randompersonrandom
GLP-1 Specialist
Hey so homebrewed vanilla is something you can do that's awesome and takes about twentysome minutes of work. Its a two-year wait, but after the first two years, you'll never have to wait again as long as you stay on a schedule. I've never figured out whether you actually save any money doing this, but the vanilla tastes richer and people act like its awesome. I sometimes gift tiny bottles at holidays and people freak out.
1.75 liter bottle of 100 proof vodka. It needs to be 100 proof, the weaker stuff won't work. It doesn't have to be (and shouldn't be) NICE vodka, though. I get the New Amsterdam 100 proof. Some people use bourbon, but remember that has its own flavor.
8 oz vanilla beans. I get em on Amazon. Grade B is for vanilla extract and is usually cheaper, but if A is cheaper, I've gotten those before too. I don't actually think you can tell the difference in the end. I've used FitNClean a lot, but any well-reviewed vanilla bean vendor is fine.
Chop your beans. I slit them lengthwise, then cut them in 1" pieces. Remove a few cups of vodka from the bottle and reserve it. Put the 8 oz of chopped beans into the bottle. Put back enough vodka to get it up to the neck. Label it with the month and year, and what kind of beans you used. Shake it up. Then shake it once a day for a week, once a week for a month, then put it somewhere out of the way (a cupboard, a closet, whatever) and forget about it for at least a year, preferably two years. Then strain it into nice little glass bottles and there's your vanilla.
Advanced tip: After you put your first bottle up, start keeping track of your vanilla usage. When you've used 1.5 liters (I know you're still using the commercial stuff, but note down how much you're using), then do another bottle, maybe two, so you can get to that two-years-ahead thing. When your first batch matures, you've always got another batch right behind it.
I've got about seven or eight bottles brewing at the moment, the oldest was put up in '24. I just found two four-ounce bottles last week that I put up in '22 when I first started doing this, and am using it in my coffee; its REALLY wonderful. I've gotten to a point where I wait for a sale on beans and then buy a pound and do two bottles, then I'm done for a good long time.
1.75 liter bottle of 100 proof vodka. It needs to be 100 proof, the weaker stuff won't work. It doesn't have to be (and shouldn't be) NICE vodka, though. I get the New Amsterdam 100 proof. Some people use bourbon, but remember that has its own flavor.
8 oz vanilla beans. I get em on Amazon. Grade B is for vanilla extract and is usually cheaper, but if A is cheaper, I've gotten those before too. I don't actually think you can tell the difference in the end. I've used FitNClean a lot, but any well-reviewed vanilla bean vendor is fine.
Chop your beans. I slit them lengthwise, then cut them in 1" pieces. Remove a few cups of vodka from the bottle and reserve it. Put the 8 oz of chopped beans into the bottle. Put back enough vodka to get it up to the neck. Label it with the month and year, and what kind of beans you used. Shake it up. Then shake it once a day for a week, once a week for a month, then put it somewhere out of the way (a cupboard, a closet, whatever) and forget about it for at least a year, preferably two years. Then strain it into nice little glass bottles and there's your vanilla.
Advanced tip: After you put your first bottle up, start keeping track of your vanilla usage. When you've used 1.5 liters (I know you're still using the commercial stuff, but note down how much you're using), then do another bottle, maybe two, so you can get to that two-years-ahead thing. When your first batch matures, you've always got another batch right behind it.
I've got about seven or eight bottles brewing at the moment, the oldest was put up in '24. I just found two four-ounce bottles last week that I put up in '22 when I first started doing this, and am using it in my coffee; its REALLY wonderful. I've gotten to a point where I wait for a sale on beans and then buy a pound and do two bottles, then I'm done for a good long time.
