well I smelt it and it was earthy, But cutting veg time, Im all ears Buddy talk to me.
CT, whats the Brewer do a Bucket and bubbler doesnt?, Gotta be something?
Essentially that's all a compost tea brewing system is...a container and an air pump. The issue is figuring out the variables involved and this is where the testing comes in. Now keep in mind that not all the commercial tea brewers on the market have been tested thoroughly. Only a few that I know of, and I work in that industry.
Look at it this way though...you're trying to maximize your microbial growth while maintaining dissolved oxygen above 6 mg/l in order to select for beneficial aerobic microbes. To do this, you have to know the biology of your compost so you know how much to use, what amounts of "foods" for the microbes (molasses, alfalfa meal, fish hydrolysate, humic acid, kelp, etc...), how long to brew for (this will vary considerably based on your water temp, compost quality, elevation, etc...). If you're paying hundreds for a brewer, then the company you buy from should have spent thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, to ensure they can get good tea every time. They should be able to tell you how long to brew with their ingredients based on your water quality, ambient temperature, and elevation. That's a lot of what you're paying for in my opinion.
Don't listen to claims by sales people or testimonials. Look for biological tests and evidence they have more than just one on their website. See if their company has a microscope and actually knows how to use it and is looking at brews on a regular basis. These are questions I would want answered when deciding on a commercial system.
In addition to testing, I would want to know what kind of customer support they have, how much replacement materials cost (compost and foods), how easy it is to use, and how easy it is to clean (few parts, nothing hidden that can get bio-film buildup).
Again, this is to MAXIMIZE the quality of our tea. If you want to use a few small aquarium pumps and only make 1 gallon at a time, you could probably do that for cheaper. You just won't know exactly what you've got in your mix or the quality of it.