The humble vanilla bean. I love it dammit.

[SuburbanStiller]

I have a nearly empty pint of 65% hooch of unknown provenance from back when I was figuring how to run my boka sitting in pantry with about 1 inch of vanilla bean in it for a couple of months. I've been nipping at it here and there and by crumb I love it. I will not be ashamed, it's frikken excellent. No complex flavors, no hints of this or that, no rambling eloquent words about the finish and the pallette and whatnot. It tastes like vanilla, no sugar added. Not a sweet cloying candy bar vanilla. Not vanilla ice cream or those ridiculous vanilla plug in air freshners and candles that the Mrs. like to sprinkle around the house. Just a nice, light vanilla and not a damn thing else. Two fingers, heavily iced, sip, just enough to wet the tongue. Oh yes, that's the stuff.

I like vanilla. I am Man. I cannot be alone. Come, join me!

[plaztikjezuz]

I have been trying to basically make vanilla extract.
i took 2 beans and 4.5 oz of 80% neutrals.
cut the beans up into little pieces.
some pictures.

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it looks dark until there is light, which is why i took the picture on the light.
i have not tasted it yet.

[Caprimulgus]

+1

No words needed.

[treka]

mmmm vanilla

[emptyglass]

Hmmm, I'd been thinking of trying that.

Whislt perusing the shelfs in the supermarket, looking for coconut essence for the wifes "bailies" (made with some UJSM, none of that scotch stuff) I chanced upon a lonley vanilla bean, in a packet all by itself. No friends. No mother or father.
I considered adopting this bean as my own. If it wasn't for the princly sum of $5 for a single bean I would have.

I will now endevor to secure a bean for my own self indulgent reasons.

Has anyone tried one in some burbon?

[scarecrow]

I make a whiskey that has a 2" stick of vanilla bean, a teaspoon of pure maple syrup and a handfull of raisins per 4 litres of 65%.
Must admit, it's expensive but sooooo much better than vanilla essence.
It is nice to drink straight and the vanilla really comes out when mixed with coke.
It was an attempt to get a JD type sweet whiskey. It's now my "special occasion" sippin whiskey.
As for Bourbon - I don't flavour that with anything except charred oak.

scarecrow

[emptyglass]

My experience buying stuff from brew shops that claim to taste like something has been like a shower in a raincoat.

Crap.

Perish the thought of essence, unless home made for the purpose. Real vanilla essence from real beans has potential, in my opinion, but that stuff from the supermarket is to be used for cakes and slices only.

What about a vanilla bean with some oak?

[surrey_still]

i must say i never thought any one would be doing this but this is the very first thing i used and it is still to this day my fave
like sbd said it is not over powering and it has a nice calm tast to it
the longest i have been able to let it sit so far is 3 weeks

[UNRECONSTRUCTED]

How much do you use surrey?

Beans are about as hard to come by at stores around here as 40 year old virgins. I got a chef looking for me now though.

From my research... Vannilins (sp) in oak come out at higher proofs. I wonder if ageing at higher proofs with beans would mean more of that flovor would come out?

Sippin' some white dog and thinkin' about brown dog.

[surrey_still]

i use two beans most times. i tryed splitting them down the center but then you get floatys and need to strain again
i get my from a brew store downtown and they are $2.80 for three of them big food stores sell them to but they are way more money for some stupid reason
i trayed the extract but it wasnt the same tast and it was still a bit bitter i age at 65 to 70 and like i said it only takes a week or 2

[Bushman]

Everytime we vacationed in Mexico we would bring vanilla beans back as they are much cheaper there. I found them at Costco for $1 each. My wife likes Kahalua so we use them in the Kahalua recipe we have.

[Bushman]

Just a thought, has anyone done any research on re-using vanilla beans? I am thinking that I put the vanilla beans (3 of them) in a triple batch of Kahlua for 3 weeks. How used up is the vanilla bean if I don't cut it up? Can I freeze them and re-use say for aging whiskey? Just brainstorming, I sound cheap but I also hate throwing anything away that might still be usable!