To Foam Or Not To Foam: Why Isn't My Tea Foaming? Is That Bad?

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LittleDabbie

LittleDabbie

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I'll chime in this thread since im making composting tea from worm castings.. 2 Cups 1 per bag so 2 bags and 2.5 gallons of water and 1 tbl spoon of unsulfured molasses..

Started it at 1Pm yesterday after noon its now 6:53am and about 4 hours ago i started to notice small bits of foam around the edges of the water now 4 hours later theres a decent bit of foam all over the top of the water everywhere.

I did a quick google search based on vermicomposting tea making and my similar recipies and i found the foam comes from bacteria feed off protiens in the water. Thats it.. Its a by product much like sugar water and yeast..

Reading that they also said to get a true idea of microbial content of your tea USE A MICROSCOPE, FOAM is NOT an adequate way of judging the microbial action of your tea, as they went onto say adding carbs or protiens to the water will significantly increase the foaming action..

So for me foam is just.. Foam... a by product of bacterias and microbes feeding off whatever and doing whatever..

Foam takes time it seems, bacteria take time to eat and fart and shit or whatever it is they do to release the shit that causes the bubbles.. and a big enough oxygen stone is a must.. Im running a 4" stone triangle in shape just Long. Producing some serious water action so im sure thats also helping cause the microbes and such to come alive eat shit fart whatever.. :D

My 2 worthless cents since this is the first batch of tea ive ever made :D
 
LittleDabbie

LittleDabbie

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Heres my tea after 21 hours, recipe is above..

GEDC0001
 
LittleDabbie

LittleDabbie

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GEDC0001


Cpl hours after adding 2 new bags and another tbl spoon of mollasses... BAM! foam..
 
Myco

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I remember a while back in this thread, foam suppression was mentioned, don't recall if a solution was ever talked about...

A couple university documents I read online mentioned adding just a cap full of veggie oil per 5gal brew to suppress excess foam, and holy shit, it works beautfully. Specifically vegetable oil though, as according to the university documents it is microbe-safe, whereas olive and canola oil have anti-microbial properties...

I know that mountain of foam gives the perceived visual satisfaction that you've brewed a badass batch of tea... but I find it to be messy and a massive pita to deal with.

I was getting massive foam overflow on this batch and shut my air pump off for a bit to let the foam settle and clean up the mess... this pic is after turned it back on for only about 30 seconds before it started to overflow again...

20150102 132619


Then here is a pic after adding a cap full of veggie oil...

20150102 182014


So, as long as the veggie oil as zero effect on the brew, which I tend to believe, then this is going to be a staple in my brews.

That is, until I build a vortex... err... do you still get outrageous foam with a vortex style brewer...?
 
Capulator

Capulator

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I remember a while back in this thread, foam suppression was mentioned, don't recall if a solution was ever talked about...

A couple university documents I read online mentioned adding just a cap full of veggie oil per 5gal brew to suppress excess foam, and holy shit, it works beautfully. Specifically vegetable oil though, as according to the university documents it is microbe-safe, whereas olive and canola oil have anti-microbial properties...

I know that mountain of foam gives the perceived visual satisfaction that you've brewed a badass batch of tea... but I find it to be messy and a massive pita to deal with.

I was getting massive foam overflow on this batch and shut my air pump off for a bit to let the foam settle and clean up the mess... this pic is after turned it back on for only about 30 seconds before it started to overflow again...

View attachment 471945

Then here is a pic after adding a cap full of veggie oil...

View attachment 471944

So, as long as the veggie oil as zero effect on the brew, which I tend to believe, then this is going to be a staple in my brews.

That is, until I build a vortex... err... do you still get outrageous foam with a vortex style brewer...?


yes, you still get outrageous foam with a vortex!
 
J

Jenny

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I remember a while back in this thread, foam suppression was mentioned, don't recall if a solution was ever talked about...

A couple university documents I read online mentioned adding just a cap full of veggie oil per 5gal brew to suppress excess foam, and holy shit, it works beautfully. Specifically vegetable oil though, as according to the university documents it is microbe-safe, whereas olive and canola oil have anti-microbial properties...

I know that mountain of foam gives the perceived visual satisfaction that you've brewed a badass batch of tea... but I find it to be messy and a massive pita to deal with.

I was getting massive foam overflow on this batch and shut my air pump off for a bit to let the foam settle and clean up the mess... this pic is after turned it back on for only about 30 seconds before it started to overflow again...

View attachment 471945

Then here is a pic after adding a cap full of veggie oil...

View attachment 471944

So, as long as the veggie oil as zero effect on the brew, which I tend to believe, then this is going to be a staple in my brews.

That is, until I build a vortex... err... do you still get outrageous foam with a vortex style brewer...?

