Instant Saponification

[theBrewMeister]

Just made my 5th batch of soap. Another thread I was involved with made me want to make a batch using beer. I, of course, used a beer I've made personally a zillion times -B.O.R.I.S the Crusher Oatmeal Imperial Stout - Hoppin' Frog Brewery. Imperial Stouts are the Grandaddy of all stouts; big and black. We won a gold medal with this beer last year at the Great American Beer Festival held in Denver CO every year.

Anyways, I used 250ml of boiled/cooled BORIS to make my lye solution chilled to 100* F; oil temp was also 100* F. Within 3 mins of mixing with a stick blender in figure 8 short bursts I reached a heavy trace. For fear of not having a uniform mixture I then switched to vigorous hand mixing for another few minutes until I felt it was mixed well.

I'm taking a shot in the dark here and guessing that this rapid trace was due to the amount of sugars in the beer. Anyone have an experience like this before?

Heres the recipe...

Due in part to my job and education I prefer to work in metric units. Im sorry if this is a problem for some ppl when reading the recipe.

900g batch, which is just shy of 2lbs.

540g Olive Oil (pomace)
270g Coconut Oil
90g Safflower Oil
124g NaOH
250ml Beer - 25ml was held back to moisten finely crushed oatmeal to make oats softer in finished bars (added at trace).

 

[RockinRodeoChick]

Sounds to me like you didn't boil off all the alcohol. That's usually what causes a rapid trace in beer soap. I think most people that make beer soap boil it down to a syrup like texture and get rid of as much of the alcohol as possible. I think I might lye test it before i used it... just to make sure.

 

[donniej]

I don't use beer or alcohol but I've also read many times that alcohol causes it to sieze.

 

[theBrewMeister]

There was definitely no alcohol present. I used a hydrometer to test it prior to adding the lye. Have these alcohol and NaOH theories been tested?

 

[xyxoxy]

I'm not sure if it's just me but I NEVER have to use a stick blender for 3 minutes. I try to soap at fairly cool temps and even then can usually reach trace with a wire whisk inside 10 minutes. When I do get impatient and pull out the SB a few short bursts (maybe 30 seconds total) usually does it for me. Then I go back to the whisk to be sure the traced soap is fully incorporated/blended.

If I were to SB for 3 minutes I would probably have thick pudding. I say this because the first time I used a stick blender I didn't realize just how quickly it works and green soap pudding is exactly what I got.

ETA: Oh and your beer sounds wonderful! I'm a Porter guy myself but can also appreciate a good stout.