What Spoon/Paddle for cordless drill please?

[Mattpc]

I've taken the plunge and bought a cheap cordless drill purely for brewing purposes. I want to use to aerate the wort when pitching the yeast. I've got the bog standard long plastic brewing spoon. The main bore of the handle won't fit in to the drill but the small hook eye will. This works ok for very gentle aeration but it usually falls out in the end. I might take a stanley knife to it, cut off the hook and narrow out the bore of the main body of the handle on the top so that it fits in to the drill. Failing that, can anyone suggest a nice spoon that is likely to fit straight in to a £20 cordless drill please? The drill is a Silverlinec 12V Drill Driver bought new on ebay.

[windrider]

Malt Miller sells somethng to aerate wort and can be used for whirl pooling: http://themaltmiller.co.uk/index.php?_a ... ductId=726
(might be a bit overkill seeing it's more expensive than your drill lol).

[Jocky]

The malt miller thing looks great, but it's pretty big and wasn't going to fit my fermenter, so I got one of these: http://www.screwfix.com/p/power-paint-mixer/61617

£5 and the best labour saving device I have for my brew day. Run it in forwards for mixing the mash, then rinse it off and dump in a bucket of iodophor until ready to aerate, where I run it backwards to froth everything up.

[Mattpc]

The malt miller thing appears to be out of stock sadly. I'm a bit worried about the foodsafe credentials of the paint mixers which is a pity as they would otherwise be a good option..

[hazelbrew]

The malt miller thing appears to be out of stock sadly. I'm a bit worried about the foodsafe credentials of the paint mixers which is a pity as they would otherwise be a good option..

I use a zinc plated paint stirrer. Cheap, effective. Screwfix has them

http://www.galvanizeit.org/knowledgebas ... ized-steel

FDA in US approve zinc for use with food stuffs as long as not high acid like tomato or lime.
http://www.galvanizeit.org/hot-dip-galv ... -with-food

if worried about food safe credentials...

there is a stainless version here...
http://www.coleparmer.co.uk/Product/303 ... Z-04541-00

must be others. That seems expensive

[Mattpc]

It is expensive but it looks like a good piece of kit. Thanks for sharing the link. For now I've whittled down a basic plastic brewing spoon so that it thinner than normal and removed the hook from the end of it. This appears to be a fairly effective, foodsafe and very cheap solution. I don't think it will be quite as effective as the paint stirrer but I can live with that. I am a bit fussy when it comes to foodsafe I'm afraid and I don't really trust US food legislation. It's not so much my body but family and friends who I want to feed the beer to..

Also, I use starsan, surely that's pretty acidic?

[hazelbrew]

yes starsan is. hmmm that has me thinking!

maybe that explains the poor state of my paint stirrer. starsan is coming out well below 3 ph. that is really acidic.

and for the price of the stainless stirrer... maybe better getting some pure oxygen kit instead?

[Mattpc]

Maybe.. Pure oxygen kit probably is the way to go but personally I don't want a pure oxygen cylinder in my house. I kind of think a stainless steel stirrer is probably a good investment. It's the sort of thing that in ten years time if you gave up brewing you could probably sell it second hand for what you paid for it new a decade ago.. However, Until I'm feeling a bit less poor I'm going to give this plastic spoon a go. I've spent a fortune buying cornelius kegs and making kegerators this year. My motivation for the drill is I've bought a keg washer attachment so I thought to make the most of my dedicated brewing drill I should really explore pitching the yeast in the most effective way possible too.

[Jocky]

To be fair I did share some concerns over the coating on the paint stirrer and as a result of how useful I've found it I've now ordered the stainless one from Cole Parmer at 9x the price of the original.

Oxygen is still a definite future possibility for me.

[Mattpc]

has anyone tried using a handheld electric baking mixer/whisk. You know the type your mum had for making cakes?

[GAZ9053]

One of these does the trick. https://www.hopandgrape.co.uk/whizz-sti ... asser.html

[E J Gumby]

Whatever you use or whatever you do, DO NOT do what I did yesterday.

Decided to whisk up my second Maxi - BIAB batch, prior to pitching, using my BRAND NEW cordless drill I got from Lidl a few weeks ago.

Forgot to check before I started. After about a minute I found out the battery wasn't clipped on properly.

Dropped straight into the bloody FV!

Stuck my hand in and fished it out, rinsed it out in clean water and left it to dry overnight.

Went back to it tonight when it was dry, give the terminals on both the battery and the drill a quick squirt of contact cleaner, and the bleedin' thing only worked!
And the beer is frothing away like a good'un.

Now - Battery-flavoured beer anyone?

[Trefoyl]

One of these does the trick. https://www.hopandgrape.co.uk/whizz-sti ... asser.html

Very similar to what I use
https://www.morebeer.com/products/yeast-stirrer.html
I used to use an all plastic one until I saw it was getting scratched by the neck of the carboy.

[BrannigansLove]

I use the screwfix paint mixer posted above, and have not experienced any issues with it.

[Jocky]

I now have the Cole Palmer one. It's fine for stirring the mash and obliterating dough balls, but it's crap for aeration compared to the screw fix paint mixer.