The brewer we use is a custom, one-of-a-kind machine. It is a 350-gallon, 45° cone-bottom tank with metal support stand. Steve Storch of Natural Science Organics developed the original design for this Vortex based, Airlift system.
I made some changes, and built upon the great works and inventions of this agricultural innovator. I am indebted to Steve for his inspiration and collaboration on this project.
The brewer tank is connected at the bottom to a custom built manifold. This allows water flow between the tank and the four up-feed pipes around the tank to the top of the tank. This completes the circuit of the water from the tank bottom, to the top via the upfeed tubes in a complete water movement cycle.
This brewer uses an airlift system to move the water from the tank, down through the manifold and up again through the tubes, to the top where it is directed to splash on the top water surface. It splashes on the water's surface in a counter-clockwise direction and begins the whole volume of water turning. The up-feed pipes are turned slightly counter-clockwise, which directs the water to begin moving the whole body of water in a vortex. The water swirls down in the vortex, out the manifold and up the pipes to the top again in a complete cycle.
The up-feed pipes have an air-stone attached to an air tube inserted from the top. This air-stone is fed air from a Sweetwater linear air pump, through a 4-way gated manifold to each of the four up-feed pipes. The air stones are placed 2/3 of the way down the up-feed pipes and as the air rushes upwards with great force, it ‘lifts’ the water in the up-feed tubes with it. This provides the lift, and thereby the water movement. The water splashes up out of the tops of the up-feed pipes and begins the vortex movement.
The airlift system ensures there are no Hypoxic (low oxygen) zones in the water tank. We need an even distribution of oxygen in our brewing and this system ensures no dead zones. This system also allows us to eliminate any pumps we may need to circulate this large amount of water. Air is the mover, no impellers, and no pressure chambers on our fragile soil biology. Our micro-herd spins gently into the vortex of Life.
This brewer is designed to allow bacteria, fungi, protozoa and other microorganisms to breed and grow in an ideal environment. We seek to increase the original population and size of microbes by a large factor with no damage.
The Brewer
The brewer is designed to allow fungi, bacteria, protozoa and other microorganisms to breed and grow in an ideal environment.
