ironmaster porter extract Q's

[twizztedangel]

I won a can of this last night at the Brew club meeting. thinking of doing half as a Vanilla porter. should I use vanilla bean, extract, flavoring? how much? at bottling/kegging, or in primary, do i need to secondary? it contains Malt extract, Black Malt Extract, Roasted Barley, Hop Extract, Iso-Hop Extract. OG 1040-44 do i need to add more hops
if so what,and how much.
a lot of questions i know but i would like to do it right. i appreciate any and all help.
thank you

[Bugeater]

I've never even heard of the stuff before. I would imagine the hops being pretty muted in an extract like that. However in a porter, especially a vanilla porter, you don't want them to be too prominent anyway. So I would probably not add any hops.

Vanilla bean is definitely the way to go. It's best to go with too little rather than too much vanilla. If you have a nice fresh vanilla bean (still soft and plump) one will probably do it. If it is fairly stiff and wrinkled you may want to use two. The flavor is best extracted with alcohol. Split open the bean(s) lengthwise scrape the pulp and seeds out into whatever alcohol you choose. I prefer bourbon with a porter. Then chop up the bean pod into chunks and toss them in too. Some folks like to use vodka since it is neutral flavored (supposedly) but I like the taste of bourbon. The amount you use to soak the vanilla depends on how much of the liquor flavor you want to add to the beer. Be sure to add the vanilla in secondary so that the active fermentation doesn't scrub out the aroma and flavor.

Wayne