Why? For a start, the fact that I screwed up the evaporation calculation from the boil meant I had a ton more headroom than usual. Also, the ferment has been nice and cool, never above 68ºF.
I've had beers actually throw their airlocks. Make stains on ceilings, that sort of thing. So this isn't spectacular by those lights, but still.
Nothing bad can happen to the beer at this point because all the traffic is outbound. The C02 evolving from the fermenting wort makes sure of this.
But ferments reach conclusions, and when they do, that positive air pressure just dies. And if, for instance, the barometric pressure shoots through the roof right after, whatever is in that airlock is getting drawn back down into the carboy.
This is why I use cheap vodka as an airlock fluid. It's cheap and a quarter ounce of it won't really alter a five gallon batch of beer. And if it gets sucked back in due to sudden weather changes while I'm at work, nothing gets ruined.
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