Vanilla Extract Alcohols! What should I use and what works?

well hi everybody uh my name is shane um our homestead is clemence family farms and i'm getting ready to do a series on making vanilla extract the way we've been doing it for the last 28 years or so the first part of the series is about choosing the alcohol for our vanilla extract and my opinions on it i know there's a lot of new beginners out there and this is just some of the information that i've learned through the course of the years and and actually some of it's i've been learning in the last eight years too has been really important because vanilla bean prices have gone through the roof so i had a couple years there where i didn't make it uh now their prices are coming back and we've got some good people out there selling some good vanilla beans anyway let's talk about beginning alcohol beginning alcohol beginning your extract with the types of alcohol and in my opinion um i leave the hard liquors out because when i first started making vanilla extract i had to ask myself why am i going to do this and the reason why i wanted to do it is because every time i was buying something vanilla extract on the shelf all i was getting was a chemical or an alcohol taste and i did not want that i wanted good strong vanilla flavoring not alcohol so i did some research family recipes grandmas um and then what what people have been done in the history so the old history was a cheap vodka throw some beans in it put it in a jar throw it in a cool um shelf dark shelf and shake it every now and then so that's where it all kind of was or it was an old whiskey so with you guys starting out with uh vanilla extract or any type of extract a lot of you don't drink so you don't understand what some of these taste or or how strong they are so the whiskies and tequilas they're super strong alcohol content and they're above the 70 proof so fda standard for an extract or vanilla extract is 70 proof or higher um so a single fold vanilla extract is 750 milliliters of a 70 proof or a higher vanilla or alcohol with three ounces of vanilla beans that will make a standard fda single fold vanilla extract to say you can use a lower proof yes you can use a lower proof like malibu but you're not going to be within those standards and it's going to take you a long time so make an extract is like um you're kind of detoxing the bean itself and pulling it out out of the bean the higher the content the faster it's going to pull the the flavoring out of the bean the lower the content the slower it is so if you're if you're in that lower percentage or proof of alcohol it's going to take you forever and you won't be within standards so i usually just take that one off the shelf because i'm not going to use it i use it for other stuff so everything else here is higher proof um tequilas like i said higher proof each one is could be smoother but my your finished vanilla extract is going to have the alcohol bite to it and i don't want that so i stay away from the kilos same thing with the whiskies so um so i really don't do that i i stick with between the vodka and the rums i used to use a lot of vodka and are differences we used to say buy the cheap vodka okay i did that and my vanilla came out good but it had that bite at the end that i didn't want and i knew there was room for improvement so i ended up going to a different vodka almost the same price but it didn't have that bite it just happened to be new amsterdam is what i was using and it made it a great extract because it didn't when the extract was done that bite wasn't there you got a killer vanilla flavoring out of it until i started exploring with the rums um the rums have a little bit smoother uh feel to them so you my vanilla extract you can drink and you won't feel like you're drinking uh a shot of whiskey or a shot of alcohol uh because you're getting a good strong vanilla flavor to them um so that's that's kind of where i i went from vodkas to rums and and the rums changed too you can't buy junk rum so well let's talk about the moonshine a little bit so moonshine will it some of them don't have that distinctive flavor like the cook the rum or the whiskey or the tequilas they're they're i'm not a moonshine guy so i can't tell the difference when i my drink moonshine or when i tried it before it's it's just too strong it's it's not what i like but i know some of you can't get regular alcohols and you've got maybe some friends in the area that are making moonshine backwoods or in their garage and you can get your hands on it what i suggest is cut it down to 70 proof i think they're a hunter proof they might be a little bit more some guys will cut it down to 70 proof and sell it because they sell more of it when it's at the lower proof asking what the proof is and if they can cut it down because they you might be able to take this jar and once it's cut you'll have maybe a jar and a half or two jars out of it once they cut it down depending how strong the moonshine is so that is a possibility i just don't mess with it um i i go right back to the room the uh the almond is the only thing i haven't played with i do like the flavor of this and it's the only one that would really pair well with with the vanilla but again this falls below the 70 proof and i try to stay above the 70 proof for this for the fda standards i might try a little batch just for my own consumption but when you're giving it to your friends and stuff you you really want to make sure you can you stay consistent with what you're doing and you're staying within standards to to supply all the satisfy