Gelatinous lye water

[Anstarx]

I made a batch of horse oil soap yesterday and used kumis (fermented mare's milk) as my water.
Since it's an alcoholic drink, i boiled it down and threw in some sugar for lather. I froze it to a slush and added my lye. As soon as I added my lye it started to turn yellow and red. Eventually it turned dark brown and the temperature raised so fast it started fuming. Since I was mixing it in a plastic beaker (it's pp) I worried that it may warp the plastic so I quickly made a ice bath and put the whole beaker in.
I let it sit for about 10 min when I mix my oils.

When I started pouring the lye, it came out normal at first but soon I can see there is a thick layer in the bottom of the beaker that won't come out. I tried to shake a beaker and it wiggles like a jelly. After shaking the beaker a few times the gel came out and I mixed it with oil just fine. After some stick blending you couldn't feel the gel anymore The batch traced really fast but other than that everything seemed normal.

Unfortunately I didn't take any picture. However, I'm curious about what caused the gelatinous lye. I observed that only the part of beaker that was in the ice bath has the gel state, the upper part is still liquid. Maybe the temperature difference caused it to gel?

 

[shunt2011]

Did you add the lye slowly or just pour it in? By your description it sounds like you just poured it into the frozen milk. Did you dissolve the sugar first in some water? That may be the issue as well.

 

[dibbles]

If you didn't dissolve the sugar first, that could be the problem as shunt2011 suggested. I had that happen the first time I used sugar. I don't know if the lye reacting with the milk fat could have also contributed, but that might have played a role as well.

 

[cmzaha]

I am guessing it was the lye reacting with the kumis then the cooling down a portion of the mix quicker in the ice bath causing the gelatinous state. Undissolved sugar will usually crystallize and be on the bottom of the beaker.

 

[Gloria McDonald]

When using any kind of milk I use partially frozen milk in a stainless steel bowl set in a sink of ice. Lye is poured in very slowly to stop it from heating up and burning the milk fats. Sounds to me like possibly the lye saponified some of the milk fat which resulted in the gelled substance. Interested to know how the soap turns out.

 

[CatahoulaBubble]

The fats in the milk just saponified before you used it. I've had that happen when I used heavy cream. It's fine and won't hurt the soap it just accelerates trace sometimes and you have to make sure you fully stick blend the soap to keep pockets of lye heavy soap from showing in bars. When I first tried the heavy cream I ended up with some lye heavy lumps in my soap because I didn't blend it up enough and poured it too soon. If you do it again you might want to add additional water to it and add the lye slowly and stir as it's added so it doesn't all congregate on the bottom. I constantly stir my frozen milk when I add the lye to make sure the sugars don't burn and if you add sugar I would dissolve it in water first and then add it after you've melted the frozen milk. It keeps the lye from heating up as fast.

 

[Anstarx]

Did you add the lye slowly or just pour it in? By your description it sounds like you just poured it into the frozen milk. Did you dissolve the sugar first in some water? That may be the issue as well.

If you didn't dissolve the sugar first, that could be the problem as shunt2011 suggested. I had that happen the first time I used sugar. I don't know if the lye reacting with the milk fat could have also contributed, but that might have played a role as well.

While I was boiling down the kumis I threw in the sugar in the hot liquid and stir until no sugar crystal visible. I let the mixture cool down to room temp then froze the whole thing,
so I think the sugar had dissolved completely.

I am guessing it was the lye reacting with the kumis then the cooling down a portion of the mix quicker in the ice bath causing the gelatinous state. Undissolved sugar will usually crystallize and be on the bottom of the beaker.

The fats in the milk just saponified before you used it. I've had that happen when I used heavy cream. It's fine and won't hurt the soap it just accelerates trace sometimes and you have to make sure you fully stick blend the soap to keep pockets of lye heavy soap from showing in bars. When I first tried the heavy cream I ended up with some lye heavy lumps in my soap because I didn't blend it up enough and poured it too soon. If you do it again you might want to add additional water to it and add the lye slowly and stir as it's added so it doesn't all congregate on the bottom. I constantly stir my frozen milk when I add the lye to make sure the sugars don't burn and if you add sugar I would dissolve it in water first and then add it after you've melted the frozen milk. It keeps the lye from heating up as fast.

When using any kind of milk I use partially frozen milk in a stainless steel bowl set in a sink of ice. Lye is poured in very slowly to stop it from heating up and burning the milk fats. Sounds to me like possibly the lye saponified some of the milk fat which resulted in the gelled substance. Interested to know how the soap turns out.

Milk fat saponified with lye seemed very likely. I wasn't really thinking of kumis as milk in my head. I saw it as an alcohol and I just made a batch of soap with frozen stout. According to the behavior of that batch I figured freezing the liquid would be enough and forgot to count in the milk factor.

Also, I unmolded the soap last night and cut off two slices -it was too soft to cut so I will let the rest sit a bit more. From what I cut off, the soap looks decent, no weird textures and bubbles, the surface looks smooth. The sides are a bit lumpy as I had to spoon the soap batter into the mold. I will post photos when I got home.

 

[Anstarx]

Finally got around to take photos, here they are.

I was really worried that soaps will turned out very dark but they look alright. I had to let it sit for 3 days before I cut the whole loaf as it was really soft.
I added a little vanilla FO in the darker batter. Lighter batter was unscented. Overall the soap doesn't really smell like anything but it doesn't smell bad either.