Who wants a Vanilla Bourbon Porter???

Last Saturday I brewed batch #16.  Its been almost a year now since my very first batch of home brew!  I got out the brew equipment on Friday and dusted it all off.  I haven't brewed a batch since June.  I may be a little rusty but here I go.  I have been trying to think of beers that I would like to drink and share this coming season.  So this winter I thought that I would like to have a Vanilla Bourbon Porter, why not?  I have never brewed a Porter so this should be fun.  I researched the Porter Ale and some  homebrew recipes.  I decided that I wanted a more chocolatey style rather than a robust roast style.  So I  developed a Brown Porter Ale recipe, a Brown Porter doesn't have as much Black Malt as a Robust or Industrial Porter does.  

I did a 60 minute mash using 1.25qt per pound of grain.  This pic is me just about to start fly sparging (sparging is when you start draining the unfermented beer(wort) from the grain and rinsing the grain with hot water to make sure all the sugar was extracted).

I collected the first runnings to take a gravity reading and to help the wort run clear.  The reading was 1.047.  I collect 6.5 gallons of sweet wort.  Now it's ready for the kettle.  I boiled the wort for 60 minutes and added three hop additions; 60 minute, 30 minute and at flame out.

I cooled the hot brew down and strained it while it went into the carboy.  I pitched Scottish yeast and aerated it for three minutes on my knee, the old fashion way. The gravity reading was 1.066 before I pitched the yeast.

I racked it to secondary last night, 1.016.  It only took 6 days to ferment out.  I racked it onto 2 vanilla beans and 1 oz of American Oak chips soaked with 2oz of Wild Turkey Bourbon.  I will leave it for 2 weeks in secondary, then bottle.
Here is the recipe:
11# American Two  
3.5# Munich Lt
1# Crystal 120L
.5# Crystal 40L
.5# Chocolate Malt
2oz Black Patent

1oz Northern Brewer Hops    60min
.5oz Cascade    30min
.5oz Cascade    0

2000ml starter from Wyeast Scottish Yeast

Come over to our place this December and we can sip on one by a toasty fire!!!

When racking I washed the yeast and stored them in mason pint jars. I will use these to make a starter for a Scottish Ale in a few weeks.  I'll keep you posted.