Vanilla Bean Cream Ale recipe

Vanilla beans.

Since I had some vanilla beans left over from this brew, I decided to make use of them.  I really enjoy the Sam Adams Cream Stout and wanted to shoot for something sweet like that, but with more of a vanilla kick.  After browsing around and seeing some posts on the HBT forums, I settled on a "Caramel Cream Ale" recipe posted by a user named "Cheesefood".  The ingredients were expensive, running up a steep tab of over $60 at the Beer Nut.

I ended up modifying the recipe a bit (doesn't everyone?) to suit my tastes and to accommodate the vanilla beans instead of vanilla extract.  Here's what I brewed:

Malt
3 pounds extra light DME
3 pounds light wheat DME
1 pound caramel 60L malt (steep 50M at 155F before boil)

Hops
1oz Cascade hops @ 60M
.5oz Saaz hops @ 13M
.5oz Tettnang hops @ 3M

Yeast
Wyeast German Ale

Extras
1/2c Lactose @ 13M
5.5G spring water
2 Vanilla Beans added to secondary



Priming
1c Lactose
1.5c light DME


I listed Lactose in the priming section, only because I'm adding it to the bottling bucket.  I'm well aware that Lactose is non-fermentable and not a priming sugar.

My measured OG was 1.070 (seems a bit high), and my SG when racking to secondary was 1.014.  To be fair about the measurements, I added the 1/2c lactose before measuring OG, so that may have artificially drove the OG up a point or two.

My procedure for adding vanilla beans to the secondary:
I cut the whole beans lengthwise down the center to split them open.  I then sprayed them with a little bit of water, wrapped them in tin foil, and tossed them into the oven for 8 minutes at 400F.  I then sprayed them with starsan before dropping them directly into the secondary fermenter with the beer.

I've also created some homemade vanilla extract that I'll add to the bottling bucket (a bit at a time) if the 2 beans aren't enough.  The extract was made by soaking two sliced beans in a mixture of 2oz Everclear and 8oz spiced rum for 2 months.

One note that I'd recommend if you try this recipe (since I read this comment repeatedly on the forums):  If you use vanilla extract instead of vanilla beans, make sure it is Real vanilla extract.  If you use imitation vanilla extract you'll kick yourself for it later.  Also, the forum posts suggested somewhere between 3oz and 6oz of extract if you go that route.  Though some people recommended less, with 6oz being too heavy on the vanilla side.

Overall, I'm excited to get this stuff into bottles and try it out.  I've read that Market Street Brewery in Tennessee (now closed?) made a great Vanilla Cream Ale.  I've seen a clone recipe for it in BYO, so maybe I'll give that one a try too.  If anyone else has tried it out, let me know how it went.  Also, if anyone tries out the recipe I've posted here, let me know how that one goes too.