Reddit reviews Mix-Stir, 24 Stirring Tool

As others have said. Stirring the wort vigorously over the coil helps immensely as does having a really good coil. There are equations and math for heat transfer that are above my pay grade, but stirring helps a ton.

I got sick of hitting my IC with my spoon and I could never really get it going enough to really make a difference. On a whim I picked up a wine aerator and used it. The plastic melted the paddles, but it was the fastest I've ever cooled my wort (the low temp ground water helped too). I bought some high temp plastic and made paddles out of it with a dremel and now I don't worry about it. I use a small cordless drill to run the aerator and it's so fast.

It's like this one:

https://www.amazon.com/The-Vintage-Shop-Mix-Stir-Stirring/dp/B00EKKOEOE

I replaced the plastic paddles with handmade versions of this plastic:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013HM04S/

(It wasn't $17 when I bought it).

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I haven't used an all metal one, but if I were to go back and do it, I might give it a try since it wouldn't require modifications:

https://www.norcalbrewingsolutions.com/store/Brewing_Paddle_Ultimate_Whirlpool_Paddle.html Or this one

https://brewhaequipment.com/products/mash-mixer

Or just a regular "paint mixer" at Home Depot or similar home & garden center in your area.

The key here is that the aerator fits well within the coils. Plastic might be better here because it won't damage your IC if you're off by a bit. I usually set my drill to the low gear and go full tilt. When it gets below 100 ºF or so I usually turn on gear 2 and stir fast enough to see the bottom of my 10 gallon pot (5 gallon batch typically).

This really makes a difference in the cooling rate, but I admit that I haven't measured it out. You can watch the temp drop fast on my kettle with this, whereas before it was quite a bit slower. Plus, when my wort goes into my fermentor it's usually well-aerated. I typically add my yeast in the kettle and give that a big stir too. Works great. Highly recommend trying something like this.

This kind will, but I've never used that brand before. I've seen them in the shop and they look kind of flimsy. I just use buckets the whole way through. If I'm going to age for like 6 months I'll transfer to a carboy, but buckets are so much easier for degassing and adding fruit/spices/oak cubes that I can't imagine using a carboy for primary.