Does it matter what liquid you use in the airlock?

I've been using tap water in my airlock. But I read some posts where people were using all sorts of things. One poster even said that he was using vodka. So does it matter what you use?

I use vodka as it is just another means of sanitizing but water works fine.

Vodka evaporates quickly though so you have to keep an eye on it.

I always have extra sanitizer on hand...so thats what I use.

I too use liquor, because sometimes that liquid can get sucked into the fermenter (e.g. if there's a temperature drop) and I figure if something did get sucked in, I'd prefer vodka, rum or bourbon to sanitizing solution.

starsan in all my airlocks... always seem to suck-back, so i don't use tap water.

+1 for starsan, I've always got a ton of it around when I'm brewing.

I use boiled tap water. After the wort is done boiling I boil some water in the tea kettle for a few minutes then let it sit in there until it's needed.

I use vodka. If there's suckback, it won't do a thing to the wort but up the ABV a little. Plain water can mold. I had that happen once in a long-term mead I was aging, and have used vodka ever since.

From some of the previous posts that I have read (and from personal experience so far), when using a 3 piece airlock, there is never any suck-back, like there is when using an S-shaped airlock, so starsan works great!

I use Starsan.

sheldon said:

From some of the previous posts that I have read (and from personal experience so far), when using a 3 piece airlock, there is never any suck-back, like there is when using an S-shaped airlock, so starsan works great!

Click to expand...

Really? I've experienced the opposite. Using a three piece in better bottles I can get it to backwash the airlock just by lifting the carboy by its neck. Using a double bubbler all I get is a little bit of gas and no liquid heading back into the carboy.

sheldon said:

From some of the previous posts that I have read (and from personal experience so far), when using a 3 piece airlock, there is never any suck-back, like there is when using an S-shaped airlock, so starsan works great!

Click to expand...

That is not a true statement. I have had it happen everytime i cold crash. 3 piece or not.

my 3p always suck-back. when they get cold or moved.. and thats in a carboy. bb really like to suck i hear.

+1 for Starsan, it goes in all my air locks as well.

+1 on starsan, no problems yet.

sheldon said:

From some of the previous posts that I have read (and from personal experience so far), when using a 3 piece airlock, there is never any suck-back, like there is when using an S-shaped airlock, so starsan works great!

Click to expand...

Definitely not so with brew buckets (what I've been using up till now). Seems like every time I ever so much as looked at the lid my 3-piece sucked back. I've always used vodka for that reason (that and very few of my friends drink vodka, easy to keep it on hand).

+1 for vodka. Nothing will live in it and $6.99 for 1.75 of Taaka is hard to beat

I use starsan as well but seem to need to refill my airlock constantly as it all foams out of the top. You guys got a way around this?

I just put Star San solution in the airlock. Works fine.

I use Starsan for beer and Vodka for Apfelwein.

Vodka, with the exception of my barleywine that's in the primary right now. I've got the airlock filled with Makers Mark. ;0)

Any chance vodka could attract vinegar flies?

I use either star san and/or wrap the airlock with plastic wrap and a rubber band. C02 will still escape. A lot of brewers I know simply use plastic wrap and the o-ring from the fermenter lid to seal the top of the fermenter and dispense with the airlock altogether. I've done that once or twice but I prefer the lid because it's solid and the airlock is an easy way to seal that tiny hole..

I moved to a blowoff tube in a bucket of Starsan solution because I was freaked out by my Better Bottle sucking water back in through the airlock. Clean water, sanitizer, vodka, etc, I don't want anything I didn't include in the recipe in my beer. :cross:

Vodka goes in all my airlocks after I noticed them sucking in star san one day. Its cheap insurance than *nothing* is going to live in it.

I use Finlandia vodka because I'm trying to get rid of it. I don't drink hard liquor. At least if it gets sucked back, I have some half decent vodka in my beer.

I don't use StarSan, I use a 12.5 ppm solution of Idophor so I guess that's what I'll go with. Thanks everyone!

Suckback occurs. Starsan in a growler for blowoff tube, vodka for the airlock.

GRHunter said:

I don't use StarSan, I use a 12.5 ppm solution of Idophor so I guess that's what I'll go with. Thanks everyone!

Click to expand...

I use iodophor as well. Keep in mind that the iodophor loses its effectiveness much more quickly than starsan so in a short while the iodophor in the airlock will turn into regular water, which is totally fine because it has been sanitized (which is again why I just boil tap water and use that).

StarSan all the way.

I'm also in the Star San camp.

manticle said:

Any chance vodka could attract vinegar flies?

Click to expand...

Say What?

Vodka or Gin - whatever is on-hand.

+1 Vodka, cheapest I can find.

I always get suck back when cold crashing.

I use bleach and water. It is dirt cheap, won't mold, evaporate, or have any other issues. As for suck back I have never seen it. Either people have different airlocks than me or they're overfilling them. My airlocks will let through air before they ever let in sanitiser...

cford1 said:

I use bleach and water. It is dirt cheap, won't mold, evaporate, or have any other issues. As for suck back I have never seen it. Either people have different airlocks than me or they're overfilling them. My airlocks will let through air before they ever let in sanitiser...

Click to expand...

Minor quibble: bleach will mold. There's stuff it won't kill, and I've talked to people who have left sanitizing-strength bleach solutions sitting out for long periods of time and came back to find interesting stuff growing on the surface. Rare, but by no means impossible.