Another temperature question

[Jessrof]

This is kind of a continuation of other threads, but I need clarification. I am interested in making beer soap and milk soap eventually and I read somewhere that I could mix all my oils the night before. Can I also do this with my lye mixture?
And when bringing everything to proper temperature, how close should the temps of my lye and oils be? Should my oils always behotter than my lye or vice versa?

For example, I am making beer soap and want to avoid a volcano or scorched beer. So I mix my oils tonight and let them get to room temp (no hard oils, only liquid). Then tomorrow I mix my lye. Can I just add my lye to my oils without waiting even if I do not have any hard oils to melt? Thanks for the clarification!

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

You don't need to mix your oils the night before. You can melt your hard oils, add them to your soft oils, stick blend them...and you're ready to go. You can mix your lye solution whenever you want...if you do it the night before, it will be room temp when you're ready. For milk soaps, some folks freeze the milk and add the lye solution to the frozen milk to avoid scorching the milk with the lye. For beer soaps, you need to boil it and reduce it to remove the alcohol (I refrigerate my beer before I soap it). It is better to soap cooler when using beer or milk (or honey or other accelerants like some FOs) to avoid overheating (or seizing).

 

[jcandleattic]

I don't boil my beer to remove the alcohol, but I add salt to it before freezing it to make it a bit flat but not to remove any of the alcohol. IMO that's what gives the soap such a lovely lather. Also, you need to be careful mixing your milk lye solution too much earlier than you are going to soap because if it is whole milk or straight from the goat milk, it will have fats in there that will want to start to saponify.

Since your oils are liquid, and not solids, it's up to you if you want to mix them prior.

Your oils and lye do not have to be the same temp, but you will want your oils to be lower or close to the lye temp. Vice verse, doesn't matter so much. A lot of people put hot lye into cool oils with no problems at all. It's really just a matter of choice.

Happy soaping!

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

I don't boil my beer to remove the alcohol, but I add salt to it before freezing it to make it a bit flat but not to remove any of the alcohol. IMO that's what gives the soap such a lovely lather.

It's my understanding that its the sugars in the beer that enhance the lather - not the alcohol. Alcohol can cause CP to seize, which is one reason to not use alcohol extracts (like for baking) or herbal tinctures. Perhaps you've been able to do it that way because the beer you're using has a minimal alcohol content?

 

[ruby61]

I have yet to make beer soap but I heard too to boil out the alcohol.
There are two ways you can make the cream soap. One freeze your milk, keep your temps below 85 degrees as you add your lye slowly to your ice chunks. I only add a tbsp or two at a time to prevent scorching it. If your color turns orange you will know you are burning the milk. Option 2: you can add your cream to the oils at room temp and adjust your lye by reducing the liquid up to 50% depending on how much milk you added to your oils. Make sure your lye is room temp or at least in the 80's before you add to oils and be very careful since it is more concentrated.

 

[jcandleattic]

It's my understanding that its the sugars in the beer that enhance the lather - not the alcohol. Alcohol can cause CP to seize, which is one reason to not use alcohol extracts (like for baking) or herbal tinctures. Perhaps you've been able to do it that way because the beer you're using has a minimal alcohol content?

yes, I don't use hard alcohol, I use beer. The beer I have used in the past has been between 6% - 10%.
My soaps have never seized when I've used beer.
I was just pointing out that no, you don't have to boil out the alcohol. It's not a must to do so.

 

[Jessrof]

Thanks so much for the replies! I am attempting the beer soap tomorrow so we will see how it goes. I did end up boiling my beer because I set it out 3 days ago and it still wasn't flat (super beer I guess). I guess I was just wondering the chemistry behind having the temps approximately the same (nerdy biochemist here) but I am assuming the heat of either is just related to the rate of the reaction. I will update you on how it goes