# Jack Daniels Soap



## RockinRodeoChick (Feb 19, 2010)

I was just curious if anyone had tried making soap out of jack daniels? Is there any reason why it wouldn't work? My dad would really like some, but before I tried it, thought I'd ask.


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## MorpheusPA (Feb 19, 2010)

I'm hardly an expert, but can't alcohol cause a serious seize in soap?

Maybe you could very gently warm it for a bit to boil off the alcohol before adding it...by preference not over an open flame...


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## RockinRodeoChick (Feb 19, 2010)

From what I've heard it can. I know my beer soap moved really fast. (That's what got him on the jack daniels idea)  Whiskey's high alcohol by volume, so I wasn't sure if I'd make it from the pot to the mold. If I boiled away the alcohol, I dunno if i'd have anything left. Hehe


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## lngrid (Feb 19, 2010)

My distant cousin makes Yorkshire pudding which is soaked in liquor, surrounded by liquor-soaked sugar cubes, and lit on fire at the table. 

He says it's a traditional dish from England, even the lighting-it-on-fire part.

Soooooo.... I habitually buy wine or liquor, simmer it in a pan and burn away the alcohol. Often I get the flavor without the alcohol. (Alcoholism runs in my family. I don't play with the stuff.)  The slower the simmer, the lower the flames are.

Of course, I remove anything flammable from around the stove AND around the vent hood. And I keep the pan lid in my hand so I can kill the flames if I want to by covering the pot. (No, it won't explode. The flames will smother.) I also dim the kitchen because the alcohol flames are hard to see in light. I've never once had a problem. I've never gotten nervous enough to smother the flames. I lower the heat or take the pan off the burner instead.

Call me crazy. I live a rich life.


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## MorpheusPA (Feb 19, 2010)

RockinRodeoChick said:
			
		

> From what I've heard it can. I know my beer soap moved really fast. (That's what got him on the jack daniels idea)  Whiskey's high alcohol by volume, so I wasn't sure if I'd make it from the pot to the mold. If I boiled away the alcohol, I dunno if i'd have anything left. Hehe



Yeah, you're going to lose about 40% of the liquid volume if you warm or burn it off...and I don't think you'll get rid of all the alcohol, either.

My personal philosophy on it is give it a whirl.  Just use a small batch so if you get "soap on a stick" you can easily form it into soap balls.


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## RockinRodeoChick (Feb 19, 2010)

Ok, well, I'm off to give this a shot. Let you know how it works out.


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## Dixie (Feb 19, 2010)

I can't wait to hear the results! Good luck.


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## RockinRodeoChick (Feb 19, 2010)

Oy, this was bad. I don't know what to do with it now. This is what happened... instantly:












Not even 2 seconds. Couldn't cram it into my mold either. Can it be saved? Hehe. Worth rebatching maybe?


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## madartist (Feb 19, 2010)

hmmmmmm kinda looks like Ingrid's distant cousin's Yorkshire pudding. (just trying to make you smile) I'd rebatch it. It'll probably turn out to be a nice soap (and with a funny story you can remember, each time you use it).


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## RockinRodeoChick (Feb 19, 2010)

Hehe, kinda does, doesn't it?  No worries. Little disappointing, but I was half expecting this. 
My first thought was "Oh crap oh crap oh crap!" And then it was "Well, at least I have something to share on the forums now." Lol
Soaping with whiskey is a bad idea. Lol Guess I get to learn how to rebatch now...  Still not sure if I like that idea or not.


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## MorpheusPA (Feb 19, 2010)

RockinRodeoChick said:
			
		

> Oy, this was bad. I don't know what to do with it now. This is what happened... instantly:
> 
> Not even 2 seconds. Couldn't cram it into my mold either. Can it be saved? Hehe. Worth rebatching maybe?



I was afeared of that.  Oddly, after looking at the picture I now want yams.

Maybe it could be diluted with some water and hot-processed on the stove, long enough for the extra water to boil off?  If that's a bad idea, it's definitely good for a re-batch.