all those laws uh let's talk about the spice rums i see people asking about spiced rums or spiced whiskeys or even tequilas you just have to remember some of the spices can overtake your vanilla so if you want a really good strong vanilla don't use spiced anything my recommendation is making a spiced extract on the side so you might take your spices and add them to your moonshine or add them to a non-flavored rum or vodka and make you a spiced uh extract and then make your vanilla over here separately because you can ruin your vanilla by some of these spices some of these spices will overtake your vanilla and you'll you're just going to waste your time and your money and all that because now you've got a vanilla flavored actually you got a spiced rum or a spiced whiskey with a vanilla flavoring to it why not just go buy it on the shelf they make vanilla flavored whiskeys and all that and the alcohol content is a lot higher so yeah you i personally i just think you're wasting your time so if you do make your extract then you could take a little shot glass of your vanilla and then add your spiced to it little little drops at a time and then mix it in and try it to get what you're what you think you're trying to make you can do it that way that's the way i recommend doing a spiced vanilla or a flavored vanilla um that way you don't you're not wasting your time or your money so that's my take on these i learned that the hard way ruining vanilla and in about nine months of my time because i'm pretty vigilant about shaking my jars i leave them on the counter so every day i come into my hobby room uh i shake them and they vigorously i shake them every day two or three times a day for the first four weeks and then i might go every other day for another couple weeks and then it kind of taper off because things start slowing down in there anyway um i ended up with my vanilla so i i saw 12 ounce bottles these are my bottles of vanilla and i just i sell them to my friends and family that are local i don't sell them to the public or anything like that but i ended up going to a coconut rum it's a 70 proof coconut rum by captain morgan they do make an 80 let's see 70 80 90 and 100 proof so those are the things you gotta watch because they all look the same it's just the coloring of the labels are different they all are really smooth but the alcohol content keeps rising and i have done it where i thought oh i messed up this batch is different and i had to go back to my bottles and what i did what i did wrong so make sure you're getting consistent with your bottles you can use the the 90 proof or the hunter proof just make sure you know with that and it may um have that bite at the end so i stick with the 70 probe as far as the coconut is concerned um it's one of those mild flavors that doesn't overpower the vanilla and what happens about six weeks into making your vanilla extract the coconut flavoring goes away some vanilla beans are a little stronger and it may go away a little sooner or it it may take eight weeks before the coconut goes away but the coconut does go away and what it does is it adds a little sweetness to your extract which enhances the flavor of the vanilla to me it enhances the vanilla flavor because i'd had extract that i've used i had sitting on the shelf for five years and i tried it with with the old vodka and stuff and i'm gonna tell you this is my absolute favorite i will never change from this well it's been eight years since i've been using the coconut rum i have changed brands now i only stick with the captain morgan because they're pretty consistent and i can find it on the shelves and that was an issue too finding those the same stuff on the shelves but anyway i've got this now i buy it by the cases because i make anywhere between three to six gallons of vanilla each year i bottle it up and give it to my friends and uh it's it's just wonderful so that's where i'm at i am in the process of making um a couple batches of vanilla now and i'm going to make a video series on that so there's my take on these alcohols they will all work at some degree but really what are you trying to achieve by doing all these different flavors and and spices and stuff unless you're sitting down taking little shots and taste testing all these at a different point i i think it's just a waste of time uh i make big batches and then from there you could take it and then bottle it in the smaller bottles or you can flavor the smaller bottles and try it out that way you're not wasting the big batches but yeah alcohol is a tricky thing especially if you're not drinkers and you don't i just don't like the flavor of alcohol i don't like that bite so that's why i ended up down on this end and yeah i don't use these hard alcohols that's why they're still here cooking maybe but yeah anyway that's where i'm at i hope that answered some of your guys's questions on alcohols and the different types um personally i stay with the good vodkas and and the good rums the more the clear and so forth to start up with your with your vanilla extracts um but yeah so if you have any questions i try to always answer the comments as soon as i can um because i know there's stuff that i've missed but go ahead and put put your comments down below you can message me if you want i'll try to answer your as much as your questions as possible so thanks and we'll wait for the next video

Channel: Clement Family Farms

Views: 22,578

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Id: uYJlAs8Vrfc

Length: 15min 36sec (936 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 10 2020