Retire your mash paddle... POWER TOOL TIME

[sirsloop]

I was brewing with Bobby_M last night doing an english barleywine. We filled up his keggle with strike water and dumped like 28lbs of grain on top. We're lookin at this massive dough ball and we're like... oh crap. Bobby mentions he has this spiral grout mixer that would probably break it all up. Like this...

So we hook it up to his cordless drill and mix THE **** out of the mash with "barley" any effort. This thing works AWESOME!!! It was so good that I went to Lowes this morning and spend 12 bucks on my own! HAH! I hooked it up to my 7A corded MONSTER drill and went to town on my own 29lbs barleywine this afternoon! HAHAH! Whats great is after you are done brewing you can drop it in the wort and use it to stir your hot wort around the IC.

GET ONE!

 

[Yuri_Rage]

I've been using a large paint stirrer for years. It works great!

 

[shortyjacobs]

Yeah, I saw Yuri using one in one of his videos, (steam infusion, methinks)....Tried it a few weeks ago on a double batch with 26 lbs grain...awesome...only after did I realize the trick you mentioned about dropping it in the boil and using to stir/whirlpool after, (which I will be doing next brew.

Very kickass.

 

[Hardtack]

Five gallon paint stirrers for the win!

 

[The Pol]

Five gallon paint stirrers for the win!

That is what I am going to be using too on my new system. I dont want to paddle in 30 pounds of grain!

 

[Hardtack]

That is what I am going to be using too on my new system. I dont want to paddle in 30 pounds of grain!

I also use it to air-rate my wort before pitching yeast ,there great , a quick spritz with starsan and your good to go,bout 3bucks at the hardware store.

 

[yodalegomaster]

power

Drill!! Where is the 1/2 horse Mortar mixer.

 

[IrregularPulse]

Ditto, Been using one for about a year and a half since I saw it on here.

 

[bendavanza]

with all the concerns about zinc plated metals and temp ratings of plastics, what are these stirrers made of? I know it's a short contact time but you wouldn't want a zinc plated IC right?

 

[The Pol]

with all the concerns about zinc plated metals and temp ratings of plastics, what are these stirrers made of? I know it's a short contact time but you wouldn't want a zinc plated IC right?

20 minutes versus 20 seconds. I personally wouldnt be worried much

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Mine is powder coated steel. I avoid zinc for all things brewing, regardless of the contact time.

 

[greenbirds]

Was wondering the same thing, since many metals are more soluble in an acidic environment. Now, a mash is around 5.2-5.6, which isn't too serious. If you guys haven't had any problems, though, I might look into this...

 

[sirsloop]

I'll have to check and see what mine is made of...some kinda metal. Like already mentioned, the contact time is extremely brief. You're talking about 9 gallons of water and 29 pounds of grain getting touched by a piece of metal for a minute tops. Inside a minute you took your monster doughball to oatmeal with zero balls.

 

[Bobby_M]

You wanna have a heart attack? My stirring paddle had tried grout and thinset in the crevices and the powdercoat was worn in many areas. Oh noes. ;-)

 

[shortyjacobs]

This was my only concern with mine too... I used it once for grout when I bought it, (then nothing until the last batch of beer), and the grout wore away some of the plating, (zinc? chrome?) exposing a coppery colored layer underneath. I scrubbed the crap out of it with a green scrubbie from 3M, and no more silver came off, so I'm just hoping it's OK. I figure, like others, that short contact time won't kill me.

 

[shroomzofdoom]

You wanna have a heart attack? My stirring paddle had tried grout and thinset in the crevices and the powdercoat was worn in many areas. Oh noes. ;-)

A little grout in your beer adds gypsum!

Every time I brew with Bobby I learn some pretty cool stuff. Sorry I missed it!

 

[bendavanza]

MMTG posted about stainless "jiffy" mixers, I may get one. Their website would not load for me but here are some on amazon
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=jiffy+mixer&x=0&y=0

 

[bdennis]

This was a huge help! I've helped a friend do some all grain batches with his mash paddle. I just did my first all grain today with a grout mixer and it was so much easier. Thanks again.

 

[cercueil]

I just used a paint stirrer on Saturday when brewing and it was awesome. I brewed an IPA in 4 hours. I used it 4 times:

1. When mashing in to mix the grains
2. After adding the sparge water to mix the grains again
3. To spin the water around the chiller. The temperatue drops so fast this way.
4. To aerate the wort before pitching the yeast. Once I get an O2 regulator I wont need to do this step but it did create huge amounts of foam in less than 5 minutes.