Air Lock Fluid

I know all the brew books say to use a sterile fluid (alcohol) in the airlock during fermentation, but I only see this being an issue in certain situations. As long as the airlock fluid isn't being introduced into the fermenter, I don't see the big deal.... especially with a constant outflow of CO2. I've always used plain tap water in my airlocks and have never had a problem.

Anyone interested in convincing me to change my evil ways?

nope

And I never ever put the lid on the three piece either. I dunk it in the sanitizer to fill it up, the put it on. The water doesnt get changed untl I rack again

I wouldn't say that "all" the brew books recommend the use of alcohol. I use tap half the time, sanitizer the other half, and vodka the third half of the time. Doesn't really matter, as far as I can tell.

I use hot tap... never had a problem... if you get suckback you COULD theoretically have a problem, but I have never seen it.

Brewpilot

I use the water/vodka cocktail, because I'm retarded. I say retarded because whenever I use a bucket, I end up getting some solution into the brew. Usually, it's when I'm pulling the airlock out to rack. The pulling creates a suction that pulls the solution into the fermenter. Same thing can happen if I were to, say, push down on the lid of the fermenter. But again, I'm sure most people don't regularly pull boners like that, and thus, don't need to sterilize the liquid. They could use bbq sauce, theoretically.

Monk

Pulling boners creates an entirely different sauce.

ill.literate said:

Pulling boners creates an entirely different sauce.

Click to expand...

Hmmm. That's true. Can't say that I've ever made THAT mistake into my beer, though.

Yeah I was weary when I saw the use on "Boner" on this.

I use water. If it sucks back (rare) I would rather have water splash into the beer rather than sanitiser.

Seems to me like you could use distilled water without any ill effects

the_bird said:

I wouldn't say that "all" the brew books recommend the use of alcohol.

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Sorry, meant for the alcohol reference to be an example.

From the responses thus far, it doesn't seem like too many people worry (relative... obviously within the context of RDWHAHB) much about the airlock fluid. I do find it interesting that every homebrew book (ok maybe not all, but the majority) make a point to include the "sanitized airlock fluid" discussion at some point.

I guess at the same time most of them also say that tap water can be considered sanitized...

One thing you might want to be wary of is when your ferment slows down and the co2 output drops off a bit that you can be subject to pressure differential because of temperature and suck back can and will happen. I've noted this especially when I'm in secondary and I drop the temp on the fermenting fridge to clear.

That being said, I use plain old tap water in my airlocks and have never had a problem with infection, even when suckback has occured.