AEROBIC TEA BREWER CONSTRUCTION

You are about to see six or seven pictures showing how you can make an aerobic tea brewer from very little materials. We leave the compressor and air supply hook up to your skill. This brewer will work on any compressor that will provide enough air to create a rolling boil somewhat like that you would see in a pot of whole potatoes. To make the highest quality aerobic tea we are looking for large rolling bubbles up through the brewer tower. One purchased compressor site is North Country Organics. A 300 watt fish tank heater will heat and hold a 40 gal. brew at the ideal temperature of 76 degrees. The rest we can show you because I built it looking at pieces run over by a truck. That was a mess. Here is what we came up with.

........Now if you give me half an hour or so I can maybe get all the pix in order and unbroken by comments or questions.


AEROBIC TEA BREWER


• INEXPENSIVE TO BUILD
• EASY TO CLEAN
• BREWS 5 GAL. TO 40 GAL.


LIST OF MATERIALS AND TOOLS

• I PC. 4” x 21” SCH. 30 THIN SOLID SEWER AND DRAIN PIPE
• I PC. 4” x 13” SCH. 30 THIN SOLID SEWER AND DRAIN PIPE
• I PC. 13” SQUARE SYNTHETIC DOOR SCREENING
• 2 1/4" X 1/2" STAINLESS STEEL BOLT
• 2 1/4” X 1/2" STAINLESS STEEL WING NUT
• 1 1/4” X 1/2 “ STAINLESS BOLT AND HEX NUT
• 2 4” SCH. 30 THIN END CAPS
• 1 1/2" X 13” CPVC PIPE
• 1 1/2” X 3” CPVC PIPE
• 1 1/2" CPVC END CAP
• 1 1/2" CPVC 90 DEGREE ELL
• 1 3/16” DRILL BIT
• 1 1/16” DRILL BIT
• JIG SAW
• 1/4” DRILL

This is the tower on its side to show the synthetic screen between two pieces of the pipe and the use of the stainless steel nuts and bolts to hold it together. Hang in there because the pictures to follow should answer many questions.

This clamp is made by cutting away part of the smaller piece of pipe. The screen goes between. The bolts hold it together. The proceedure is to snap the clamp over the larger pipe. Drill the two nut and bolt holes. Install both nuts and bolts. Draw your window similar to what you see. Drill a hole big enough to give your jig saw access and cut out both windows at the same time. I assume you have some sandpaper or a file to clean it up just a little.

This is the 1/2" CPVC AIR INLET PIPE. On the bottom you see a series of air exit holes through the pipe cap. These holes are made with the 1/16" drill bit. Eyeball is fine for distance between holes. Make it look like mine. At the top you see a 90 degree ell. This enables you to stick the 3" nipple through the side of the tower and get your air supply hooked up at that point. Most of you will need one or two fittings determined by the compressor you will use to make this hook up.

Now while you are drilling holes slip on the bottom tower 4 ' pipe cap and drill the 3/16" water inlet holes. Drill one 1/4" hole through the end cap at the bottom and bolt it on to the tower.

This brewer sets up tower circulation as the air bubbles rise the water is pulled into the tower by the rising bubbles. The water exits the window you made. The top 4" cap keeps the splash in the tower.

This picture made with the screen removed to show the air inlet pipe down through the aproximate center of the tower. Cut or trim the 1/2" pipe so that when it is in place the air outlet end cap is not able to chatter on the bottom of the tower. Make this adjustment after you drill the air inlet pipe entry hole in the tower.

Important when drilling the air inlet hole in the side of the tower is that you understand or are about to learn that there is a 3/4" drll bit but there is no such thing as a pipe sized drill bit. You will have to file or otherwise grind the hole to roughly fit the air inlet nipple diameter.
I do not know any other way. I used a Dremel hand grinder. A file will do as well just takes a little longer. Shown in this picture is a hanger we engineered and I believe the 1/4 " bolt in the bottom end cap.

None of my piping is glued because I like to tear it apart to clean. That is the beauty of this brewer tower. Cleanup is a snap in about fifteen minutes. You can avoid getting fluids into the air inlet pipe by having air turned on for inserting it into the tower as well as when removing it. Urica you can see all surfaces that need cleaned. Never use abrasive tools or materials to clean as this will increase you work. I use a bottle brush bought at the local food market. The wife did not like the idea or her's being in this biology factory.

That's all folks. Study them copy them and have fun. Please do not ask me about this and that type compressor. I bought mine from North Country Organics. It has no specification plate but they know what it does and that it will do the job. You call them if interested from that aspect. I will check in to answer questions.

My brewer in action. It's a five gallon brew at about the seventeen hour stage. Note the 300 watt fish tank heater. The other blue item is checking temperature at 76 degrees.

