Mash Paddle.....why?

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Kayos

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Getting into All Grain. Bought/Made an MLT, 7.5 gallon pot, wort chiller, all tubing needed, blah, blah, blah. Basically I spent a bunch of $$ getting converted. Do I need to buy a paddle, or can I just use my long spoon? I was pretty blown away after seeing the price of a long dowel carved at the end. When I watch the videos of AG brewing, seems like you use it for maybe 5 seconds. Thoughts?
 
I do not have one...but want one badly. Even if I use if for 5 secs, I hate using the long plastic spoon to stir the mash, the spoon just bends and its a pain in the ass. Luckily, there is a restaurant equipment store (Cen Tex), here in Boulder and they have a 36 inch wooden spoon/paddle that I am going to go get for $12.

And I dont care if it (wood) "harbors bacteria" for obvious reasons.
 
When I first started brewing AG, I just used the heavy-duty stainless spoon that I purchased awhile back. It worked pretty well, but I ended up getting a cheap plastic mash paddle that has worked even better. They only cost a few bucks from Austin Homebrew http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=882 or you can look at your homebrew store of choice. The real benefit is the open spaces in the paddle. This creates less drag when mixing in grains and also helps to break up dough-balls.
 
damntheman said:
When I first started brewing AG, I just used the heavy-duty stainless spoon that I purchased awhile back. It worked pretty well, but I ended up getting a cheap plastic mash paddle that has worked even better. They only cost a few bucks from Austin Homebrew http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=882 or you can look at your homebrew store of choice. The real benefit is the open spaces in the paddle. This creates less drag when mixing in grains and also helps to break up dough-balls.


Does this bend as you're stirring the mash, or is it ridged enough?
 
That is what I have and it 'works', but is far from ideal. it works good enough that I dont plan on upgrading soon, but is flimsy enough to the point where had I have known, i would have bought something better up front.
 
Yeast Infection said:
Does this bend as you're stirring the mash, or is it ridged enough?
It works great for me and doesn't really bend at all, but I use a 48qt rectangular mash tun so I hold the paddle more in the middle than at the end. If you were using a keggle with a deeper grain bed, I would say you would be better off getting a sturdier wooden one.
 
I use a round cooler MLT with the 36" plastic mash paddle and it works fine. Yes it bends a bit but I don't see that as a problem at all. Like damntheman said it doesn't drag as much when stirring and breaks up air pockets and dough balls very well. I also have a SS spoon but prefer the plastic mash paddle.

Seems I have the opposite opinion of several here so I thought I'd throw my hat in the ring in favor of the purpose-built mash paddle.
 
I use a mash paddle with my mash canoe when I go rowing down the mash river. Eventually though, I start to approach the Vorlauf Falls and I have to carry my canoe down to the other side. Once there, I continue paddling on the River Wort as little mini-humans toss hop flowers in my general direction and sing songs until my canoe gets stuck in the Krausen.


Willie Wonka's Chocolate factory has nothing on me.
 
I have two of those plastic paddles. Hate them both.
I bought the one when I wanted to go AG. Then the 2nd one I got used with a bunch of other brew stuff.
I used the new one for maybe 30 sec. on my first AG mash and then just set it down and used my long stainless spoon. The paddle was just to weak to mix 24#'s of grain and 7 gallons of water.
It may be fine for a small grain bill and a 5 gallon batch, but I will just stick to the long spoon.
 
I made my own paddle out of hard maple for around $5 it works great and I been very happy with it. My friend calls it the mash paddle from hell...lol

DSCF0413.jpg

DSCF0414.jpg
 
I use my large stainless spoon with great success. I use it to break up clumps of grain then stir the mash to evenly distribute the heat. I stir about once every 15 minutes after that.


What glue do you use to hold that together? It obviously must be water proof and heat resistant.
Brew-boy said:
I made my own paddle out of hard maple for around $5 it works great and I been very happy with it. My friend calls it the mash paddle from hell...lol

DSCF0413.jpg

DSCF0414.jpg
 
RichBrewer said:
I use my large stainless spoon with great success. I use it to break up clumps of grain then stir the mash to evenly distribute the heat. I stir about once every 15 minutes after that.


What glue do you use to hold that together? It obviously must be water proof and heat resistant.

Glue are you kidding? No glue what so ever everything is a press fit. Once hot water hit the wood it seals everything very tight. I never had a problem yet.
 
I bought a miniature paddle from my seafood store, ajd just drilled a bunch of holes in it. Creates similar shearing as a mash paddle.

