Mash Paddle - Unbelievably generous gift!

Brent Dowell

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So, The mail lady calls me and mumbles something. Never quite sure what she says, but I do know it means she has a package down at the mail box and I can either drive down 2 miles to pick it up, or else I'll have to drive all the way to town to get it tomorrow. I jump in the truck and lead foot it on down and she hands me this long narrow box.

I'm liking the way this is shaping up so I lead foot it even faster on the way back home.

Now you have to understand, I've been trading PM's back and forth with Ryan Mooney a bit lately about sausage making and brewing. One of the beers we had at BW was my attempt to make a 'blonde' ale that Ryan had passed my way.

So I open the box and find this, a wooden box all nicely crated up.

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Well, This is getting might interesting I say to myself. I go and grab a little pry bar and open up the crate.

And look whats here! A beautifully hand carved mash paddle! Since I've been brewing one of the items I've been most in need of is a good mash paddle.

My old one I made to thin and it comes dangerously close to breaking each time I use it.

This one is really too nice looking to use, but I'm not going to let it stop me. I think a fine coating of wort might be just the ticket to finish this off!

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Ryan, I don't know what to say. This is just incredible! I'm actually just blown away by this. If I had any brewing friends around I'm quite sure they would be very, very jealous!

Thank you very, very much!
 
:D Here's hoping it works as well as it looks! Brent had grumbled a bit about his old paddle a few times and asked some Q's about one of the other ones I'd made so I figured the best way to (finally - months later :rolleyes:) respond was by example. I was digging through my wood stash a while back (before BW actually!! was even hoping to get this done before that - needless to say my timeline slipped) and saw a piece of wood that just begged to be a mash paddle. My first thought was that it was hickory but after cutting into it I'm pretty sure its not - best guess I have is elm (the risks of picking up stacks of unlabeled wood from a furniture factory..) either way it was pretty straight grain, seemed tough enough and wasn't to porous and was just about spot on the right size so it sure looked like a mash paddle trying to escape from a board to me :D

I was slightly worried about the (carved) knot at the end gathering gunk so I left it as a larger strand size which should hopefully be easy enough to clean. I usually leave most mash paddles mostly unadorned for easy cleaning but sometimes can't help myself.

One other feature perhaps worth noting is the bowl (paddle?) end - I tend to leave them rather square. Because of that the lip on the end is rather weak so I take most of it off and just leave the sides of the bowl as wings. For the purpose that actually works pretty well - the square end gets into the corner of the mash tun/kettle and having a wee bit of a remaining bowl you can also use it to skim samples off of the top.

Anyway - here's hoping it makes your next brew day just a smidge more enjoyable :beer:
 
:D Here's hoping it works as well as it looks! Brent had grumbled a bit about his old paddle a few times and asked some Q's about one of the other ones I'd made so I figured the best way to (finally - months later :rolleyes:) respond was by example. I was digging through my wood stash a while back (before BW actually!! was even hoping to get this done before that - needless to say my timeline slipped) and saw a piece of wood that just begged to be a mash paddle. My first thought was that it was hickory but after cutting into it I'm pretty sure its not - best guess I have is elm (the risks of picking up stacks of unlabeled wood from a furniture factory..) either way it was pretty straight grain, seemed tough enough and wasn't to porous and was just about spot on the right size so it sure looked like a mash paddle trying to escape from a board to me :D

I was slightly worried about the (carved) knot at the end gathering gunk so I left it as a larger strand size which should hopefully be easy enough to clean. I usually leave most mash paddles mostly unadorned for easy cleaning but sometimes can't help myself.

One other feature perhaps worth noting is the bowl (paddle?) end - I tend to leave them rather square. Because of that the lip on the end is rather weak so I take most of it off and just leave the sides of the bowl as wings. For the purpose that actually works pretty well - the square end gets into the corner of the mash tun/kettle and having a wee bit of a remaining bowl you can also use it to skim samples off of the top.

Anyway - here's hoping it makes your next brew day just a smidge more enjoyable :beer:

I think the way you have the paddle end shaped is just about perfect. Elm, Hickory, It's nice and tight grain that's for sure, and it's very tough and thick enough to handle 10 gallon batches for sure!

Really, It's fantastic. I can't even tell you how anxious I am to use it.

How kool Ryan:thumb::thumb::thumb: great looking paddle, and Brent, you had better use it, just the looks of it will make your brews incredible:) well done:thumb:

I will be using it. I'm crash cooling the current batch that's in the fermenter and will be putting it into kegs. Looks like I get to have another brew day this weekend!
 
I'm a would like to be brewer, but the wife says I have enough to keep me busy. Maybe if I showed here that mash paddle she could be convinced! That is really nice. I don't think I would use it would hang on the wall in a frame.
 
You da Man Ryan. Well done and Brent enjoy it. Your beer was darn good and proof of that is all the yellow cups that show up in the photos.

Ryan I can see a paddle like that coming in handy for a few other things too. Where I come from the indigenous people would use a large paddle like that except with rounded tip corners to stir the "pap" or maize porridge in huge three legged cast iron pots over the fire. :)

Love the knot you got on the end. Perfect. You should do a tutorial on how we could carve that knot.
 
Ryan I can see a paddle like that coming in handy for a few other things too. Where I come from the indigenous people would use a large paddle like that except with rounded tip corners to stir the "pap" or maize porridge in huge three legged cast iron pots over the fire. :)

I'm guessing its probably a flatter paddle - which would work well for beer to - at least for the mashing step (which is pretty darn close to making porridge for the first part :D). For anything smaller.. I think it would be a bit on the unwieldy side.

Love the knot you got on the end. Perfect. You should do a tutorial on how we could carve that knot.

Far from perfect but we're getting there. A tutorial is on my todo but I want to get a dozen or so more under my belt first. I have the basic idea down but still have a few head scratchers everytime I do one on a couple of layout issues so I'd like to get those wired in my own head before attempting to try and explain them to someone else (otherwise I'm afraid we'd all just be scratching our heads :D).
 
Well, I'm brewing today, and I have to say that mash paddle made things SOOOO much nicer.

I'm actually brewing an adjuct beer, in which I put in 5pounds of cooked rice to lighten up the color a bit. Think of it as a lawnmower beer, with a kick of flavor.

Anywho, Rice can be difficult to mash, because of it's stickiness and the fact it brings no husks to use a filtration to the party.

No problem, I was able to dig deep with this sturdy paddle and mix things up a few times to keep things flowing quite nicely.

No stuck sparge! Yay!

The paddle is also enjoying getting a nice covering of sugars. That should make a nice finish for it over time.

Thanks again Ryan!!!!:thumb:
 
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