Fish Hydrolysate (as opposed to Fish Emulsion) will accomplish this and at the same time it's a great additive for any microbial compost tea. And it's pretty cheap. We usually add 4ml per gallon as an ingredient when we first mix up the tea in the brewer. If the foam starts building up later on we just add another ml or two and the foam quickly disappears. The stuff reeks but you you only have to use a tiny bit and the beneficials and the plants love it. We use Neptune's Harvest Fish Fertilizer (don't let the name fool you, it's just fish hydrolysate) but there are a number of other brands on the market. Just don't use fish emulsion, which is heat processed (which kills all the good stuff); hydrolysate is cold processed.
 
Myco

Myco

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I have to add stylet oil to my teas as I brew with a 73 gallon vortex brewer.
At what rate do you use the stylet oil to help with foam? Your 73 gallon vortex brewer sounds bitchin'.

Fish Hydrolysate (as opposed to Fish Emulsion) will accomplish this and at the same time it's a great additive for any microbial compost tea. And it's pretty cheap. We usually add 4ml per gallon as an ingredient when we first mix up the tea in the brewer. If the foam starts building up later on we just add another ml or two and the foam quickly disappears. The stuff reeks but you you only have to use a tiny bit and the beneficials and the plants love it. We use Neptune's Harvest Fish Fertilizer (don't let the name fool you, it's just fish hydrolysate) but there are a number of other brands on the market. Just don't use fish emulsion, which is heat processed (which kills all the good stuff); hydrolysate is cold processed.
I'd read that fish hydrolysate also cuts foam at some point, perhaps earlier in this thread, thanks for the tip. What I didn't know was NHFF is the same thing and would do the trick, haha, sweet.
 
Billyboat

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At what rate do you use the stylet oil to help with foam? Your 73 gallon vortex brewer sounds bitchin'.


I'd read that fish hydrolysate also cuts foam at some point, perhaps earlier in this thread, thanks for the tip. What I didn't know was NHFF is the same thing and would do the trick, haha, sweet.

Literally just a few drops does the trick. My teas don't aways from heavy, it just depends on the ingredients I toss in there.

I tell ya this much, cleaning that big brewer is a major pain in the ASS!
 
LittleDabbie

LittleDabbie

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I know that mountain of foam gives the perceived visual satisfaction that you've brewed a badass batch of tea... but I find it to be messy and a massive pita to deal with.


OMG No doubt Shits over floaming my bucket atm, had to put a panty hose over the top to stop the foam from coming over the top.. so annoying!

Considering putting a lid on it and drilling a few holes for the air stones and one small exhaust hole. Foam is annoying when you gotta scoop off cup fulls and 5 mins later its all back!
 
Seamaiden

Seamaiden

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OMG No doubt Shits over floaming my bucket atm, had to put a panty hose over the top to stop the foam from coming over the top.. so annoying!

Considering putting a lid on it and drilling a few holes for the air stones and one small exhaust hole. Foam is annoying when you gotta scoop off cup fulls and 5 mins later its all back!
What you just described is kind of how a protein skimmer is made. There's a collection cup at the top of the reaction chamber, where the skimmate (that's what the foam is called) is collected and removed. Why? It's chock-ful of nutrients! That we don't want in the water column. ;)
 
LittleDabbie

LittleDabbie

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What you just described is kind of how a protein skimmer is made. There's a collection cup at the top of the reaction chamber, where the skimmate (that's what the foam is called) is collected and removed. Why? It's chock-ful of nutrients! That we don't want in the water column. ;)

I Just been skimming it off and dumping it into my horse shit bin to control the fly population seems to be working out :D
 
Seamaiden

Seamaiden

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I Just been skimming it off and dumping it into my horse shit bin to control the fly population seems to be working out :D
Stir it back in, it's nutrients you're dumping out. You have horses?
 
EMC2

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Any consensus on keeping the foam down?

I read through every post and it seems the answer is either fish hydrolysate or vegetable oil.

If I were to use vegetable oil, I saw someone say 1 tbps per 5 gal tea. Would you scale it up to 3 tbps for a 15 gal tea or would 1 tbps do the job?

Also - Should I be doing my teas based on ratios? For instance;

4 gal mix
Root pack/foliar pack/nute pack - 4 tbps each (1 tbps per gal)
Liquid Unsulfered blackstrap molasses - 100 ml (25ml/gal)
Liquid Kelp - 50ml (12.5ml/gal)
Alfalfa Meal - 3 handfuls (.75 handful per gal)
EWC - 3 handfuls (.75 handful per gal)

This formula worked great for me when I was using a 4 gal brewer. I stepped it up to a 15 gal and do 12 gal runs now and use the same ratios so now it looks like:

Caps - 12 tbps each pack
Molasses - 400ml
Kelp - 150ml
Alfala/EWC - 9 handfuls each

Should I maintain these ratios and use vegetable oil to keep the foam down? I came in today to find my tea so healthy that it foamed over into the next room, lol. My thoughts were I'm either using too much molasses (as thats whats all over my walls now) or I'm using too much Alfalfa/ewc (based on what I've read in this thread). Also, my air pump may be too powerful..is that possible?

Any help would be appreciated!
 
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