Where's My Vodka Going?

Ok, so I am oak aging 1 gallon of my Unearthly IIPA clone. So far in about 10 days I have filled my airlock full of Vodka 3x's and they have all "disappeared." I looked for Gnome dropping and tracks but cant find anything. I know most likely its not Gnome's but a change in pressure... What could cause this? The room is same temperature pretty much year round (basement closet). Any ideas.... this is why I put vodka in my airlock but I don't want a oak vodka-esk IIPA. Any remedies?

evaporation.....

really that fast?

A crack in your airlock?

It's not gnomes but Russian hobbits and once you get those little suckers, the only solution is to move or remove all liquor from the house.

I will drown them in starsan.... I will look for a crack but I haven't seen in liquid on my 1 gallon growler.

"I don't always drink beer.. but when I do.. I drink my home brew.."

BradleyBrew said:

really that fast?

Click to expand...

Yes. Also there is warm air bubbling up through it. Vodka evaporates faster than water due to the alcohol content.

FWIW, I usually fill mine with starsan and it only has needed refilling after a few weeks in the summer (usually the AC keeps the basement dry)...

Blame science. The latent heat of evaporation for pure ethanol is 364 BTU/LB and water is 970.4 BTU/LB.

Or maybe the gnomes are mixing it with the energy drink that gives them wings. To keep them drunks away 1 oz tap water has worked fine.

I will just do 50% vodka and 50% water... its just the cheapy diluted grocery store vodka. thanks!

carltjones... thanks for hitting my with some knowledge

I use vodka also and have had it in my airlock for almost a month now. Level is just about where I topped it off at, maybe a little evaporation, but it's very little.

Maybe a crack?

Is the dog really happy?

Suckback.

I've used vodka for quite some time now and the only airlock that ever went dry was my mead which sat for about 6 months before I noticed it was low.

Maybe try an "S" shaped airlock.

Or put it in a locked container so someone doesn't decide to take a nip off of it in the middle of the night.

Well after further observation it was a minor crack in the bottom of the airlock. thanks everyone