Malta Experiment

Saponomancer · Jul 9, 2015

I'll be testing malta, wheat beer, and hopefully a stout against each other

I just made and unmolded the Malta (basically unfermented beer)

I used a fast moving lard recipe(A simple 75% lard 25% coconut, with a 5% superfat, which I found I enjoy), and froze the malta before hand, no problem with the lye, no noxious smell or acceleration before the pour, it took me a bit to bring it to trace.

After four hours, in the summer heat with the sugars and recipe, it was almost too advanced to cut, and my attempt to stamp it resulted in a bar in a million pieces to my chagrin

unscented it smells like freshly baked bread, and its initial darker colour lightened out into a cream.

I'll be doing the wheat beer tomorrow when I can watch the timing on it, and finding out about that stout

I'll be offering samples of all of them at the end of the cure, if anyone else would like to observe the differences in the final bar.

Lion Of Judah · Jul 9, 2015

nice! i forgot about maltas as a liquid in soap making. plus i got to get my hands on some "near-beer" as well . grew up drinking malta like crazy in the caribbean . your 1st time with stout ? makes a nice soap ... like a manly type if you scent it right.

Saponomancer · Jul 9, 2015

Lion Of Judah said:
nice! i forgot about maltas as a liquid in soap making. plus i got to get my hands on some "near-beer" as well . grew up drinking malta like crazy in the caribbean . your 1st time with stout ? makes a nice soap ... like a manly type if you scent it right.

Actually, yes

The beers I used before were IPAs

The wheat beer did not accelerate trace, and was as easy as the malta to incorporate from frozen. The batter initially smelled strongly of the combination of alcohol and lye but it quickly dissipated

four hours out the soap has gelled without encouragement, and is unmoldable, although unlike the malta its still malleable enough to need to take care with it

The colour has gone from a light caramel to a white/light gelled yellow.

Where the malta soap smells like a strong dark bread, this smells like white bread, although the smell is still perceptible. No trace of the alcohol scent remains.

not_ally · Jul 10, 2015

Lion, have you tried the near beer yet? I bought some today to try, have never made a beer soap before, and although there are tons of threads/posts on regular beer soaps, not sure how many on the not-so-much beer kind.

Saponomancer · Jul 10, 2015

Not Ally: Thats why I wanted to do this experiment with the malta!

not_ally · Jul 10, 2015

DragonGirl, I am getting confused about who posted what!

I am awfully absent-minded, I went to Trader Joe's today and the security guard (who kept my bag for me when I left it in my shopping cart a couple of trips ago - who forgets a giant orange leather bag in a shopping cart?) said: don't forget anything, now! And of course, I lost my favorite shopping bag somewhere in the store and could not find it today

Then spent 5 ms looking through my bag for my reading glasses before realizing they were on my head.

So please excuse, and please tell me what happened with the near beer! I could not find any posts on someone who had used it, and it is the only kind I can use.

ETA: Oh, just realized that the Malta was like near beer? It sounds like it might not really be a good soaping ingredient, rats. So still waiting on Lion's thoughts if s/he uses actual NB - please tell which Lion, if you don't mind - maybe that will be different (hopeful but not expecting much.)

Saponomancer · Jul 10, 2015

Malta is like neer beer yes! they're both unfermented malt beverages, malta basically has all the same ingredients that beer does.

Aside from setting up extremely quickly it actually behaved very well, I'm all sorts of curious how it will be once it cures

Saponomancer · Jul 10, 2015

The stout noticeably accelerated trace, at three hours not only was the block solid and ready to cut, but it had a light sheen of oil across its entire surface typical of overheating. Again it gelled without any encouragement.

Its gelled one shade darker than the Malta, and has none of the noticeable scent of the other two bars, I'll post pictures tomorrow.

The wheat bar has noticeably begun to ash, where the malta has not.

Lion Of Judah · Jul 10, 2015

the whole aspect with the " near beer " is the absence of alcohol . it has everything else and should offer the benefits of beer , which is the lather and skin conditioning properties. As TheDragonGirl stated Malta is the early part of some liquors and beer , in it's state it has a high sugar content which again contributes to a lovely lather . just remember to fizz out the carbon , which reduces lye volcano when its added to the liquid.

Saponomancer · Jul 10, 2015

And pictures! As you can see the Stout and WB are both ashing everywhere gel wasn't complete, but the Malta completely gelled through and is showing no ash at all.

TeresaT · Jul 10, 2015

not_ally said:
Then spent 5 ms looking through my bag for my reading glasses before realizing they were on my head.

I love this! I am blind as a bat. Before I had surgery to insert contact lenses, I couldn't see the clock on my night stand, let alone figure out what time it was. So, one afternoon, I was looking for my glasses. I couldn't for the life of me remember where I had put them! I'm searching and searching and then it dawned on me. I was wearing them!! THAT'S why I was able to tell they were not on the kitchen counter. I still laugh at this (as you can tell). :clap::clap:

not_ally · Jul 10, 2015

The awful thing is that I had Lasiks in my early 40's, it was so nice not to have to deal with contacts or glasses anymore. Then I turned 50 - am now 52 - and BAM! needed reading glasses. But I can't see anything else when I have them on, so they are often perched on my head for when I need to read. Ah, so much fun to get older. I think I am shrinking, too, and I am already pretty little.

Lion Of Judah · Jul 10, 2015

TheDragonGirl said:
And pictures! As you can see the Stout and WB are both ashing everywhere gel wasn't complete, but the Malta completely gelled through and is showing no ash at all.

they came out nice . don't worry about the ash , once they are cured you can dip them in water and the ash will be gone. i like the rich tan color of guiness soap so i will make it my business to try out the malta , a nice VitaMalt or Corona Malt.
did you wrap the mold to promote gel?

Saponomancer · Jul 10, 2015

Lion Of Judah said:
they came out nice . don't worry about the ash , once they are cured you can dip them in water and the ash will be gone. i like the rich tan color of guiness soap so i will make it my business to try out the malta , a nice VitaMalt or Corona Malt.
did you wrap the mold to promote gel?

Thank you! Haha, I'm not worried about the ash myself, mostly I'm noting for posterity, since this was an experiment, any behaviors that differ between them all else being equal

I did not cover, although the room was pretty warm from the summer heat (we do have AC but sometimes it cant keep up)

I wanted to see how they would do on their own with no outside help

Lion Of Judah · Jul 10, 2015

TheDragonGirl said:
Thank you! Haha, I'm not worried about the ash myself, mostly I'm noting for posterity, since this was an experiment, any behaviors that differ between them all else being equal

I did not cover, although the room was pretty warm from the summer heat (we do have AC but sometimes it cant keep up) I wanted to see how they would do on their own with no outside help

if the heat held out for about an hour or so more then they would have gel all the way , it was so close . nice experiment

Saponomancer · Aug 15, 2015

Six week mark:

The stout bubbled up readily, nice big bubbles that turned into a thick creamy foam

I had to work a little harder at the malta for the bubbles, but it also had a very nice lather once it lathered up

The wheat beer lathered the most readily but its lather was a lot thinner than the other two

Malta Experiment

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