Airlock liquid

What liquid do people use for their airlocks?

I have been using water for a while but have recently seen people who think this isn't best practice and is likely to get infected.

I have also found out that the sanitizer I use breaks down over time so likely wouldn't be suitable. I have taken to using dish soap for now but don't know if there is a problem with this practice.

I am currently avoiding vodka because of the alcohol duty in my country.

13 comments

the chances of it getting infected with plain water are very low. depends on what sanitizer you use, but basically none of them will break down in the time it takes for your wort to ferment and for you to refill it.
i’ve been brewing for a long time, never had anything get infected, and i always use diluted phosphoric acid (starsan).
think about it this way; would you rather have sanitizer (safe, food grade), or soap (possibly both emetic, and laxative) in your wort?
- Thanks for the input. I don't use starsan but something called chemipro oxy which contains sodium carbonate peroxyhydrate. I think this stuff breaks down faster than starsan but I am not sure.
  
  And liquor like vodka evaporates fast. Just use water.
What liquid to use in an airlock
I use Starsan since I already have it ready from cleaning everything else, but have used water when I forgot to save some. I've never had anything go funky either way.
If you're worried about sanitizer losing effectiveness, you can change it out wherever you want, but it's always going to be cleaner than water with no sanitizer. I just change it when I rack.
Dish soap just seems like a way to end up drinking soapy booze.
- I also use starsan and it's mostly a contamination concern if you ever get the liquid drawn through the airlock into the fermentor (like when manipulating plastic containers and such). So far I've seen some dead fruit flies in my starsan up there for longer ferments and still no issues with the resulting beer.
  OP does say he uses a different sanitizer further in the thread, and that is less stable than phosphoric acid so there's a chance it'll just turn into water at some point.
  Still, homebrewing is mostly about having fun with it, so no sense overstressing about ir.
  
  I agree. I usually make 1 or 0.5 gallon wines, so if I ever had to toss anything, no biggie. If I was making big, complicated batches or something with expensive ingredients, I'm sure I'd worry more about it. But I think by that point if you were into that kind stuff, you'd have enough supplies to not have to worry about it anyway. Hydrometer is about as fancy as I get!
Most soap (at least where I am) is not antimicrobial - it cleans by removing germs from surfaces, so it doesn't seem effective to me being put in an airlock. Not to mention the potential mess during fermentation and potential contamination of your batch.
The same SO₂ solution I use to sanitise my equipment. While not strictly necessary during the fermentation, as the CO₂ from the fermentation is already displacing oxygen, It prevents oxygen from getting in after the fermentation has ended.
- That sounds good.

13 comments