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## ChrissyB (Feb 19, 2010)

Yep it's the alcohol that made it seize.
You will have to do the same as soapers that make beer soap, boil off the alchol and reduce the beer to a thick syrup. Then add it to the soap.


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## RockinRodeoChick (Feb 19, 2010)

Yams? Lol. Yeah, all it needs is the marshmellows. 

Yep, next time I'll try boiling off some of the alcohol. I was just curious if I could make this work somehow. Haha. No luck there.


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## madartist (Feb 19, 2010)

RockinRodeoChick said:
			
		

> "Oh crap oh crap oh crap!"


And did you take it up an octave, with every chours? That's what I do.



> Soaping with whiskey is a bad idea.


Depends on where your putting the whiskey.



> Guess I get to learn how to rebatch now...  Still not sure if I like that idea or not.


I understand. Mine usually come out  with a REAL un-appealing texture. 'Specially when they look like a genoa salami hanging in a Gloria Chain Store window. Gawd, do I hate when _that_ happens! But another alternative you have could be to (after zap test) incorporate it into another soap design, and call it "art". I had a batch seize up fierce, (FO accelleration) and I ended up cutting it up, and putting it into another batch of the same recipe, only with a different colour and fragrance.




If your soap is okay to use, but just ugly, give it a make-over.


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## Pepper (Feb 20, 2010)

Maybe that's the way to go with alcoholic soaps - plan for the seize, and prepare to rebatch!    I made a beer soap with no info. whatsoever.   I wondered why it traced in 30 seconds      I didn't know about alcohol and seizing.  That's what's so good about online forums.  You'll always find someone has the answer to your problem.   I like Maddy's art idea, too.   I've done that before today   :wink:


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## RockinRodeoChick (Feb 20, 2010)

Well, i managed to melt it all down in my crock pot and smoosh it into my log mold last night. It seems like it's setting up nicely now. It's going to be quite a bit grainier then I'm used to, I think. We'll see how it unmolds either tonight or tomorrow and let you lovelies know.


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## Bukawww (Feb 21, 2010)

Okay, so if you are making beer soap, you burn off the alcohol, and then reduce to a syrup - do you use that syrup weight as your 'water' or do you add water till it is more watery??

I am very close to making my Corona with lime soap and don't want to mess it up.


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## carebear (Feb 21, 2010)

I subtract the liquid from the water and add it after I have the oils and lye mixed well.  I don't necessarily wait for trace or anything, tho.


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## beerfish (Feb 22, 2010)

When we make our beer soap, we mix the lye into the beer. This is a little tricky, as the CO2 comes out of solution when the lye heats it up. To overcome it we add the lye VERY slowly to beer that has been stirred until it's nearly flat. (This is done hot process.)

Here's ours:
http://reefbotanicals.com/catalog/images/mashed_in.jpg


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## RockinRodeoChick (Feb 22, 2010)

So! Here's my update! Turns out, I didn't quite get all of it melted down, which I didn't think I did, but I thought it would be ok. Silly me.  I cut it into bars tonight and there were still chunks in the middle. Had hubby lye test it for me. After a few choice words and something to rinse his mouth with(it was quite entertaining), we discovered the chunks are lye heavy. 
So, I'm going to try to rebatch this. Any suggestions? Do I just make sure it's all melted and there are no chunks left?


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## MorpheusPA (Feb 22, 2010)

RockinRodeoChick said:
			
		

> So! Here's my update! Turns out, I didn't quite get all of it melted down, which I didn't think I did, but I thought it would be ok. Silly me.  I cut it into bars tonight and there were still chunks in the middle. Had hubby lye test it for me. After a few choice words and something to rinse his mouth with(it was quite entertaining), we discovered the chunks are lye heavy.
> So, I'm going to try to rebatch this. Any suggestions? Do I just make sure it's all melted and there are no chunks left?



That's too bad, I really like the chunky look here.  And a +1 to you for getting somebody ELSE to lye test for you!

Yeah, you'd need to thoroughly re-melt all that again and make sure it's very well-mixed and completely...goop, I guess, since it doesn't go liquid.  I'm assuming your recipe wasn't lye-heavy to begin with, of course.


