Airlock

Just curious if I should put sanitizer in the airlock or is water ok?

I'd use sanitizer or, even better, cheap vodka.

Welcome to HBT!!

+1 to Vodka.

Definitely +1 on the cheap vodka.

Yeah, I like vodka for airlock juice too.

I had a bottle of Smirnoff for whatever reason (I very, very rarely drink anything with vodka in it) and used it for airlocks for most of two years.

It needs to be replaced; I'll go cheaper this time.

+1 vodka

Interesting I should come across this thread because I just checked on the beer seeing as it began bubbling last night and showing the slightest sign of krausen (we use buckets.) Almost all of the liquid in the airlock was gone... thank Flying Spaghetti Monster we use vodka. It's really the best of any option: sterile, flavorless, slight abv% boost

Bought a bottle of McCormick's (eeeew) two years ago for just this reason. Still have a few batches worth left and it only cost me $8

+1 You can't go wrong with the Vodka......

DO NOT use sanitizer. If ya have a suck back it'll ruin your brew. Use vodka or water....word

If you use Star San and it gets sucked in, it becomes yeast food.

Thanks guys!! I put vodka in, and just finished the hard part. Now hopefully it turns out!!

Anyone ever just used straight Ethanol in their airlocks?

I don't put anything in there that I'm not willing to drink.

Ethanol will evaporate too quickly leaving you with a dry airlock if you don't keep on top of it. I mostly use distilled water or starsan in mine and have not had any problems.

I have very little experience, but when I used StarSan, the airlock bubbled and foamed itself almost empty. Vodka didnt foam and I didnt have to worry about topping the airlock off as much.

the only good use for karkov vodka!

Paddle_Head said:

Anyone ever just used straight Ethanol in their airlocks?

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Unless you work in a laboratory, you can't buy straight ethanol. Straight ethanol costs like $100/gallon, (or something crazy), due to all the taxes, and due to the need to chemically break the azeotrope, (you can't distill 100% ethanol, search "azeotrope" on google or wikipedia).

If you are buying "ethanol" in a store, it's denatured ethanol, which means they take ethanol and add KEROSENE or some other petroleum distillates to make it poisonous. Do NOT use denatured ethanol!

If you want to use high ethanol content airlock liquid, see if your state allows you to purchase Everclear 190. This is 190 proof liquor, or 95% ethanol. That's as close as you can come for cheap/legal.

But why do it? Everclear is expensive and evaporates really damn fast. Just buy cheap rotgut vodka and call it a day!

What benefit does Vodka offer over say, boiled water? The water will be sterilized after the boiling process.

houge04 said:

Just curious if I should put sanitizer in the airlock or is water ok?

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I put starsan in my airlock on my last batch. It had the problem that it would foam and bubble out of the lock. Replaced it with cheap vodka.

dpittard said:

What benefit does Vodka offer over say, boiled water? The water will be sterilized after the boiling process.

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Yes, the water will be sterilized, but being exposed to the air, it can become un-sterilized. Nothing is really going to be able to live inside the vodka

bonzombiekitty said:

Yes, the water will be sterilized, but being exposed to the air, it can become un-sterilized. Nothing is really going to be able to live inside the vodka

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Ah! That makes sense! Thanks!

what about (cheap) bourbon. i'd much rather have some bourbon in my house than vodka...

i'd imagine the high alcohol content would be just as appropriate for an airlock...yes?