First Beer Soap - rebatch possible or throw away?

[vmakkers]

So I did my third batch of soap today hoping this beer soap would turn out great but after further reading, I'm pretty sure I already messed it up. I simmered my beer to get rid of the carbonation and alcohol but it ended up being almost syrupy. I think I reduced the beer down way too much when trying to get rid of the bubbles and ended up with a sugar substance with no water... that was problem 1.

Now, I also realized that instead of measuring out the beer by volume to equal out the water, I measured it out by weight. Mistake number 2. I thought about how the beer would be heavier than water, and probably contained a high amount of sugar and not enough water for the lye to react with. It was already bad enough I did the beer by weight instead of volume, combined with the super reduced beer, I'm pretty sure this batch is going to end up lye heavy.

Is there any salvation?

 

[cmzaha]

Number 1 never measure any ingredients for soap by volume. What else did you use for liquid, I assume you did not only use the syrup for all the liquid. If you dissolved your lye in water and it all dissolved that would not create a lye heavy soap. It takes 50% liquid to dissolve lye completely, that is the saturation point. You can soap with a 50/50 lye solution but it will cause the soap to trace quickly and will harden quickly. It really is better to stick with recipes not using ingredients that can be troublesome until you have had more practice. More info is needed to help determine if you soap will be okay

 

[shunt2011]

First, please post your recipe and your process. Secondly, always measure your ingredients by weight not volume. Volume is not accurate enough for soapmaking in my opinion. Once your post your info we will be more than happy to help troubleshoot. I agree that until you have the process down that you don't use ingredients that can cause problems.

 

[Obsidian]

Reducing the beer to a syrup won't cause issues if you use enough water to get the proper amount of liquid. I use beer syrup and add it at trace, works great. Also, its the amount of lye used that determines if a soap is lye heavy, not water. If you use a appropriate lye amount and it completely dissolves, then it should be fine.

 

[vmakkers]

Thanks everyone for your quick replies! It was my attempt at a beer shampoo bar since my boyfriend left his beer out, I figured I might as well just give it a go. I had the proper amount of liquid by weight. The recipe called for 2.8oz of water

Recipe:
13% Almond Oil 1.04 oz
30% Avocado Oil 2.4 oz
10% Castor Oil 0.8 oz
7% Coconut Oil 0.56oz
30% Olive Oil 2.4 oz
10% Mango Butter 0.8 oz

4% Superfat
2.8oz of beer/water
1.06 oz of lye

I added some water to the beer syrup to get it to the 2.8oz by weight which is where I get my concern. I dissolved the lye into the beer/water mix. I don't think I had enough water in the syrupy mix to fully dissolve the lye.

 

[DeeAnna]

If you really are measuring by ounces and you are making this small of a batch, I'd say measurement error is a real issue. Batches of about 1 pound (454 grams) are the minimum size to reduce the variability from measurement error. Also, get your scale switched to grams -- you can measure with more precision if you use grams rather than ounces. And as the others have said, ALWAYS measure by weight, not volume. The only exception to this rule are additives used in such tiny amounts that your scale cannot measure accurately.

But after re-reading your posts in this thread ... I'm still not sure what your problem really is. You made soap. You're concerned that your beer syrup might be too concentrated. Yes, I get that -- but what actually happened with the soap? Is it soft, separated, lye heavy, ???

 

[lpstephy85]

I agree with DeeAnna that this batch was way too small, if indeed it is in ounces. Was this a recipe that you created yourself or did you use one that you found elsewhere? To be honest, only being your third batch it is best to keep it simple. Making a beer soap on your third batch is very risky because of all of the things that can happen in a beer soap (volcanoes when adding the lye, volcanoes in the mold, overheating, etc.). Until you know more about soap making it is best to keep it simple.

 

[vmakkers]

I switch my scale between grams and ozs for measurements to check for accuracy. I was actually going to look into getting another scale that goes into the 0.001 grams. Any suggestions?

I used lindy's shampoo bar recipe as a basis and adjusted it for my hair type through the soap calculator.

The soap has been sitting for 24 hours now and I'm going to pop them out of the molds when I get home. I guess my concern is whether the soap is going to be usable since the lye didn't necessarily have enough water to dissolve in.

 

[lpstephy85]

I switch my scale between grams and ozs for measurements to check for accuracy. I was actually going to look into getting another scale that goes into the 0.001 grams. Any suggestions?

I used lindy's shampoo bar recipe as a basis and adjusted it for my hair type through the soap calculator.

The soap has been sitting for 24 hours now and I'm going to pop them out of the molds when I get home. I guess my concern is whether the soap is going to be usable since the lye didn't necessarily have enough water to dissolve in.

But when you made the soap, did the lye dissolve completely or are you thinking it didn't because the amount was under what it should have been? If you had undissolved lye, you will know when you cut your soap and see lye pockets in the soap. This goes back to me saying about keeping it simple when you start to make soap because not knowing if your lye was dissolved or not is a big issue if you are going to be a soapmaker.

 

[shunt2011]

I too am confused. If you used enough total liquid and the lye was totally dissolved your soap should be fine. Just be sure to zap test it and if no zap it's all good

 

[Obsidian]

Lye will dissolve in most all liquids, you could have used just beer syrup and it would have dissolved just fine. Your soap will be fine.

 

[DeeAnna]

"...I was actually going to look into getting another scale that goes into the 0.001 grams. Any suggestions? ..."

I'm wondering why you would need a scale this accurate for soap making. I have a lab scale that measures to 0.01 g, and that's useful for lotion making. But for soap ... it's serious overkill.

If you make a reasonably small batches of soap -- 1 lb (0.5 kg) for example -- a scale that weighs to 0.1 g is plenty fine. One pound batch size will make 3-4 bars, so you can use one or two, give one to a tester (or friend), and set one bar aside for long term evaluation (rancidity, lather, hardness, appearance, fragrance, etc.) This batch size is also large enough to saponify in a realistic fashion -- smaller batches don't saponify the same as larger batches -- so if you're testing recipes with the expectation of scaling up, you need a batch size that is sufficiently large enough to provide semi-realistic results.

For larger batches of 2 pounds (1 kg) or more, a scale with an accuracy of 1 g is sufficient.