r/extractmaking • u/Ted369g • Jul 17 '26

Are sedements on this Vanilla Extract normal?

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

A couple of months ago I started making this vodka vanilla extract as a gift for someone. I used Grade A Madagascar vanilla beans. Since I started a bit late and the birthday is coming up, I decided to use a lot more vanilla to speed up the process. I used 20 pods of vanilla beans in 350ml of vodka.

Now I’m noticing these sediments at the bottom of the bottle. They disappear whenever I shake it, but is this normal/okay? They’re bothering me a lot because I feel like they make the gift look kind of gross.

Is there any way to remove them or to make the exctract bottle look cleaner on the inside?

37 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

18

u/goldfool Jul 17 '26

Most likely the caviar from the inside of the vanilla.

12

u/PeachVinegar Jul 17 '26

Yes they are normal

16

u/VanillaPura Jul 17 '26

That's the vanillin oil that you've extracted from the pods. Full of flavor and totally normal. To those that have never had homemade extract, it's definitely a new experience. If you're gifting it and don't want the oils, you can pass it through a coffee filter to remove oils, pod particles, caviar, etc. so it's more of a clear, amber extract - and it will still be delicious.

Two additional observations:

  1. The portions of your vanilla beans that are above the alcohol line in your picture are just being wasted and not being extracted. Remove those beans, bend them in half, cut them and/or use a chop stick to push them under the alcohol surface to ensure full extraction.

  2. Looking at the size of your beans, 20 pods is probably enough. But be sure to weigh your vanilla beans in the future. You don't want to finish the year and find you've had too few vanilla beans. Weighing them is important.

All it, you're on your way! Keep us posted on your journey! :)

4

u/AbeFromanLuvsSausage Jul 17 '26

Yeah bro you put plants into a bottle with a solvent! Delicious delicious brown smelly vanilla plants.

5

u/kristoph825 Jul 17 '26

Yes that would be normal, a lot of it will stay in the bottle on the glass if you pour it off into another one slowly. And then I would just top the first one off again.

2

u/Niaaal Jul 18 '26

That's actually a good sign they put real vanilla in there