Beer soap fragrance

[K Rex]

Hello again,

Just made my second batch of beer/ale soap. A local brewery hired me to make some, with their own ingredients. I used raw wort instead of beer. Smells awesome and isn't fermented, so it contains no alcohol... made my life a little easier.

My dilemma is this: I cannot get the smell of the wort, beer or hops to transfer to the final product. I desperately want it to smell like hops. This time I removed half the wort from the base to which the lye was added, and added it after trace so it would have a better chance of smelling nice. It has a pleasant wheat smell, but none of the floral hop aroma I desire despite adding a generous amount of ground hops.

Is there a good hops fragrance oil or affordable EO? Does anyone have any tips or tricks?

Best,

Kev

 

[carebear]

The beer soap I made several weeks ago still has a hoppy scent to it. I used the beer for 100% of the liquid, dissolving lye directly in the flat beer. The scent is mild, but very much there.

So try working with the beer and see where that gets you.

 

[K Rex]

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I used 100% as well. As I said, it's a pleasant smell... but far more of a barley/malt smell, and the hops are near undetectable.

K

 

[SilverFox]

I made a beer soap in February (100% beer for liquid) and now there is no scent left. It had some scent for a few weeks, but now, nothing.

 

[soapbuddy]

There is no need to add it at trace. The lye is still very active a this point and it will take whatever it wants. The darker the beer, the more chance for any scent to stay. I bought some hop oil, but it's way too pricey to use in a wash off product like soap.

 

[Chay]

For a hops fragrance I would recommend you start experimenting and blend your own.

 

[Soaplady22]

I could have sworn I read that someplace online had a "beer" FO. Don't know where, tho'.

 

[Laurie Gator]

Hi K,

I don't know of any beer or hop EO, but I do make my own beer...

One thing you may want to try is adding some "pelleted hops" to the soap itself. The hop pellets look like bunny food but they are hops. Just squeeze them and you will have very small hop flakes that you can add to the soap at trace.

If you go to your local homebrew shop (or the brewery may have them) you can pick up an ounce for about $2.99. I keep them in my freezer to keep them fresh. I have heard of them being used for hop pillows.

The brewstore may also be able to track down some hop oil for you. It isn't something that we normally use for brewing but I have read about it in some brewing books...

Another thing you may want to try are the pre-hopped liquid malt extracts. Maybe adding a tablespoon or two of that at trace may help the aroma... Basically the prehopped liquid malt extract is just a concentrated malt (barley) and hop blend. Just add water, heat and yeast and you can make easy beer! This may also add more aroma...

Another thing (yup, idea machine on high) is adding some ground grains to the final soap. Barley such as chocolate malt and some of the darker grains can be ground by the brew store and you could also use the hulls and inside of the grain as an exfoliant in your soap. The chocolate grains are used in dark beers like stouts and they smell fabulous!

I hope something in there helped you

Edited to add: Try using a highly hopped beer such as an IPA, that may also help keep some of the aroma. Hops are a tricky little beastie. The aroma goes away quickly. That is why many brewers do more than one hop addition to the beer to keep more of the flavors and aroma. Heat will take a lot of the aroma away.

 

[Hazel]

There are some beer FOs. I haven't used them so I don't know how good they smell.

http://www.brambleberry.com/Beer-Fragrances-C308.aspx
http://www.naturesgardencandles.com/can ... m/matthew2
http://www.saveonscents.com/product_inf ... _id=202670

 

[PrairieCraft]

Whatever you do, don't buy the Taylored Concepts Beer FO. It smells exactly like (and I'm not exagerrating here, it is that gross) vomit.

 

[Happy Lass]

Brambleberry had a set of 4 different beer FO's that got excellent reviews. I don't know if they still have them, but you can look.

 

[carebear]

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I used 100% as well. As I said, it's a pleasant smell... but far more of a barley/malt smell, and the hops are near undetectable.

K

yea, it might be more malty than hoppy.

 

[Tylerdurden]

For what it's worth, I made a beer soap with 100% Tropicalia IPA as my liquid about 3 1/2 weeks ago. (Tropicalia is a citrusy IPA made here in GA) I made a 49 oz loaf, and I added about 2 and a 1/2 tablespoons (I think!) of Orange 10X from brambleberry. I also added some shredded loofah for an exfoliant. Was my 1st go round with beer so, so it was kind of just a test love. The burnt smell of beer has pretty much gone away from the likes, but the Orange 10X did come through. It smells pretty good in my opinion, but next time I'm going to try And add maybe a great fruit fragrance oil. I'm going to keep up with this thread and see how I can get a hoppy smell though. Thanks for posting this!

 

[shunt2011]

For what it's worth, I made a beer soap with 100% Tropicalia IPA as my liquid about 3 1/2 weeks ago. (Tropicalia is a citrusy IPA made here in GA) I made a 49 oz loaf, and I added about 2 and a 1/2 tablespoons (I think!) of Orange 10X from brambleberry. I also added some shredded loofah for an exfoliant. Was my 1st go round with beer so, so it was kind of just a test love. The burnt smell of beer has pretty much gone away from the likes, but the Orange 10X did come through. It smells pretty good in my opinion, but next time I'm going to try And add maybe a great fruit fragrance oil. I'm going to keep up with this thread and see how I can get a hoppy smell though. Thanks for posting this!

This post is from 2011. None of the posters have been here in years and years. You may want to start a new thread.

 

[Tylerdurden]

Oh. Oops! It came up in my email, so I was just responding assuming it was recent. Thanks.

 

[lsg]

I use Oatmeal Stout FO from Wholesale Supplies Plus. It does turn the soap dark, but if you want white foam on top, just divide the soap before adding the FO.

 

[Tylerdurden]

I use Oatmeal Stout FO from Wholesale Supplies Plus. It does turn the soap dark, but if you want white foam on top, just divide the soap before adding the FO.

I'm actually expecting an oatmeal Stout FO To arrive tomorrow from brambleberry. I have a Guinness flattening in the fridge, and will be making a dark beer soap probably in the next week. I'm going to add just a little bit of chopped up oatmeal for character and exfoliant. I'm really hoping I can get the soap to come out a root beer color.