Lawrence Brewers Guild

What do you use for a mashing / mixing paddle, and what do you like / dislike about it?

Large plastic spoon
Large wood spoon
Wood oar-like paddle (with or without holes)
Wood dowel rake
Stainless steel mixing paddle
Large paint mixer thing

We use a medium sized plastic spoon and a wood dowel rake. The spoon needs to retire. I thought about making a wood oar-like paddle, but was curious what other's used.

For those that use wood, have you ever had a problem with mold, etc, growing on it?

Website that has some decent items with reasonable shipping

http://www.foodservicewarehouse.com/mix ... 3-803.aspx

I use a paddle very similar to this:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/b ... weled.html

Bought mine from one of the ZZHops guys about 6 years ago at the KCBS comp.

HUGE difference from the plastic and stainless spoons I tried earlier.

Stainless steel paddle...Restaurant Depot $12

A real, heavy duty, Stainless steel mixing paddle, not that wimpy one like Jason uses.

Ive got three paddles. My cherished paddle is my Cherry paddle that Jimvy made me years and years ago. Then Ed Vandergrift won a dowel paddle at KCBM 4-5 yrs ago and gave it to me to use for all the big brews we do. If you have ever been at a group brew at my place, you have used these paddles. The third paddle is a SS one like the Wimpy ones Jason and Jeff use. That one stays in storage as it is to wimpy.

It is not how large your paddle is...it is how well you use it

I've had a 18 - 20" SS spoon I've been using for years. Actually it gets used for other things through most of a brewday. My grainbeds aren't that deep using a 72 Qt Coleman for the MT so it works fine here.