It began with a late night conversation five weeks ago with General German.I had just finished an IPA, bottled it only days before, and I was pondering what the next brew-to-be was on my list. The good General suggested I visit the podcasting of basicbrewing.com. Good chaps they are, gents who brew and chat about it in front of a camera. Now one of these podcasts concerned the idea of a vanilla porter. I was intrigued. An adventure commenced. The day was February 22nd. A warm, sunny Friday in southern California. I was lamenting tax quandaries when a large batch of grain and malt extract in my closet called my name, screaming “We’re more important than that 941c! Come play with us!” I conceded.There’s not much of a trick to this brew to make an incredible payoff… it was easier than finding a prostitute in Thailand. Yeah.So there I was, with a pretty standard porter recipe, only I eased off on the roasted barley and used a little more British Crystal to take away that stiff flavor. Now something the guys online said, and also something universally known was that vanilla is very good at pulling other flavors up even more. So loosely following his recipe, I threw five vanilla beans from Whole Foods into about 3 ounces of bourbon (that’s 2 jiggers to you bartenders out there!) and let that ferment in there for seven days. By the time I racked into the secondary fermenter, I was rewarded with a black, jelly-like substance that smelled more like vanilla extract than Maker’s Mark®. I proudly poured the junk into my carboy, sealed and walked away for two more weeks.Why should brewers wait two weeks in a secondary normally? It helps to guarantee there’s no more fermentation going on, the flavors can enhance even more, etc. Why did I wait two weeks and not just one or one and a half? Laziness. I finally bottled her early last week and we cracked a couple at Captain Beer’s Easter Celebration. It’s not entirely carbonated yet, but I believe in a week’s time it will be ready to down. It’s got a nice even brownish look, and though it’s dark, it’s not black like other heavy porters. This is a light, balanced chocolately porter with a heavy influence from the pure vanilla and yes, you can even taste a bite of bourbon.