Mash Paddles

The initial step for making beer is mixing crushed grains with hot water and letting it rest for typically an hour. This is called the ‘mash’, and the process for mixing the grain and the water is called ‘mashing in’. Depending on the grain/water ratio (called the ‘mash thickness’), the result ends up looking like porridge. In order to get a good mix and ensure there’s no clumps of grain (called ‘dough balls’), a good mash paddle is used.

There’s lots of great looking mash paddles out there – using a variety of different materials including wood and stainless steel, of all different shapes and sizes. For the 200L SS Brewtech pots that I had collected, I figured I’d probably need something a little more sizeable compared to the stuff that you can get at the home brew stores. One of the Dad’s at Brooklyn School, Stu Lawrie, had been building out his home CNC router setup and thought he could help out. We put together some ideas for what it might look like and rough dimensions and he set to work.

For a prototype, he built a first revision from plywood based on what we thought we’d need. It was cheap and easy to mill and gave us an idea of how far away we were in terms of an end design.

It quickly was apparent the original design was too long and thin in the handle. We chatted about ways to strengthen including inserting a steel bar, but ultimately decided that we could increase the width of the paddle easily enough. Coupled with a move towards a hard wood, we figured it would be pretty impossible to break. And thus, a few weeks later a second revision was produced using oak.

I’m pretty happy with this revision and looking forward to giving it a go. It’s much shorter than the original, but given that the pots will be sitting on a brewing rig, it will be a better fit for the vertical height that I have available in the brewery. If anyone is keen for something similar, I’m sure Stu will be happy to help you out, let me know and I can pass on his contact details!