Using hops in beer soap

[Cirafly24]

I will be using olive oil infused with hops, hoppy beer for the liquid, and topping the soaps with dried hops.

Will the hops fragrance come through? I will also be using a blend of honey ale and oatmeal stout FO.

 

[SaltedFig]

It would have to be a fairly intensive infusion, but yes.

The topping will go brown where it contacts the soap and a little bit up from that.

Written from the perspective of using hops plant material, if you are talking brewers hops I'll leave that to other folk

 

[shunt2011]

If you scroll down to the bottom of this post you will see other posts on the same type topic.

 

[SaltedFig]

Oh! That's handy!

(took me a moment to figure out what you meant)

If you scroll down to the bottom of this post you will see other posts on the same type topic. :smile:

 

[Misschief]

I've made a couple of varieties of beer soap. The last one I did, using a reduced oatmeal stout, contains cocoa powder, oatmeal powder and ground hops. The hops didn't turn black and give the soap a bit (very little bit) of a "scrubby" feeling but nothing scratchy. I can't smell anything "hoppy" in the soap at all.

 

[jcandleattic]

In my experience the hoppy scent has never come through the saponification process. I've tried infusing, using a very hoppy beer, etc., and nope. Nothing. I also have yet to find a beer scent that actually smells like beer. OOB it can, but it always morphs to something else in the soap, so now I just scent as normal, and not worry about trying to make it smell like beer.

 

[cmzaha]

The hop scent will not come through and I would lose the hops on top, they are quite scratchy. Also any hops I have used, if used in the soap are very reminiscent of loofa. Keep in mind I only used hops from one craft beer maker so I am not real versed in hops

 

[neonstudy]

I've used hops infused oil, and hops on top, and beer. Smell never came through. Now I always scent with some FO, like oatmeal stout FO.

 

[Traumabrew]

I am a homebrewer. I have used hops in soap once before. But I used hop pellets and I added them to my lye water. The pellets dissolve and you have a mushy hoppy solution. Now, the aroma of the hops will not come through. In the soap I made I used a nice, strong dark coffee stout and used a coffee stout FO I found. The hop mush does act like an exfoliant. I want to try another beer soap soon but I want to add concentrated hop oil to it and see if I can get the aroma to carry through. I am doubtful since the lye will alter the chemical structure of the hop oil, but who knows til you try it.

This is what I am going to try next

https://www.morebeer.com/products/distilled-hop-oil-el-dorado-1-ml.html

 

[SaltedFig]

I've added hemp seed oil to reinforce the scent (same plant family). The testers only have a residual "warm" smell now, the distinctive smell of the original mixture (with beer, beeswax and honey), which was never "beery", lasted for about 3 months in the shower, and included the honey scent as well (I suspect the raw beeswax helped with this). Mine were home-grown hops (two varieties, Ringwood and Cascade, with the Cascade being the stronger smell, from memory). I didn't use botanicals in the body of the soap, so I can't comment on the scratchiness people are getting. If I can get hold of some fresh hops from my local brewer (not sure whether he is still growing his own, but if he isn't he'll know where to get hold of some), I'll see if I can replicate the infusion and making soap and report it back (when the hops are in season in a few months).

 

[Traumabrew]

I think I am going to try to make a beer liquid soap. Use beer as the liquid instead of water and when I am ready to bottle it, Ill add the hop oil plus my SF using some PS80. Heck, if you shake up the bottle, you could even get a nice head of "foam" on the soap.

 

[Saranac]

I really like NG's Beer FO. It smells enough like beer to be familiar, but doesn't have that day-old beer smell. It sells really well for me (bars and liquid). It accelerates (but is workable), and it thickened my LS too much; I had to thin it.
For my LS I used beer in the paste and diluted with water. I really liked the resulting soap. The beer really enhances the lather and it leaves a nice skin feel. There was a scent that came through--not of beer, but eartht and almost sweet.

 

[BrewerGeorge]

Hops don't come through. I've tried several different ways. I infused so much centennial that the resulting oil was a dark forest green. I added quite a bit of pellet hops to the batter so it was like an exfoliate. Used very hoppy beer. Nothing works.

The compounds that smell like hops are resins and alpha/beta acids. In beer they are iso-alpha and iso-beta acids. Lye just eats it up.

 

[SaltedFig]

The smell from resinous extract of the hops carries through into soap, but it's horrid to work with.

I have made testers, which are now fully cured, zap free soap. It washes ok, but leaves a bit of a shiny sheen on the skin, which is not appealing. The sharp smell does carry through a bit (too much for my liking, I prefer the warm smell that I got from the hemp seed oil and hop infusions).

Second round of testing some time in the first half of this year, with some variations.

 

[Cirafly24]

Here is the result of my olive oil infused with hops, oatmeal stout beer, honey ale/oatmeal stout FO blend, and hops on top. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It will darken significantly in the coming days.

 

[SaltedFig]

That is SERIOUSLY gorgeous!

(I'd flick the hops off before use, but they look stunning on top! Like soapy christmas cones )

 

[Cirafly24]

Thanks! Yes, I didn't embed the hops too deeply, so they should be fairly easy to brush off before use.

 

[BrewerGeorge]

Did you grow those yourself? They're remarkably intact for commercial hops.

 

[Cirafly24]

My sister in law grew them!