What do you put in the airlock or wbhat aiirlock u useing?

[Donatelo]

I have been putting spring water in my s neck airlock. I have three different styles of airlocks I hear that some put vodka in the airlock, but I only have Teachers Highland Cream. Is it okay? It's for medicinal use (I drink it when I need to sleep well.)

 

[mainshipfred]

I like the S type and use a mixture of Kmeta and citric acid.

 

[Kraffty]

I've never used anything but tap water. I check weekly or more and top regularly. Rarely I'll have a dark spot in side of one show up and then I just pull, clean and sanitize when that happens. No problems so far.
Mike

 

[tcgi]

I put vodka in the air locks.

 

[Bubba1]

Ive been using star san for years with zero problems S-type and 3 piece air locks.
Mike

 

[sour_grapes]

I use tap water and a squirt of k-meta.

 

[Doug’s wines]

I also use tap and kmeta OR a tap diluted starsan solution. Whichever I have setup as a sanitizer bath for the items used in the batch I’m working. Just pull the airlock out of the bath, shake it out to the half full level and walah it’s good to go. I figure either one ends up in the wine when I sanitize carboys, so a little more won’t hurt.

I heard about people using vodka, but I don’t put vodka in my wine so why use it in the airlock? I’ve had many time where I’ve seen drips from the airlock into my wine so I feel safer with sanitized solution.

 

[PandemoniumWines]

... because vodka can/will fortify your wine, and sanitizing solution... is not tasty.

 

[cmason1957]

I use 3 Piece airlocks mostly, but some stuff shaped one's. Don't really notice much difference between them. I put a couple of squirts of sanitizing solution in my airlocks.

 

[GaDawg]

Been using star San since 2012 and have never had a problem.

 

[Country]

I like to stick my nose to the airlock and take a nice big wiff while it’s bubbling away. So water for me!

 

[JohnT]

+ K-meta solution.

 

[Johny99]

3 piece and s type. 10% k meta.

 

[kire]

3 piece and vodka

 

[GreenEnvy22]

I use 3 piece and starsan solution usually, sometimes a kmeta mix.

 

[BigH]

The absolute cheapest vodka I can find. Prefer 3 piece airlocks for ease of cleaning.

 

[jburtner]

I have 15-20 carboys and airlocks for all of them plus some spares. A mixture of the 3-piece and the s-type. I prefer the s-type as there are less parts. I use kmeta solution and add several drops of wine (any red wine i have in carboy or open) to the solution so that I can easily see from across the room whether the pressure is positive, negative, or equalized. When I first started adding color to the liquid I used either red or blue food coloring but now I use wine such that it's semi translucent enough to see easily from the stairs or other side of the cellar.

Cheers!
-johann

 

[Doug’s wines]

I like the wine idea for color.

 

[wildhair]

yep, that's a good idea. Using vodka not a bad idea either. I have a mix of the 3 piece and S type - I use StarSan solution in them. But I may just mix up some vodka with some red wine now..........just to use in the airlocks, of course.

 

[user 36973]

I like the S type and use a mixture of Kmeta and citric acid.

This is what I use for carboy airlocks.

I use tap water and a squirt of k-meta

Note that the sulfites are not effective when the pH is >4.0. Need to use citric (or other) acid to drop the pH of the tap water.