This message was edited Mar 22, 2008 9:43 PM

Thanks, doc, been looking for this! :) And pictures too, what more could a girl want?????????? LOL

One of the best over all articles on aerobic tea can be found on the web site of North County Organics. LOOK FOR...BOBOLATOR AEROBIC BREWER and extended links from there. All the basics are very well covered for any interested person.

docgipe, Thanks for posting this!

Doc,

Could you give me a brief synopsis of the benefits of compost tea? I recently saw a demonstration of this at the Washington DC home show, and was impressed that it did not smell. The smell has always been my main reason against this from the first time I heard of it. I'm wondering if it is beneficial to just the soil over the long haul or if it helps the plants immediately.

The compost that I saw was very fine - almost powderlike. It was completely unlike the compost that I have purchased at my local nursery. Although I probably will not be making a tea brewer myself from scratch, I am considering now purchasing one from Gardens Alive, since I have a $25 coupon or the company that was at the show, Pogo Organics.

In the brewer I have shown one uses just three or four cups of absolutely finished compost. That goes into the tower. The air in the form of large rapidly rising bubbles works through (not around) the compost stock. Other additives include but are not limited to: a cup of your native garden soil, black strap molasses, fish oil, kelp and alfalfa meal. Some makers replace one cup of compost and add one cup of earth worm casts.

It is assumed that this blend will give you a sampling of all your native soil's living biological content and a package that includes all living forms from bacteria, fungi and critters from amoeba to nematodes. When this mix is properly aeriated the living biology is increased by the thousands fold. The math is available but of no specific interest to me.
At the peak of brew development there is literally nothing but living biology left. All foods have been eaten up by the micro heard and it is ready to put on your plants and/or into the soil where there is satisfactory oxygen, food and environment for the biology to maintain life.

Two things happen. The biology will attach, continue living and even grow on both sides of the plant. This by the occupation theory prevents the bad pathegons and disease to get a foothold. This application is nether an insecticide nor a fungicide yet when made and applied properly it helps the plant to not be occupied by many insects and sometimes nearly all non-beneficial fungi. Very light applications of black strap molasses is included in this plant application as a food source. Regular insecticides and fungicides work against this occupational fact. Unfinished elements of compost including manure will almost always spoil aerobic tea efforts.

The other thing that happens is soil drenching simply by over use of foliar applications where in the biology brings a ga-zillion fresh new beneficials to build you native biology into a stronger beneficial army. Most if not all of the bad guys can not live in aerobic conditions. This is true of the brew and the soil innoculated by your brew.

There is little or no NPK in aerobic teas but the living biology goes immediately to work in the native soil to cause conversions and turn unavailable NPK into available plant food.

The use of aerobic tea is really a good relationship with the use of Mycorrhiza. Mycorrhiza can not create food for the plants. Their job is to find it and take it to the plant roots. The roots host the Mycorrhiza. The plant can not make it's own food. The plant creates and maintains a specialized food processing zone close to the roots. Both the plant and the Mycorrhiza bring the organic elements to this zone where the elements are converted to usuable food by your native bacteria specially nurtured by the plant. Then after all this magic the plant is able to take the food back in and therefore grow.

It has been found that small sizzling bubbles as produced by fish tank stones can create enough oxygen.....but there are losses in production because the small churning bublbles are abrasive to the bacteria and fungi. The tower brewer I have introduced is not my baby although after five years or more I have redesigned it in modest ways. It is the easiest to use the absolute easiest to clean which is very important and the cost even with compressor is reasonable. This is not to say other designs will not make aerobic tea. I will state that the design shown here makes a substancially better aerobic tea.

Honest............that was brief. :)))

Brief and to the point. Very well put as usual, doc :)

So, essentially the compost tea strengthens the soil's and plant's immune system?

If I undestand this correctly, it is one more item that I need to consider for my garden. My soil and plants are in good condition, but like the armed forces, I want them to "be all they can be!"

Would you say that once a month is sufficient?

I was coached by one of the best soil biologists. He had my history and past pretty well in tune as well as the soil bound difficulties I was honest about having.

The first year I made a five gallon batch for my patch and the close by flower beds once a week. The second year every other week. This was the year I could really see the progress. The third year once a month. The forth year three times over the whole season into the soil but I kept the foliar going with little run off once a month. When I got to the last third of the season I pushed the foliar back to every other week. Last year was my fifth year. I made forty gallons three times and foliar fed almost everything I could hit with my thumb over hose with a sump pump pushing the tea out to the beds.

