Brewing & Bottling Vanilla Extract

homemade vanilla extract: brewed, bottled and ready for use

Back near Christmas I wanted to make and bottle my own vanilla extract to give as gifts. Mostly because I like to give useful gifts, homemade a bonus, and secretly, or not so - I can't stand imitation flavors. This was one way I could make the world a better place and improve my friend's chocolate chip cookies too. Oh, and good real vanilla extract is not cheap. I did not start in time to give as gifts, so I simply started the process at that time - which has worked out well because this has been a no stress experience.

I followed some tips I found online, but mostly from a post in one of my favorite blogs - the kitchn. Here is a link to their post and recipe.

Vodka, beans, bottles, caps and patience - and voila!

For my vanilla extract project I modified as follows:

I used vodka (maybe next time I will try rum or bourbon) because I wanted a neutral alcohol that would not compete with the vanilla bean.

I chose Madagascar beans. 

Amber bottles getting filled.

I chose threaded amber glass bottles with caps. This part was especially fun for me because I LOVE pharmaceutical grade bottles (I used to sell them and know a lot more about screw threads, glass types, forming process than I let on). 

My bottles happen to be threaded and molded and I bought them from Amazon. Conveniently they came with caps. 

So easy.

See all the goodies those 'kitchenhose' caught! 

Another modification from my kitchen was 'extrasupport' pantyhose to strain my extract. Cheese cloth and coffee filters work too but I wanted my strainer material to cling to the mouth of my canning jar so pouring it and straining it would be a breeze, and it worked like a charm! 

(I call this secret kitchen tool my 'kitchenhose' and it lives in my baking drawer). In the photo you can see how well it worked to get the particles out of the liquid as I strained.

All ready for  labeling

All that is left is to make some cute tags and decide who to gift them to. 

I also need to remember that results will be better - and darker - if I store the container in the dark while it is doing its thing. 

One fifth of vodka filled 12 - 4 ounce bottles.

You can read a lot more about vanilla here. 

Now, I have all these spent vanilla beans and I can't just throw them into the compost! Next project: vanilla infused sugar.