Airlock, used banana liquer, mistake??

Its been 2 days and still bubbling with no sign of the banana liquer sucking back into the batch. Change it to vodka or is it okay.Thanks

It might attract fruit flies or make the airlock sticky and annoying to clean. In my experience, plain old water is just fine, and I've never had an infected batch. Others swear by using star san solution.

Yeah a lot of people use star san, vodka or water. just wanted to know if anybody else tried liquer. I could see the problem of the stickiness and hard to clean part. Thanks h-bar.

Yeah, I'd go with a no-sugar mix in your airlock. I personally use the cheapest vodka I can find. A few drop of suck back are not a problem!

Question for those vodka-in-the-airlock users.....would not the alcohol in the vodka evaporate (possibly even quicker with CO2 bubbling through it) leaving you with expensive air lock fluid that is less effective (in terms of the reason for using alcohol, not in terms of effectiveness as an air lock) to non-effective over time??? Just a thought, I just use water here, no problems....yet

It would be a crime if no one posted this quote.

"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana" - Groucho Marx

fuelish said:

Question for those vodka-in-the-airlock users.....would not the alcohol in the vodka evaporate (possibly even quicker with CO2 bubbling through it)

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I use vodka because I had some air lock fluid suck back once into the fermenter. The only problem I run into with vodka is that I have to refill the airlocks a lot, you're right about evaporation. Mine happen to sit about 20 feet from a dehumidifier, so I always just assumed it's that. I just go with the 1.75 liters for $11 stuff, if you're worried about cost you can even cut that 50% and you're still safe.

Alcohol does evaporate, I do agree. I don't have Star San, so I use Iodophor or even water during fermentation, but when cold crashing, if I have any, I will add vodka to the airlock. Considering that the top of the airlock is covered, and the top of my fermentation chamber is closed, the chance of critters getting sucked into the airlock are very close to zero I would believe. But, then again I could be wrong.

I just use tap water and alittle bit of k meta....

With a liquid based airlock you are hoping to prevent oxygen seepage *through* the liquid you use in the airlock (in other words the liquid acting as a conduit and transmitting oxygen from the atmosphere to inside the carboy).
This is particularly the case in longer, bulk aging ... and is why once the wine is still and expected to be inactive many people pull the airlock from a carboy and put a cap on.

Using something that scavenges oxygen such as a somewhat strong metabisulfite solution does help prevent oxygen infiltration.

Alcohol based solutions do nothing to chemically prevent oxygen seepage through the liquid. Star San does not either ... although another acid, ascorbic acid might - I do know that a derivative of ascorbic acid called Erythorbic acid is used commercially/industrially as an oxygen scavenger (hvac etc), I have not heard of people using ascorbic acid in an airlock though ... I'd just stick with a strong metabisulfite solution.

or one might consider a "dry" airlock like the Better Bottle airlock.