Making your vanilla flavor from vanilla beans?

[shroomalistic]

So ive got a huge hard on for nicotickets vanilla flavors. It seems to me their secret is making their own vanilla extract.
Whats the process in this. I would like to make my own.

Ive got mixed info from browsing the web but here is where im at so far.

I ordered 10 vanilla beans from beanilla
https://www.beanilla.com/madagascar-vanilla-beans-extract-grade-b

I ordered an 8oz bottle of pg

So i watched this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qH63DQ9200

Figured I can do this but use pg instead of vodka

Am I on the right track or will I screw this all up.

I was thinking of putting all 10 of the bean in the pg and let it sit for a couple months.

Can someone point me in the right direction before I go to far?

 

[shroomalistic]

would it be better to do with vodka then after steeping in the vodka filter it into pg and let the vodka evap?

 

[michaelsil1]

Real Vanilla can not take the heat! You can try, but all you'll end up doing is wasting a lot of time. Good luck.

 

[shroomalistic]

Real Vanilla can not take the heat! You can try, but all you'll end up doing is wasting a lot of time. Good luck.

I know nicoticket makes their own extract and it takes the heat just fine. I might just be the process?

 

[Dave Kzoo]

I've tried several variations and techniques regarding extracts. Including types of beans and variations of PG, VG, and Alcohol. I've tried many types of beans. Some I let steep for up to three months. For me, none were anything like Nicoticket's vanilla. I've come to the conclusion that just because he uses his own extracts doesn't mean he doesn't use artificial flavors as well. Inawera, Hangsen, and FlavourArt all make some great vanillas. I assume that he adds some sort of artificial french vanilla flavoring to his juices with vanilla bean extracts. Just my opinion.

 

[shroomalistic]

i agree with the addition to the artificial vanilla as well. from what I have read, you only need like 1-3% of the extracted vanilla to make an impact. I figure ill just throw the beans in an 8oz bottle of pg and let it sit till its dark and test it out. Ill only be out 17 bucks so its not too big of a deal breaker and who knows it might work.

 

[Soignee]

Maybe if you ask real nice Kent will give you the recipe...then again, maybe you'll get some Perkins on your next order...

 

[Str8vision]

I soaked six extraction grade (B), Madagascar vanilla beans in 100ml of PG for six months and then filtered the "extract" through 2 micron qualitative filter paper. Ended up with 85-90ml of extract that smells exactly like the oily vanilla beans it came from. When vaping I noticed it's a bit sweet and tastes something like how the Madagascar beans smelled but not like the traditional vanilla extract most of us have come to know. It's a pleasant deeper, darker and earthier vanilla flavor that blends well with my tobacco extracts (NETs). I add a little "Holy vanilla" or French vanilla (from DIYflavorshack), to the Madagascar extract and the mixed flavor is fantastic. Mixed with the French vanilla it reminds me of the vanilla flavor that's in Kent's H1N1 but with less of a custard note. I vape NETs exclusively which are notoriously hard on wicks/coils so I can't say if the vanilla extract, by itself, is or not but can say it didn't make the NETs any worse than they already were. For me the flavor nuance is worth the wait and filtering hassle, I now want to try other varieties of vanilla beans. Next time I will use a PG/PGA solvent blend for the extraction process and evaporate off the PGA before filtering.

Filtration is a critical step in any extraction and coffee filters alone (aprox. 25-40 microns), are woefully inadequate in my opinion, you'll just end up with crusty coils and "burnt" flavor. Cotton ball filtration (aprox. 15-25 microns), is a step up but still problematic. 5 micron filtration is a decent starting point and 50ml of PG will "gravity" filter through it in a matter of minutes. 2 micron filtration produces a much cleaner extract but 50mls of PG can take one or more days to filter through when using gravity alone dependent on the ambient temperature. I plan on using a 1 micron filter next time but at that level of filtration will also be using vacuum assistance to expedite the process.

 

[shroomalistic]

awesome now thats what i wanted to hear!!

 

[amoret]

I'm going to have to try this as well. I've tried four vanilla flavorings so far, and, surprise surprise, they all taste like artificial vanilla. Maybe a combination of extracted and artificial will work.

 

[Stacy1]

I soaked six extraction grade (B), Madagascar vanilla beans in 100ml of PG for six months and then filtered the "extract" through 2 micron qualitative filter paper. Ended up with 85-90ml of extract that smells exactly like the oily vanilla beans it came from. When vaping I noticed it's a bit sweet and tastes something like how the Madagascar beans smelled but not like the traditional vanilla extract most of us have come to know. It's a pleasant deeper, darker and earthier vanilla flavor that blends well with my tobacco extracts (NETs). I add a little "Holy vanilla" or French vanilla (from DIYflavorshack), to the Madagascar extract and the mixed flavor is fantastic. Mixed with the French vanilla it reminds me of the vanilla flavor that's in Kent's H1N1 but with less of a custard note. I vape NETs exclusively which are notoriously hard on wicks/coils so I can't say if the vanilla extract, by itself, is or not but can say it didn't make the NETs any worse than they already were. For me the flavor nuance is worth the wait and filtering hassle, I now want to try other varieties of vanilla beans. Next time I will use a PG/PGA solvent blend for the extraction process and evaporate off the PGA before filtering.

Filtration is a critical step in any extraction and coffee filters alone (aprox. 25-40 microns), are woefully inadequate in my opinion, you'll just end up with crusty coils and "burnt" flavor. Cotton ball filtration (aprox. 15-25 microns), is a step up but still problematic. 5 micron filtration is a decent starting point and 50ml of PG will "gravity" filter through it in a matter of minutes. 2 micron filtration produces a much cleaner extract but 50mls of PG can take one or more days to filter through when using gravity alone dependent on the ambient temperature. I plan on using a 1 micron filter next time but at that level of filtration will also be using vacuum assistance to expedite the process.

may I ask what you used to filter? I've got some beans on the way, but no idea where to get a 2 micron filter

 

[Stacy1]

Beans arrived today. Ive searched hours and hours trying to find any success stories on extracting vanilla. I love this site but either I am doing something wrong or the search option is horrible. Searching the words extracting vanilla I get threads on everything except extracting vanilla. I'm thinking of doing all seven beans in 100ml of a 70/30 mix of pg/pga. Going to keep searching through the night but if I dont find anymore information I think thats the plan. Will post results in six months lol

 

[Soignee]

Beans arrived today. Ive searched hours and hours trying to find any success stories on extracting vanilla. I love this site but either I am doing something wrong or the search option is horrible. Searching the words extracting vanilla I get threads on everything except extracting vanilla. I'm thinking of doing all seven beans in 100ml of a 70/30 mix of pg/pga. Going to keep searching through the night but if I dont find anymore information I think thats the plan. Will post results in six months lol

Have you looked in the extraction forum yet? Lots of good info in there that can be applied.

I have always done my extraction into straight PGA, but always used it in food only. I don't see any reason why you couldn't go straight PGA and evaporate the alcohol off without heat (excessive heat hurts natural vanilla) then put the resulting extract into PG. It would speed the process dramatically as you only need about a month to extract into PGA, double your bean to liquid ratio and you have 2x fold extract. I don't know if longer steep would help with more flavor though.

I have just worked out a Coffee extraction fairly well. Vanilla and Cocoa Bean are my next projects. I'm going straight PGA and will see what happens.