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## RockinRodeoChick (Feb 22, 2010)

Yeah, I thought it looked pretty. maybe I have another bar I can chunk into it. Hmm

I thought it was pretty slick getting him to test it for me. 

And just to make sure I didn't goof, here's my recipe:
Water(whiskey in this case)- 4.543 oz
Lye- 2.238 oz
CO-3.52 oz
PKO- 1.28oz
Castor- 1.28 oz
Soybean- 2.4 oz
Olive- 7.52 oz

I ran it through soap calc, but thought I'd post it anyway. The soap I got remelted doesn't zap, just the chunks. (Hubby checked it all for me. Lol. He's such a sweet guy.)So I'm guessing it should be ok if I just get it all melted and mixed well.

I had to add more water to the whiskey and lye, because I discovered that lye doesn't dissolve very well in whiskey. It took me probably 20 minutes to get it all dissolved.


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## MorpheusPA (Feb 23, 2010)

RockinRodeoChick said:
			
		

> Yeah, I thought it looked pretty. maybe I have another bar I can chunk into it. Hmm
> 
> I thought it was pretty slick getting him to test it for me.
> 
> ...



The recipe's fine at 6% superfat.  That's cool.  The extra water's no problem, either.  It just extends setup and cure time, but doesn't do a thing to the lye heaviness/lightness of the formula.

I wonder if the lye doesn't dissolve in the JD because it's already a weak alkaloid?  Hum.  No matter, as long as you got it to dissolve with the extra water there's no problems there.

So a full rebatch should take care of it just fine.


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## gekko62 (Feb 23, 2010)

Bukawww said:
			
		

> Okay, so if you are making beer soap, you burn off the alcohol, and then reduce to a syrup - do you use that syrup weight as your 'water' or do you add water till it is more watery??
> 
> I am very close to making my Corona with lime soap and don't want to mess it up.



Pour the beer into a jug & let it sit a day,whisk it like crazy every now n then.Needs to be flat or you'll have a beery/lye volcano on yr hands.I freeze mine to a slushy,use as full water amt & add lye little by little.Be warned,that stuff smells EVIL!!! (not _quite_ as on the nose as lye&coffee but certainly up there on the stink-o-meter)


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## RockinRodeoChick (Feb 23, 2010)

gekko62 said:
			
		

> Pour the beer into a jug & let it sit a day,whisk it like crazy every now n then.Needs to be flat or you'll have a beery/lye volcano on yr hands.I freeze mine to a slushy,use as full water amt & add lye little by little.Be warned,that stuff smells EVIL!!! (not _quite_ as on the nose as lye&coffee but certainly up there on the stink-o-meter)



Oh man, does it ever smell. My house smelled like burnt beer(at least that's what it was to me) for a week after I made the stuff. Bleh


The longer setup time with the extra water was really hard to explain to hubby. He kept insisting that with the extra water it wouldn't be lye heavy.  :roll: Hehe. I wasn't sure why the JD wouldn't dissolve it very well. I figured it must've had something to do with the alcohol content. It did some of it, but not nearly all of it. It being an alkaloid itself makes sense though.

I went ahead and rebatched it tonight. I got bored with it not being colored or scented though. All I had was some color from micheal's, so I threw some of that in. It's now pepto pink and smells like black raspberry vanilla.  I'm hoping the color will mellow out some. I'll post more photos when I unmold it.


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## RockinRodeoChick (Mar 3, 2010)

Ok, just thought I'd post a final update.

My bars came out just fine. They no longer zap, but they're really really soft still. I think they'll harden up with a little more time. I had to add just a little more water when I melted the soap the 2nd time. Heh. The chunks are from some of my other bars that I was going to rebatch, but decided they might look interesting in these bars, so I threw them in. I kinda like it. 


















Didn't quite capture the color, but the photo of the actual bars is pretty close.


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## Pepper (Mar 7, 2010)

Yummm!      It looks like raspberry nougat.


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## dagmar88 (Mar 7, 2010)

Great job, I love the colors!


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## RockinRodeoChick (Mar 7, 2010)

Thank you lovelies! I'm glad I'm not the only one.


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