I do not run a scientific record keeping system here. It just makes good sense and I can definately see the difference in most of my planting areas including the lawn. The only proof in the pudding I may have is the fact my giant pumpkins have had an average yearly improved growth of fifty pounds or more. The third year my long gourds went from an average of sixty-seventy inches to 98 inches long in the third year. My other around the edge garden plantings all improved in volume and size when I culled to get the larger fruit. If I said that all tasted better too someone will start an arguement so I will not tell you that all "stuff" tasted better. The melons sugared up a lot in the forth year and we tried to tell ourselves it was progressive. We had the best growing year all around in our forth year. The weather certainly was an important factor. Everything except our onions I believe could be classified as our best gardening year ever the forth year.

You can not over apply aerobic teas. Mycorrhiza and working to get the organic material content of the total between five and ten percent is a goal to strive for. When all of the practices and soil condition improves both in orgnanic content and structure so will the quality and size of your fruits. Higher percentages of organic content is OK but don't try to get there in less than five years. In the meantime you learn too and can better understand a nut like me when I say read the plants. They will tell you when they like what you have achieved.

Thank you for your insights. I bet the food did taste better.

Pennefeather...........what you saw at the home show was most likely dehydrated and pulverized compost that was literally put to sleep. That costs money but creates cash flow for the seller. Of course you would be told that is a better way to go. It may be the only way some growers can have good basic biological material to work with. I know one roof top gardner in NYC that is glad to pay the extra money for his unusual gardening proceedures. He would be in deep guanna if he tried to haul the makings of our finished compost up his elevator to his rooftop garden.

Using quality home made compost and other materials give the same result better. It will not stink in the aerobic state. All stinches you associate with gardening is rotting material in the anaerobic state.

The tan froth on the top of my brewer in action is actually biological barf and asperation. Because life at that level is so simple there is no expulsion of undigested matter. If you were in my garden seeing a demo I would now stick my finger into the asperation and taste it. No one else has ever followed my act nor have I suggested that anyone should but I know how pure it is and just can't help doing that. It smells like.........well it smells just like biological asperation. If it were anerobic one would have to say it smelled and tasted like animal poop or rotten greens if one were foolish enough to take the chance on ingesting some really bad pathegons. Any brew will revert to anerobic conditions if not constanty having high levels of oxygen and food left to maintain the aerobic condition so I do not lick the side of the bucket when cleaning up.

I don't make my own compost. I do shred all of my leaves, and then put them on the flower beds. I think that the compost that I have purchased in the past has been "composted manure". There definitely is a smell to this. Would this be okay to make tea or would I be better off with the leaf manure which I believe is also composted?

don't let me interrupt, but docgipe, awful generous of you to take the time to post all the instructions. you just about have me sold. (now if you ask me to tea I'll bring my own teabag tho.)

I agree SallyG!

It's good stuff and information that I'm glad you're sharing :)

My suggestion has always been for start up aerobic tea users is to go one step beyond the basic equipment and purchase "Tea Quality Compost" and the boosters. North Country Organics sells these items. I believe thirty dollars (estimated) would cover the whole first year for most surburban home gardeners. Another way to look at this is that even this way your cost per gallon of aerobic tea will be well under twenty cents. Looking at just the first month of use you might be using a whole five dollars worth of basic organic materials. Likewise go to North Country Organics for your basic start up the making of aerobic tea instructions. The owner of that site is a Biologist and really knows what he is talking about. From this quality start you can innoculate your own compost and have all the values because you started with a high quality Tea Compost.

After the initial set up and you are comfortable with the making you can then slide into your own compost where in the cost may go down to five cents a gallon. By dumpping the last cleanup rinse back into your compost you will maintain your biological community as well as any other person or company can.

It is not unlike making good wine. Some one taught the person who taught you. If you use any pre-ferment in bread baking you are into the same principles. You either bought or had to purchase your first living yeast, learn to feed or maintain it and then maybe help someone else. In the case of aerobic teas you simply assure yourself that your soil and compost are innoculated from a high quality source. Unless you make some horrible mistake you will literally be able to maintain your own source quality from the innoculation foreward.

In the final steps of the learning curve most individuals take on another level of human pride based on the awareness that you are helping build soil health. Based on the fact that you are now part of a larger world and comfortable that you are right. The process fits comfortably into any religious, scientific and many philosophy beliefs. Many societies have eaten humus and thrived on it. Aerobic Tea is just a step beyond humus into expanded biologicial communities from the humus.

Doc,

I'm just adding a link to an article in Fine Gardening that I came across on making compost tea.

http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/how-to/articles/brewing-compost-tea.aspx

That's a very interesting article. And now I have to figure out what they mean about making different composts, one for a high bacterial count and the other for a high fungal count. They explained more about the ingredients for additional bacteria but not about fungi, at least nothing I understood. We've been doing composting for over 20 years and this is the first time I've run across this distinction. I'm really curious about it. Fascinating idea.

doc do you know more about this? I know you've been doing compost for a lot longer than I have. I didn't realize you could fine tune it.

