Going to make a beer soap

[milky]

My dad requested some beer soap so I've been trying to read up on it. I've learned that the beer needs to be boiled first to reduce alcohol or carbonation or both and that there are differing opinions about when to add it. With milk I freeze it and slowly add the lye without extra water in there. Seems that's one way to make beer soap and apparently it smells terrible. Some people advise adding the beer to oils first. Then another way is to reduce it a lot and add the syrup at trace.

Those that make beer soap, what's your favorite method?

How much beer do you start with for x-size batch and how much do you usually reduce it?

Do you use beer as the only liquid or add water as well? Would you use a strong beer syrup for all or most of your liquid?
Guess if you add it at trace then that answer would be no, but then what percent is a good amount to start with and then adjust for? (I usually do 33% lye concentration and my math is terrible. Thank god for the calculators - and this forum!)

Thanks

 

[SaltedFig]

Hi milky!

Beer soap is nice to use, and fun to make too :mrgreen:

I like to mix up a strong lye solution (50% lye concentration, or 1 part water to 1 part lye crystals), and let that cool. In the past I have been boiling my beer (to try and remove as much carbonation and alcohol as possible) and cooling it before adding to my master-batch lye mixture.

So far I have tried from "no bubbles left" stage all the way through to a thick syrup. I think I like the thinner (cold, no bubbles left) liquid better, but I haven't made up my mind completely.

I like to add it at the same amount of beer liquid as the lye water, so I end up soaping at a 33% lye concentration (2 parts liquid to 1 part lye). It makes for easy maths then :mrgreen:

 

[Arimara]

I have used 100% beer reduction several times. The main thing about beer soap is you're better off mixing the beer lye up in a tall container.

 

[Obsidian]

I use the reduce it to a syrup and add at trace. I reduce a 16oz bottle down to 3-4 oz of syrup for 2 lb of oils.

Works great, doesn't smell terrible and has never overheated or misbehaved.

I like using a double dark stout, that way the finished soap will have a nice brown color.

 

[cmzaha]

Like SaltedFig, I soap with a 50/50 lye solution and use beer for my remaining liquid. I HATE the smell of beer and lye, so I mix my beer into my oils before adding in my 33% lye solution. It also avoids any possible volcanoes. I simmer my beer for about 10 min to get rid of the alcohol, cool it and into the oils it goes. I do not like wasting the beer by simmering it to a syrup.

 

[SunRiseArts]

I have made beer soap and I love it! I do boil mine and freeze it, and pour the lye into the frozen cubes. I enhance mine with NG beer FO.

 

[milky]

Thanks all! That helps a lot!

Another question: I can guess the answer, but does any of the beer scent come through in the end, and if so, does it differ from beer to beer (like some funky artisan citrus beer versus IPA or wheat)?

I have made beer soap and I love it! I do boil mine and freeze it, and pour the lye into the frozen cubes. I enhance mine with NG beer FO.

I've been wanting to try that FO! Have to wait till I use up some others though. Have you blended it with any others?

 

[DeeAnna]

There can be a slight scent from the beer that carries over into the soap. The stronger the beer's odor and taste, the more likely there will be some scent. I've noticed more odor carry over from hoppy beers. I have a batch curing right now that I made with an orphan bottle of IPA, and there's still a tang in the soap from the hops. But it's pretty mild and fades with time, so plan on adding additional scent if you want a scented soap. I take the beer scent into consideration when choosing a fragrance, but I otherwise ignore it when calculating the dosage of FO I'm going to add.

I use a 50% NaOH solution made with water. I use beer as the extra "water" needed to reduce the lye concentration to 33%. I use 1 bottle of beer for 1600 grams of oils (about 3 pounds). I boil the beer down to whatever volume of "water" I need to make the correct lye concentration. It's usually reduced by half or more, but not to a syrup. I don't freeze or chill it -- just stick blend it into the fats after it cools a bit from being boiled down. Carolyn's right -- that does help minimize the awful lye-meets-beer stench.

I don't insulate or CPOP the soap. It will get pretty toasty without any help.

 

[SunRiseArts]

I've been wanting to try that FO! Have to wait till I use up some others though. Have you blended it with any others?

I have not blend it. I really like it as it is. I know it has mixed reviews, but personally I think it really smells like sweet beer. Even though, I do not drink!

In my experience the original beer smell does not come through. Maybe a tiny bit, and I have an enhanced sense of smell.

 

[Relle]

I let my beer go flat over 2 days, then boil it, freeze it, add lye to the frozen beer, then add it to the oils and put it in the refrigerator. I use all beer, no water. There is no scent from the beer I use, so I add a beer scented FO. I find with the beer in it, it comes out nice and creamy.

 

[BrewerGeorge]

Thanks all! That helps a lot!

Another question: I can guess the answer, but does any of the beer scent come through in the end, and if so, does it differ from beer to beer (like some funky artisan citrus beer versus IPA or wheat)?
...

My experience in CP is that you can get some malty scent to carry over - but it's really faint. But definitely no hop scent survives. I hot-infused 4 oz of oil with a full ounce of Centennial pellets overnight and squeezed out the dank, green oil. That oil smelled really strongly, but that smell was completely absent in the batch of soap. I added shredded whole Glacier hops and they turned into brown sludge without scent.

And that makes sense, since the compounds we're smell in hops are resins, acids, and oils themselves. I would expect the lye to shred them.

If you want hop character to carry, my idea would be to HP the soap and add hop pellets reconstituted in oil or glycerin like an exfoliant. I've never tried that, I should say, but it's on my list of experiments and the only think I can think of that might work.

 

[SaltedFig]

My experience in CP is that you can get some malty scent to carry over - but it's really faint. But definitely no hop scent survives. I hot-infused 4 oz of oil with a full ounce of Centennial pellets overnight and squeezed out the dank, green oil. That oil smelled really strongly, but that smell was completely absent in the batch of soap. I added shredded whole Glacier hops and they turned into brown sludge without scent.

And that makes sense, since the compounds we're smell in hops are resins, acids, and oils themselves. I would expect the lye to shred them.

If you want hop character to carry, my idea would be to HP the soap and add hop pellets reconstituted in oil or glycerin like an exfoliant. I've never tried that, I should say, but it's on my list of experiments and the only think I can think of that might work.

I grew hops plants for a while. Big plants, thirsty, hungry ... mine were mostly Cascade and Ringwood (local hops).

Heat treated botanicals are rendered useless pretty quick (mostly). Combo heat and lye is a major kill. Can you try the oil experiment with cold pressed seed oils or cold infusions?

I've been able to get hemp seed oil to carry it's scent for about half a year before it fades into the faintest of scents in cold process soaps, which suggests that heat might kill things that the lye doesn't touch.

I have a cold infusion of herbs that I've kept going since 2008 (not rancid yet, smells mighty fine even, tastes good too) ... I am wishing now I kept one of the hoppy ones!

Ps. Hemp and hops are relatives, in the plant world. Hops were used in the pillows of a King, to help sleep. Baby hop leaves look like ...