Cleaning wort from airlock

I woke up to some wort in my airlock. It's a 1-piece airlock, and there is not a huge amount of wort in it. The bubbling seem to have stopped now. I see from previous threads that I should take it out, wash, and sanitize it. What do I do with the open hole in the lid while I'm doing that?

Thanks!

Problem solved! I didn't realize the siphon tubing would be small enough in diameter to fit in the rubber gasket, but it did. Yes, I sanitized it first, and then ran the other end into a sanitized Mason jar with sanitizer in it. The airlock is about to go in a vat of PBW solution. This is thanks to reading other posts, so thanks, earlier posters!

And my apologies for posting before I had exhausted all my McGyver options.

Additionally, for short periods of time you can just leave it off. I have also set a paper towel over it with no ill effects.

DrunkleJon said:

Additionally, for short periods of time you can just leave it off. I have also set a paper towel over it with no ill effects.

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This. If its still early during very active fermentation there should be enough CO2 coming out of small hole in your bucket lid to keep any nasties out for the short amount of time it would take to clean your airlock.

I also use a paper towel wet starsan solution to "plug" the hole in my bucket lids after I've sanitized the bucket and wait to fill it with my wort on brew day. I don't see why you couldn't just drape it over the hole if were really concerned.

It sounds like everything worked out though! One of my favorite things about brewing is the amount of problem solving and "macgyvering" involved.

Thanks, that is very good to know. Update: I may have knocked the lid loose when I took out the airlock, so just went to check and pushed it down. Yep! I've resealed it, and bubbling has resumed, now in the Mason jar. Glad I checked.