There is a 'soil, compost and mulch' forum that would be more specific to your query.

Having said that (and I encourage you to go there for additional responses), I don't think it makes that much difference what you use in teas nor do I think it makes any difference whether the tea is aerated or not.

Many, many will disagree and I wholeheartedly respect their disagreement.

My advice to you is do things different ways as you feel so inclined and to the extent you find it fun and then form your own conclusions.

When it comes to teas there simply is no one size fits all recipe. Teas are one of those areas where there are ardent, passionate supporters of various methods, but once you look at the science underlying the claim you will find all of them wanting.

The result is you have to rely upon empirical (do it yourself) evidence.

Sorry, I wish there was a shortcut, but at this time there simply isn't. Pick a method and try it and then pick another and try it as long as you are having fun. Go with whatever works best for you.

Commercial aerated compost tea producers (Soilsoup, Growing Solutions, etc.) use worm castings as the basis of their product. Ounce for ounce, casting have far higher and more diverse populations of soil microbes than does ordinary compost. And with ACT that is the primary intent - to generate extremely large populations of beneficial organisms.

If you are producing non-aerated tea or simply a liquid compost extract, I doubt it matters much.

You would probably have to fire up the ol' microscope to detect any differences.

We happen to have many people here in San Antonio who have taken the compost tea class from Dr Ingham where she teaches you how to count microbes. They can detect differences even in commercially grown compost. These compost manufacturers take a lot of pride in their product but the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Some of our local brands are significantly better than others. And for anyone living in SA reading this, the better one might not be who you think it is. but you do get something out of just about any tea as long as you don't accidentally get some bactericide (chlorine) or fungicide (aquarium dechlorinators) in the tea.