DIY Vanilla Extract.

Today I put some of my homemade vanilla extract in my yogurt. Why am I telling you this? Because it was a divine experience, that's why. And I'm not one to keep the divinity to myself.
I've been working on a vanilla extract for some time now. Most commercial extracts contain glycerin or some other sweetener that i don't want in my food. So I began to experiment with making my own extract. My first attempt, which I don't have a pix of, was vanilla beans in Brandy. This was nice enough but tasted more like Brandy than Vanilla. It was just not what I was after. So I decided to try Everclear, since it has no real taste of it's own. In the following picture, look to the right bottom to see the Vanilla bean in Everclear project going on.

What I got was a clearish 95% ABV( alcohol by volume) that when diluted to 80 proof(40% abv) was milky and insipid tasting. See the jar on the bottom right with the vanilla beans in it and the diluted jar of vanilla everclear. In a word, it was gross.
 Then I thought about what I was dealing with. My vanilla beans were dried and needed reconstituting. So I tried a 50% ABV solution of Everclear and Water as seen below.

Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' bout!!!!

 This batch was dark and rich and flavorful. The beans needed the added water content to soften up so they could release their voluptousness and yield an extract to delight and satisfy in the strongest sense of the word.

Now you may ask how much vanilla did I use for this magical batch? Well I am not known for exacting measurements but I counted 7 whole vanilla beans in this quart of 50% alc. I broke the beans in half to fit them in the jar and let them steep. I put this up in November of 2013 and it is now May of 2014 and I have not removed the beans. They take up so little space in the jar that it is not worth it to take them out.

 This vanilla tincture, which is what it really is, is fantastic for baking and any use that calls for vanilla extract. In fact, you could probably use 50% less vanilla using this brew than a recipe called for.

 Here is a link to my source for vanilla beans:Grade B Bourbon Vanilla bean, .5#

 I can get Everclear at my local liquor store. 

Have fun with this.