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Subject: Compost Teas: 24 hour, EM, IM, BD & fermented plant extracts

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  • From: "Kevin Chambers" <kevin AT ovs.com>
  • To: <Soilfoodweb AT aol.com>, <compostteas AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: RE: [Compostteas] Re: Brewer's yeast
  • Date: Fri, 24 May 2002 14:50:06 -0700

Elaine,

 

Yeast will aggressively ferment sugars, so if one is using significant quantities of molasses, honey, cane sugar, malt syrup or other sugar source, wouldn’t there be the risk of alcohol formation in the brew.  I know an anerobic environment is preferred for sugar/alcohol fermentation, but it is possible in an aerobic solution.  Even so, bacteria will probably out-compete any yeast.  Nevertheless, wouldn’t it be best to avoid adding yeasts, particularly something as aggressive as wine yeast. 

 

Kevin

 

-----Original Message-----
From: compostteas-admin AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:compostteas-admin AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Soilfoodweb AT aol.com
Sent:
Friday, May 24, 2002 1:56 PM
To: compostteas AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [Compostteas] Re: Brewer's yeast

 

In response to the question about Brewer's yeast -

Yeast is added to growth media for the complex proteins, vitamins, co-factors, hormones, and enzymes that come from the yeast cells.  The yeasts rarely grow in tea to much extent, but they are good for the additional food resources they provide.  

So, fungal or bacterial food?  Both, depending on conditions.  

I know that some tea makers think it's really important to add the yeasts, but I'm not so sure.  If the source of your compost seems a little iffy, then yeast would be good to add.  But if you have really good, alive, happy compost, I don't think it is needed.  

And is Brewers, or Bakers yeast better?  Or maybe Champagne yeast?  Or wine yeast....  

Depends on the compost, and the general health of the soil or the plant surfaces you are applying the tea to.  The more generally dead the soil, the more recent the application of a toxic chemical, the more likely it would be to need as many food resources as possible.  

The healthier your soil and plant surfaces, the less need to add lots of stuff, because the biology already present is making it already.  Someday we; ll have the methods and the knowledge so we can tell you which yeast you need.  Don't have that level of knowledge yet.  We need everyone to be testing, and figuring this out.  

So, help us out by observing when addition of the yeast seems to make a big difference, and when it doesn't.  I'd love it if you all would let me know your results.  We need a central database of knowledge about teas, where we track these bits and pieces of information and try to make sense of it all.  I'd like to have SFI serve in that capacity, if you would all like to keep me up-to-date on what you are observing!  

Elaine Ingham
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
www.soilfoodweb.com



Message: 2
From: "Jeff Lowenfels" <jeff AT gardener.com>
To: <compostteas AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Thu, 23 May 2002 12:53:32 -0700
Subject: [Compostteas] Brewer's yeast?

It has been suggested to me that brewer's yeast is a good fungal food. Any
experiences here with TESTED tea?

Cheers,

Jeff L





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