Hi, everyone. I hope you’ll forgive my ignorance for this post but I’m totally lost and need some info.
I want to do something special for my husband and he is an avid home brewer. I wanted to get him a custom made wooden mash paddle (possibly made by a family member). I’ve noticed a lot of home brewers have made theirs from maple and I understand it needs to be made from hard wood with small pores so I figured maple is a good choice. My issue now is whether or not to have the wood finished.
Many people have said that the wood won’t transfer flavored to the beer, so that’s fine - but many also finish their wood with a food grade mineral oil, which sounds great but I’ve heard this could affect the beer’s head retention. <— I do not! Want to be the reason why my husband is complaining that his beer doesn’t have a nice head or decent lacing or anything like that. He’s very particular with this.
So, I’d like to know - is this mineral oil tale true? Should I still attempt to seal the wood or would it be fine unfinished? Right now, he has a plastic one (meh) so we have no experience or knowledge on the wooden ones. Since this is going to be a surprise, I can’t exactly ask him what he would think. Any and all advice is welcome!!
Thanks guys!