And the alcohol in vodka is ethanol, which the yeast make. I don’t think you or the yeast will notice the extra 0.06%.
I’ve been using it too. Only downside seems to be that instead of simply burbling, the airlock blows actual bubbles.
I have one of those 3 piece airlocks. Once I forgot to put the little hat thing on the inside and tried to fill it with vodka. It didn’t work. :-[
But the beer turned out fine.
Lately I haven’t even bothered with an airlock, just a piece a foil, no problems so far.
Dan
The downside of using a foaming substance like Starsan in the airlock instead of vodka:
Don’t fear the foam 8)
What is the downside? that looks like mine have looked for years.
Except I’ve had all of the starsan leave the airlock as foam which equals non-functional airlock.
I typically use a six gallon glass carboy for my primary and a blow off hose. Don’t put the airlock on for 5 days or in secondary. I find boiled and cooled h2o is the safest way to go if your concerned about vodka contamination.
A point nobody has made yet … the S-shaped airlocks eliminate the contamination risk because they can bubble in both directions without pulling liquid in.
except that when they bubble ‘backwards’ you are pulling unsanitary air into your fermenter…
I am totally splitting hairs and would never actually worry about that.
I think that happens when any airlock sucks back (I guess not with blowoff tubes though). But I guess “eliminate” is too strong a word. Might just maybe eliminate some contamination risk possibly sorta.