How many vanilla beans to a gallon?

[countgen]

Good morning. I am about to put one gallon of pear wine into a secondary and want to add vanilla beans to it. What range of how many I should add do you think?

 

[terroirdejeroir]

Good morning. I am about to put one gallon of pear wine into a secondary and want to add vanilla beans to it. What range of how many I should add do you think?

I don't have a ton of experience with this, but in the past I have added one Madagascar vanilla bean sliced length-wise per gallon and gotten a lot of vanilla flavor. I left it in for eight weeks.

 

[the_rayway]

I did two in a 1/2 gallon of pear for 3 weeks, and it was just a nice hint of vanilla.

 

[Sp33dymonk3y]

I was actually researching online and someone said even one vanilla bean can ruin a whole 6 gallon Carboy. So I have no idea >.< defently would get more answered broke risking it.. I just currently reached one of my white grape mixed stuff wines experiment wines. And it tastes bad, well bad as in all I can taste is the alcohol. So I added like 10 drops of vanilla extract to half a gallon of it. The aroma is great but still taste like pure alcohol lol. Trying to find a way to find an additive or natural something from walmart I can add to make it taste like vanilla or something..


Sent from my iPhone using Wine Making

 

[countgen]

Rayway, did you just keep the bean whole or did you cut it up at all?

Thanks to all for the information. Has given me some insight!

 

[the_rayway]

I split them down the middle (lengthwise), also, vanilla generally seems to recede as time passes - kind of like oak - so you may want to consider getting it to a point where it's just a bit more than you like, then take the beans out.

If you do one in the gallon, you'll have more control over the release of the flavour as it will be slower.

FYI, I did a Pear-Vanilla liqueur this year and it's insanely good match made in heaven!

 

[Jericurl]

Raelene,

Any chance we can get your recipe?

 

[the_rayway]

It's so stupidly easy, it feels like I'm leading people on...

Pack a 1L mason jar with tart pears (I used Manitoba Ure pears, tons of tannins, very tart and hard), put 1 Cup of sugar in, 2 split vanilla beans, then top up with vodka.

Shake, shake, shake. Wait a few months, then strain it out and let it settle.
Sweeten to taste.

 

[Jericurl]

Oh man, that sounds delicious.

I'm starting a mayan themed liqueur so I bought some vodka today.

I think I'm going to go ahead and set some of the vodka aside for this pear recipe.

 

[the_rayway]

Totally worth it - you won't be disappointed!

 

[seth8530]

Perphas a more controlled way to approach this problem would be to create a vanilla extract by soaking vanilla beans in vodka or everklear and then doing benchtrials with the extract and some wine.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

Perphas a more controlled way to approach this problem would be to create a vanilla extract by soaking vanilla beans in vodka or everklear and then doing benchtrials with the extract and some wine.

I do the same with oak as well - works great !!

 

[Jericurl]

I do the same with oak as well - works great !!

My mouth literally fell open.

That. is. genius.

 

[the_rayway]

Awesome! Never thought of that!

Seth - I've done vanilla extract in my wines several times now and I'm finding that in a more delicate wine it gives too much alcohol burn. I love it in nearly everything, but soaking beans in a light wine like pear gives a more mellow, soft flavour IMHO.

Likely the difference is that I'm not a fan of the burn of hard alcohol.

 

[seth8530]

I think the trick is that you need to use a very concentrated extract thus you only add a little to the wine.

 

[the_rayway]

Do you simmer yours down? I've got 25 beans in a 1L jar. Not enough?

 

[seth8530]

I do not normally do this. But I would imagine that 25 high quality beans in a decent quality base spirit would be just fine... Perhaps try packing more in. One thing to consider is that it might be the vanilla itself lending to unpleasent flavours if too much is used.

 

[byathread]

In meads, I've found one split bean per gallon to be sufficient for adding superb secondary vanilla flavor. One to three months should do you, taste as you go.

 

[countgen]

Thanks everybody!!! Good info and ideas!