Vegetable Glycerine: The Wine and Beer Babysitter You Never Knew You Needed
Posted by Matteo Lahm on 12th Jul 2023
Alright, listen up, home beer and winemakers. You know how it is, right? You're trying to make a decent bottle of wine or beer, but it's like having a newborn baby. It's all "feed me, burp me, change me." It's enough to drive a person to drink... which, I suppose, is the point.
But what if I told you there's a way to get your wine and beer to take care of itself? Like hiring a babysitter who never sleeps, never takes a break, and never lets anything bad happen to your baby. Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, it's not. Say hello to vegetable glycerine.Yeah, you heard me right. Vegetable glycerine. It's a clear, odorless liquid that comes from plant oils. And when you mix it with water or alcohol and stick it in your airlock, it's like hiring a bouncer for your brew. It lets the gases out, but doesn't let the riff-raff in, and it can pull an all-nighter.
Unlike water or alcohol, which evaporate faster than my patience in a traffic jam, vegetable glycerine sticks around. It's like that friend who crashes on your couch and never leaves. But in a good way.
Using this stuff is a piece of cake. Just fill your airlock halfway with a 50/50 mix of glycerine and water, or any distilled spirit and you're done. It's like upgrading from a horse and buggy to a sports car that get's good gas milage.
The longevity of a 50/50 mix without evaporating can vary based on several factors, including the ambient temperature, humidity, air movement, and the design of the airlock itself. Vegetable glycerine has a higher viscosity and a lower evaporation rate compared to water, which means that when mixed with water or alcohol, it can help to reduce the overall evaporation rate of the solution. While it's difficult to provide an exact duration, the mixture will last longer than water or especially alcohol alone due to the glycerine's properties. It's not uncommon for such a mixture to last a few months, but it's always a good idea to check your airlock periodically to ensure that the liquid level is sufficient to maintain a proper seal.
If your good judgment prevails over your need to detach from checking on your carboy for as long as humanly possible, go with the alcohol blend option. It won't last quite as long because alcohol evaporates faster but, the alcohol will give you an antibacterial solution that still lasts quite a while and is resistant to contaminants. If you are a beer maker, this is especially relevant because beer is far more susceptible to infection. To return to the sports car analogy, the alcohol version is faster than the water blend but runs out of gas sooner.
So, if you're the kind of person who can't be bothered to babysit your wine or beer if you're just too busy living your life, or you need to take a long vacation, vegetable glycerine is your new best friend. It's like having a personal assistant for your wine. Cheers to that!