Cost: $ 6.00
 
With the 10-gallon batches I have been doing recently in the 10-gallon MLT, getting the infusion mixed up well with the grain takes a lot of stirring, so as to get temperature even throughout. I usually stir every 15 minutes or so, my efficiency is very good, usually above the SG by a few points. Using a plastic spoon sucks, plan on buying/building something wood soon so I don't scratch up the inside of the cooler.
 
Damn Squirrels said:
And just exactly how much mixing do you all do?

I'm just kind of like "stir stir stir" done....

And my efficiency sucks.

I'm curious too.

I only stir the mash when I dough in--I make sure all the clumps are gone and no grain balls are present, never more than five minutes to let the temps even out in teh MLT, then I leave it alone for an hour. I don't ever stir during the saccarification rest. My efficiency (batch sparge) is always above 80%.
 
I originally used my big plastic spoon but it would bend too much so I bought a $5 plastic mash paddle and it's been excellent.

I stir quite a lot during dough-in to make sure the grain is well hydrated and to even out the heat. Then I don't stir again until I start recirculating. I tried the 'stir every 15 minutes' thing for a while but it didn't accomplish anything in terms of extract yield so I just stopped. I'm always over 80% efficiency whether batch or fly sparging.
 
Dude said:
I'm curious too.

I only stir the mash when I dough in--I make sure all the clumps are gone and no grain balls are present, never more than five minutes to let the temps even out in teh MLT, then I leave it alone for an hour. I don't ever stir during the saccarification rest. My efficiency (batch sparge) is always above 80%.
I'll have to try this next time. :mug:
 
Are you guys adding water to the grain, or adding grain to the water? I've found that if I heat the water and then add the grain, stir it in, rather, then I don't have clumping and I don't have to stir nearly as long. (I'll add that I mash and lauter in a modified keg so if I lose some degrees I can easily heat it up). I humbly admit that this is probably something that everyone has thought about or played with...

Also, I think for a five or ten gallon batch the mash paddle is silly. A few weeks ago I couldn't find my 18 inch ss spoon so I grabbed an old axe handle from the woodshed and used it... no noticeable difference, except that the axe handle felt better in my hand than a mash rake or the spoon....

cheers, p
 
Damn Squirrels said:
And just exactly how much mixing do you all do?

I'm just kind of like "stir stir stir" done....

And my efficiency sucks.

A good stir when adding the grain, a good stir when at 20 mins, then at 40 and then another at 60, mash out, let it sit, run off.

But maybe that's why I loose so much heat, I thought stirring was part of the reason my eff went up but maybe next time I won't give it death.
 
I don't have one either. I simply use a Stainless Steel slotted spoon that I normally use in the kitchen.
 
I too use a stainless steel slotted spoon.

Since moving to steam infused mashing, I've had to stir the mash a lot more when the steam is on to even out the hot spots. Perhaps a paddle would be a better tool for this.
 
You don't need a mash paddle if you're doing 5g batches. Even if you do an occasional 10g, you'll be fine with a 18+ in spoon. You really only need to stir enough to completely wet the grains, and again when you batch sparge. My recommendation is to buy the 21" ss spoon here: http://morebeer.com/search?search=spoon I have it and have had zero problems. It is long enough to reach the very bottom of a keggle and still stick out some. I plan on notching it at 1 gal increments and using it instead of sight glasses that can break/melt/cost money.
 
I dont see many people using what i use, pretty cheap and easy. A large grill spatula, wood on top, metal on the bottom. Good and sturdy for breaking up dough balls and cheap.
 
I usually mash 30+ lbs of grain in a 60 qt cooler. The plastic mash paddles are worthless for that sort of thing. I've taken to using a drill operated paint stirrer. As long as I keep it submerged, aeration is no issue.

I got lazy during my last batch and just used a plastic spoon that didn't reach the bottom of the tun. When I dumped the mash tun, I had a ton of dough balls (easily a couple of pounds) at the bottom. I still reached my target of 80% efficiency. But if I'd broken the dough balls up, I bet I'd have been able to collect another couple of gallons of runnings for a bigger batch of beer!
 
I am more of tim "the tool man" talyor and i bought the biggest baddest paddle i could find........36" of SS for $24.00
 
If you slowly add the grain to the water and mix it in at several points during this addition, dough balls shouldn't be an issue.
 
Sir Humpsalot said:
I use a mash paddle with my mash canoe when I go rowing down the mash river. Eventually though, I start to approach the Vorlauf Falls and I have to carry my canoe down to the other side. Once there, I continue paddling on the River Wort as little mini-humans toss hop flowers in my general direction and sing songs until my canoe gets stuck in the Krausen.


Willie Wonka's Chocolate factory has nothing on me.
Family guy already did this.
 
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