The more man messes with the natural combinations of the mycro herd the closer one gets to problems. Properly made manure based composts or purchased aerobic tea quality compost deliver a ballance that contains all the elements. Your plants with or with out your use of Mycorrhiza added will have all the fertilizer and everything else they need to grow to greatness when you brew you own aerobic tea and build organic content in your soil. My question is for us amateurs why try to change it? There is more than enough of both in a properly made brew plus the living critters in a properly made aerobic tea. No other tea or process can make that total claim. All tea processes have value. Some naturally are better than others. Gardeners as individuals have to deside what they like best.

It is my belief that a lot of these other ways to do things are born of a need for two things. First those magazines pay someone to fill their pages and so does this DG site. This creates a demand for all kinds of research articles. If the research is backed by ample testing and example it may become a part of the future practices of gardeners. Beyond that many ideas or systems have justifications that create sales of boosters and other elements. Often they are not needed at all. Commercial growers growing acres might have justification for fine tuning. Any gardener I know has a vast mix of plants.........enough to become a generalist needing a ballanced addition to the mycroherd.

For one of the best web sites on aerobic tea brewing go to North Country Organics and study their basics. They are one of the most informed groups I am aware of. I do not do or talk a lot about facts others have done a fine job with. Over and over I have said this. If you are interested in aerobic tea brewing go there and self educate.

Just read the above. It prints out a bit harsh. I did not mean it to be that way. No matter what I seem to have that ability from time to time.

Doc - I didn't read "harsh" in the least.
The information you have offered through your various posts are consistently succinct, educational, & straightforward - along with the voice of reason & experience which I greatly appreciate

All this to say no need to apologize for your opinions & experiences shared.
Might I add that although the exchange is via the written word/internet, it's as if you're right here speaking to this reader personally, encouraging me to absorb, observe & explore.
Thank you!

Hey...........I get a real high when someone takes an ounce from me and makes a pound. I see the aerobic tea as one of the easily transported high quality soil ammendments All one needs is high quality tea quality compost and a brewer. From that initial expense the process continues and spreads from where it started last. We now have some sizable truck farmers working with aerobic compost teas.

High quality compost is one absoutely finished into the humus state. It should be with all the basics in it's make up: manures, lots of varied plant material, leaves, trace minerals, mixed local soil with the critters from amoba to nematoads. Once the base is made into high quality compost only four cups of it will return forty gallons of aerobic tea. The application rate on good soil suggested is one gallon to acre. The biology going with one gallon of properly made aerobic compost tea has been said to be equal to that found in ten tons of a farmer's manure. To achieve maximum results the organic content of the soil needs to be built up so the biology has ample food to munch upon. When properly made it can not be over applied in any way to cause a negative reaction.

Hey doc, I agree 150 percent with Katye. I don't think you're harsh at all. Your directions are clear and concise and you back it up with experience. It's obvious you are passionate about this subject and know it well. It shows :) Always a good thing.

third in line to say I like the way doc writes

I got in line again...LOL!

Well think of the aerobic brewing as coming from a purchased bag of tea quality compost. Then you do your thing to make it many many times more valued without breaking any town or city laws concerning compost piles.

The whole bag of tricks will store in two five gallon buckets. Who needs to run an illeagle compost operation? The town fathers don't even know what compost is let alone aerobic tea. What they most often rule on is really a brush pile with leaves and grass that can harbor critters that like your table scraps.

When you make good aerobic tea there is no odor. When you make good aerobic tea you are produced and on the patch in eighteen to twenty four hours. When you make good aerobic tea nothing is long term to raise gossip and rumor mills working against yet another good gardening practice. When you make good aerobic tea you can put away the equipment out of sight before they wonder to much of anything.

Oh me oh my! In this day and age you might be better off to not go bragging on your biological factory. If the city fathers are scared of compost mum would be the sound of wisdom to me.

The same is true of any animal control you may have to enter into. Privacy and personal opinions are best left to wispers not preaching from any stump. Nothing in my state goes unprotected except yellow beakers (Starlings) and the noisey finch (English Sparrow).

Doc - a very heartfelt, appreciative thank you for writing this up so beautifully

Karen

doc, so you brew 18-24 hours correct. I just wanted to make sure I didn't read it wrong. Thanks, for all the information on the subject. I think alot of people are doing things organically and know nothing or little about compost tea.

I brew 35 - 40 gallons in 18 hours consistantly at seventy six degrees. The rate of time to achieve finish has to do with the effciency of the brewer design and cfm strong enough to saturate the water with oxygen. Therefore finish times could varry and it takes a certain minimum to achieve aerobic conditions.