Engraving my mash paddle

I bought a wood mash paddle and just had a bright idea. I was thinking of measuring out gallons in my brew kettle and engraving the levels on my paddle. My thought being I can more effectively measure how much liquid I have after each of the various boiling and soaking related step. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Would it have any negative side effects on the brew process?

 

Good idea, carve away and post pics.

 

I did this with a plastic mash paddle and its great to have an estimate of volumes through my brew day. I would mark each half gallon off with a sharpie and then burn it into the paddle with a soldering iron.

Cheers

Chans

 

It'll work just fine, lots of my customers do the same thing with their paddles. Wood does expand and contract with moisture, the more porous the wood, oak for example, the more expansion. The good news is that wood expands much more ACROSS the grain then length wise. So go ahead and mark away, even with moisture your marks will still accurate.

 

I am all set to do this tonight, I am going to mark off my brew kettle on one side, would there be any value in marking off my mash tun volume on the other?

 

Sure if all your going to do it measure the liquid with any grain in it, because do to the variability of your grain bill the overall volume will change batch to batch......but since your an intellegent person you probably already knew that

 

Speaking of mash paddles; want to make one and am wondering should I put some type of protective finish on it. I realize stain or varathane would be a bad idea but my dad does woodworking and says to use some kind of oil to seal it. Any thoughts on this from those who have made them?

 

No need to add anything to seal it. I made mine out of an old piece of my neighbors oak fence. Surface planed it down to 3/4 inch and machined it into a paddle. I've used it on 50 or so batches and it looks as good as the day I built. Give it a good rinse after brewing and let it air dry. Just remember to put it away once you start chilling and all is good.

 

I would still be measuring the change in volume within the mash tun, regardless of the quantity of grain. I just can't decide if there would be much value in keeping track of that. I suppose for future brews I would be developing a better sense for the amount of fluid retained.

 

I didn't even think about this. I am currently using a 15 gallon keg for my boils, and the 5 gallon mark is exactly at the center of one of the rungs, so it's easy for me to see where i'm at. However, in the near future when I buy a real boiling pot... I guess I will need to find another way.

What other ways do people use to measure the volume mid-boil?

 

The finished product.

I used my 1 gallon measuring cup/pitcher to add each gallon. Just to be safe and for complete overkill I also marked the gallons in reverse as I drained the pot. Pretty easy. Took about an hour, but I also watched basketball, drank beer and cleaned the kitchen as I went, so an hour is debatable.

 

Those of you using plastic paddles, do you just mark them with a sharpie??

 

I took a small file and notched the gallon levels on my plastic spoon. As long as you only use that thing during a boil it works.

 

I took a file to a large stainless camping spoon I found one day. Turns out it was my wifes favorite.

Do not try this at home

 

My final thoughts now that I have used this paddle, I need bigger numbers. In a steam filled boiling pot, water levels were hard to read.

 

i use a ruler and do volume calculations...i should probably just calibrate my brew pot lol