Paint mixer as brewing equipment

[Owly055]

An unlikely piece of brewing equipment....

The other day I pressed a brand new Home Depot paint mixer into service to re-ignite a stalled fermentation on my rocket fuel #2 brew. The invert sugar syrup from my last addition had settled to the bottom beneath the trub. After heat sterilizing the galvanized steel paint mixer, I put it in a cordless drill and thrust it into the bottom of my fermenter, mixing slowly and reversing direction to avoid creating a vortex and aerating. It worked wonderfully, and it has been percolating like a coffee pot ever since.

I will hence forth use the paint mixer as an aeration tool. It's strong tendency to create a vortex means that it should rapidly aerate wort. It's an excellent tool. I've tested it in water to see what it does, and it's just what the doctor ordered!

H.W.

 

[GABrewer1426]

I use that sort of thing to aerate my wort as well. I initially used it when I had made a batch of wine and didn't even think to add it as part of my brewing day.

Ever since using it to aerate, my beer has come out that much better.

Don't forget to keep some towels handy. I have gotten a little over zealous with mine and had to wipe wort off of cupboards, the floor, the counter, the dog, ....

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

There are stainless steel versions of them too.

I used it for doughing in.

 

[Owly055]

I use that sort of thing to aerate my wort as well. I initially used it when I had made a batch of wine and didn't even think to add it as part of my brewing day.

Ever since using it to aerate, my beer has come out that much better.

Don't forget to keep some towels handy. I have gotten a little over zealous with mine and had to wipe wort off of cupboards, the floor, the counter, the dog, ....

There truly is nothing new under the sun.........


H.W.

 

[Owly055]

There are stainless steel versions of them too.

I used it for doughing in.

I hardly think stainless is necessary.......... Excellent idea for doughing in..... I hadn't thought of that (yet).

The next thing I'm waiting to see is a "flushing sink" for the brew shed. A sink you can dump trub, etc into, and flush like a toilet. A 3" trap and drain..... Anybody done that yet

H.W.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I hardly think stainless is necessary.......... Excellent idea for doughing in..... I hadn't thought of that (yet).

The next thing I'm waiting to see is a "flushing sink" for the brew shed. A sink you can dump trub, etc into, and flush like a toilet. A 3" trap and drain..... Anybody done that yet

H.W.

Have seen laundry tub sinks with disposals.

The galvanized versions tend to flake over time.

 

[blizz81]

For the carboy users of the world, the "MixStir" product does the same thing. Though aeration as late as the point of a stuck fermentation (assuming some fair amount of fermentation happened and then stalled) will probably not yield good results / is probably too late to be introducing that much oxygen.

 

[pvpeacock]

This is one of my most versatile brewing tools. I use it to dough in. I use it stir when I batch sparge. I use it to stir while using my immersion chiller which really, really speeds up the temperature drop. Finally, I use it to whirlpool the cool wort before draining my brew kettle. I would use it aerate the wort as well if I didn't use pure O2. Cheap, easy to use and works well. The only negative is that my biceps aren't getting any bigger from manually doing all of those jobs.

As for using stainless steel, I'm not sure that is necessary. However, I did leave my paint stirrer in a bucket of starsan for days and it stripped the metal right off the shaft of the stirrer. Now I just dip in starsan for any post-boil use (stirring with IC or whirlpooling)

 

[sensortech]

I use one for doughing in as well, never thought to use it for aeration.

Word of CAUTION: If for some reason your drill ****s the bed while crushing your grain, it's not the best idea to to substitute an impact driver to dough in. Wow, do those start fast! (from what i've heard) ha ha

 

[GABrewer1426]

OOOoh. I like the paint mixer as a way to chill the wort faster. I just used a sanitized spoon to stir it.
Now my drill will get even more use as a brewing tool!!

 

[SnakeRidge]

I use one of the plastic ones pictured above to dough in and occasionally Jackson Pollack my back porch and myself with mash.

 

[brewbama]

I chuck one of SWMBO's hand mixer whisks in the 18v cordless. The same drill powers the JSP Malt Mill.

 

[pvpeacock]

GABrewer, you will be surprised at how much faster the wort cools using the paint mixer. A word of caution however. I have read many articles debating the existence or effect of "hot side aeration." While I don't know which side to believe, I try to play it safe by keeping the splashing to a minimum until the wort drops below 100 degrees, then I really crank it up. I find that it really isn't that hard to avoid splashing as long as the mixer is well below the surface of the wort.

 

[WayFrae]

I heard Jamil talk about people using these for aeration on an episode of Brew Strong. He says you need to be very careful not to create too much foam since it will denature the "foam-only-once" proteins that create foam and maintain head retention. He also mentions that it has potential to introduce wild yeast and bacteria that are riding on dust particles to your wort.

 

[pvpeacock]

When I use mine to help cool the wort faster with my IC and to whirlpool, I don't get any foam at all. Again, that is because I keep the mixer below the surface of the wort. I find that you don't get much if any splashing or foam unless you break the surface of the wort with the mixer. As long as it is below the surface of the wort, it just stirs it really well even at fairly high speed. Oh, also make sure for this particular mixer that its stirring in a clockwise direction because of the way the blades curve. Going counter-clockwise can cause quite a bit of splashing.

 

[GABrewer1426]

GABrewer, you will be surprised at how much faster the wort cools using the paint mixer. A word of caution however. I have read many articles debating the existence or effect of "hot side aeration." While I don't know which side to believe, I try to play it safe by keeping the splashing to a minimum until the wort drops below 100 degrees, then I really crank it up. I find that it really isn't that hard to avoid splashing as long as the mixer is well below the surface of the wort.

Thanks for the advice.

I brewed yesterday and used my paint mixer during the chill process.
I did notice a slight decrease in my chilling process. Or rather it seemed like less time. I used it on the lowest setting so that I was just getting a gentle stir.

Kept the splashing to a minimum as much as possible.

It will probably be a process I keep since I use the paint mixer anyway, it's not any "extra" work for me.

Thanks All!

 

[kombat]

I hardly think stainless is necessary.

I had the galvanized one once, and it started rusting/flaking after just a few brews. I threw it away and switched to a Fizz-X, it works much better.