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Homemade AACT Actively Aerated Compost Tea


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Guest OnlyTheGood

That's never an easy one to answere ....aact can actually be incredibly  dangerous for us , it's the aeration that stops all those really bad bacteria from breading . That being said though I would say 2 hours should be ok. You will have suffered microbe loss but not anything to bad . The best way is to test us smell , if you have made tea before you will  know it has a very distinct sweet smell. If you smell it and you pick up any rotten or bad smells throw it away straight away. I actually like to put h2o2 in the mix if it does smell bad to kill the bad bacteria before i dump it , a bad aact could put you in hospital.

 

Load shedding is a part of our lives now so what i can suggest is going to your local tackle shop and getting a battery powered air pump for those days. They not expencive , I think i bought mine for R50

 

Cheers

Reaf

Reaf,

 

Two things, some of the really bad bacteria can survive in aerobic conditions, it's not a sure fire thing, that's why starting material is important, and many shy away from manures, guano, fish emulsion, etc.

 

Second, if your tea still smells sweet at the end of your brew cycle, your probably using too much sugar, as the microbes consume the food the sweet smell should fade to an earthier aroma.

 

You're spot on about tossing any tea that ends up smelling anaerobic.

 

General tea enthusiasts,

 

The most important thing when brewing AACT is enduring there is enough oxygen being delivered to your brew, don't skimp on buying a good air movement device and later wonder why your tea is inconsistent. I use a compressor, a splitter and 4 large air stones.

 

Next, make sure you have enough water movement, dead spots are your enemies best friend so avoid corners.  There are some nice techs out there for building Brewers using 200l drums which can be obtained relatively cheaply

 

Don't brew for longer than 36 hours, you have an increased chance of monoculture developing in your tea, which is the inverse of what we are trying to achieve.

 

Happy brewing!

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