Ok, so this tool isn’t a brewing tool per se. It was my very first mash paddle!

On my mom’s recent trip to visit her new grand-kitties she spotted me using this old bamboo spatula that she gave me 21 years ago to take to college. Turns out the thing is probably older than me (40 years?) and came from a little hole in the wall store in Orlando’s tee-tiny Chinatown (now a little Saigon district). It was good little laugh to know just how old the thing is and how it just keeps going. It’s my old reliable spatula of everythingness.There’s something about the comfort of using the same tool. The way that I know how it moves and how much force is needed to do anything. This thing has made everything from eggs, bread dough, mash balls, stir frys and more.

Which makes me wonder – what old tools do you cling to? (brewing or not!)