Fibonacci Compost Tea Brewers

What is compost tea and why is it important?

Brewing actively aerated compost tea consists of mixing a starting culture of microbes with food, in highly oxygenated water, so they can reproduce rapidly. Typically the microbiology will double every 20 min or so. The quantity and quality of nutrients available for your plants in an organic system is directly related to the microbiology that inhabits it. Compost Tea is the most effective way to improve the nutrient profile of any organic system.

The Fibonacci brewer produces superior mixing and aeration compared to blubbers or air stones. Its simple design is a breeze to assemble and clean, providing the premium performance of high end brewers, while significantly cheaper, and an overall much easier system to use.

What to look for when shopping for a compost tea brewer

Although the concept is simple, the implementation of a quality brewer often ends up complicated and expensive. A good reliable brewer will have these three qualities.

Oxygenation

As the microbes begin to rapidly multiply, hours into the brew, they require increasing levels of oxygen to maintain the escalating growth. Insufficient oxygen during this time will result high mortality of the beneficial microbiology and the rapid rise of anaerobic toxic bacteria instead. This is a failed batch which is unusable and typically toxic. This dip in oxygen can take place very quickly, in less than 30 min. and without your ever knowing it happened. Once this condition has occurred, your brew is ruined and the culture will not recover.

To help avoid this problem, low cost brewers with limited oxygenating capacity can use smaller starter cultures and yields to help compensate, but it is a tricky balance.

Circulation w/o mechanical destruction

The starter culture of microbes and food must be constantly mixed with sufficient agitation to insure their interaction. The microbiology tends to want to cling together. To break them free from their desired clumping tendencies requires agitation without mechanical destruction. Water pumps used to circulate and agitate the mixture can result in mechanical destruction of your microbes and so must be either carefully tested or avoided all together.

Easily Cleaned

The brewer needs to be able to be thoroughly cleaned easily. Otherwise, a bio film of microbiology will build up over time creating anaerobic zones that are extremely detrimental to your brews. Air stones are pretty much impossible to really clean. Likewise complicated chambers and hose systems can be tedious and difficult to clean.

How the Fibonacci Compost Tea Brewer Works

Air is pumped into the Fibonacci chamber (white) where it mixes the air and tea at high speeds to raise the tea to the surface. (It turns the entire contents over in less than 5 min.) At the top. the tea is thrust in opposite directions as it is returned to the drum to induce rotational circulation causing further aeration and mixing.