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 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!