it still has the vanilla taste in it. I am with you though, if you can get the real beans, use them.


Smurfe

 

[masta]

I really cheated and use used imitation extract and must be why it didn't do it at all.


Garbage in Garbage out!

 

[OilnH2O]

I ended up using the real bean, split and scaped as Masta said earlier -- we'll see what it ends up tasting like!

 

[NorthernWinos]

I ended up using the real bean, split and scaped as Masta said earlier -- we'll see what it ends up tasting like!

I am real interested in using a vanilla bean in my next batch of raspberry/red grape wine....hope to hear everyone's comments before I begin.

Loved the oak in the last batch, it really gave more complexity to the wine.

Would you still use oak chips if you use the bean????Would a week in the secondary carboy be long enough to get flavor out of the bean???

This is very interesting...keep the comments coming....

 

[smurfe]

I still haven't sampled mine yet. I guess I am one who has plenty of patience when it comes to wine. The wine looks pretty clear. I guess I need to degas it and stabilize it.


I did take a taste of a 750 ml bottle I had extra to use to top off with I found in a cabinet under an airlock when I was moving. It tasted wonderful. Very raspberry in flavor. It was dry as I had not sweetened it. One thing I thought was weird was the aroma. It had a beer "hops" aroma to an extent.


This little bit did not have the vanilla in it as I used the beans in the carboy and that bottle was extra from when I racked to glass so I still don't know about the vanilla flavor yet so nothing to report on that yet.


Smurfe

 

[OilnH2O]

NW, as you no doubt know, I was floored when I went to the store to buy the vanilla beans and found the best price was about $6 per bean -- and one bean per jar!

I ended up "shopping" at that price (two different stores) looking for the biggest beans at the best price!! The highest one I found was a one-bean jar "on sale" for $11 marked down from $14!! -- "Who knew?"

 

[NorthernWinos]

I too was always amazed as to the price of Vanilla Beans...then my last trip to the Food C0-op I saw they had packaged up some, 3/$1.60...they weren't very big, maybe 4 inches long, but at that price I can put 3 in a batch of wine.

Don't know if the flavor would be as good with the small ones...?

 

[smurfe]

The wife ordered mine off the Internet from Penzy Spice when she was ordering some gifts for X-Mas. She paid $6.29 for a container of 3 beans. Each bean was around 8" long. I used 2 beansin my 3 gallon batch.


Smurfe

 

[Dean]

I've always purchased mine from http://www.vanillabeans4u.com/. The quality is fantastic. Just remember that they are really powerful! I used far too many in my vanilla mead, and now we call it "meadicine" because it tastes like a strong vanilla medicine. I'm hoping it will age out. It's already been a year, so we'll wait 1 more year to see if it does mellow.

 

[rshosted]

Dean, Any chance you can post your vanilla mead? I want to do a peach vanilla port/mead. Wondering how many you used?

 

[Dean]

Here's my notes on the mead:

3 gallon batch
9.5 lbs honey
2 tsp yeast nutrient
3 oz chopped golden raisins
5 oz chopped dates
1 pack D47 yeast
water to ~3 gallons

1/8/2006
Used 4.5lbs clover, 3lbs blueberry, and 2 lbs buckwheat
chopped dates and raisins in foodprocessor with a little hot water to make a soupy mixture
took SG of 1.114 and then added the raisin/date soup
rehydrated and then pitched D47

1/17 - sg 1.056
1/19 - sg 1.048
1/23 - sg 1.036
1/29 - sg 1.020
2/2 - sg 1.014 - fermentation starting to slow down drastically, yet still visible bubbles! Going to rack to a clean carboy tomorrow and add the vanilla beans for a long time!
2/4 - racked and added 9 scraped and split vanilla beans!
2/12 - sg 1.010

3/13 - racked off the vanilla beans to clean carboy - clearing nicely


tasting notes July 1, 2006
This has been bulk aging in the carboy.
Holy crap this tastes hot and has wayyyyyy too much vanilla! It almost tastes like medicine, or drinking pure
vanilla extract! This needs at least 1-2 years more aging, or blending with a standard mead.

 

[Dean]

I should note that living on the west coast, we get a much different buckwheat honey than east coasters. Our buckwheat honey is just as black and strong, but doesn't have that "eau du barnyard" smell and taste that east coast buckwheat honey does, so it is okay to use in meads to add character. If you do source buckwheat from out east, I'd probably reduce the amount to 1lb and add another pound of either clover or other type of honey of your preference.

Clover honey is the most common out here, but blueberry honey is awesome! very strong tasting that I find works really well with meads.

 

[Waldo]

I wonder what vanilla would do to enhance a Muscadine?

 

[jeffhigdon]

Dean, thanks for the vanillA bean web site tip. I ordered a pack of 10 for $5 and free shipping! They arrived in just a couple of days and look and smell wonderful.

 

[ScubaDon]

Give 'er a try Waldo! It would have to add a speical flare to it.

 

[NorthernWinos]

Went to the old-time Food Co-op yesterday...looked at the Vanilla Beans....they had 3 long ones in a glass/plastic tube for $6+...then they had these....

3 of them in a bag...about 5 to 6 inches long for what turned out to be $1.80...seemed fair....

They seemed a bit stiff tho...probably from being re-packaged...and didn't seem as pungent as I expected....I put a drop of water in the bag and by this morning they were pliable and smelled stronger...

I racked the Crabapple/Apple wine today and thought..."what the heck"...I split, scrapped and put almost 2 in the carboy, and 1/4 of one in the gallon jug...

The Crabapple/Apple wine is always full flavored, and I think the vanilla might add a nice touch to it.

I have to ask now....how long to leave them in here???

Being as they were kind of dried out like that....Should I have added more???

I do see the black specks floating in there, but with enough racking hope to get rid of them.

So...wish me luck on this 'Trial & Error' experiment.

Edited by: Northern Winos