I'm sure someone out there has used vanilla beans in their brew. I'm getting ready to use them in a porter along with some cacoa nibs.

My question is: do I soak the bean whole or do I split it open to expose the flavor?

I would split it open to let all the goodness out.

Should I just scrape out the insides and discard the bean or soak that as well? Do I need to sanitize the bean itself in any way? By the way, those suckers aren't cheap either.

I suppose you probably "should" sanitize them. The one time I used whole vanilla beans, I just split them open, scraped them out and dumped the whole mess in. Didn't bother sanitizing it or anything.

Muchas gracias amigos!

I'd split it open and soak it in a few shots of vodka to sterilise. They're quite powerful too so you might not need too many. I'm not sure how Vanillary you'd want a porter, but to make a litre bottle of Vanilla vodka you only need about a quarter of a bean.

I rolled the dice and just added without soaking along with 6 oz. of cacao nibs. It smelled fantastic. The recipe called for 3 beans, but I used 2 since I had to pay $6 a piece for the little suckers.

Unfortunately, mine doesn't carry them

Vanilla beans in secondary is not a good option according to me for this, because it wont taste good enough with it.