Using Moonshine to make CP Soap

[Obxshelly]

Hello,
I was wondering if anyone out there has made cp soap using real moonshine?
I live in Franklin County, Virginia "The Moonshine Capital of the World" and would love to add this soap to my line up. However, I am nervous about the lye and high proof alcohol? Also I do not have a recipe lined up yet.
Any help would be most appreciated, and thank you in advance.

 

[juliab86]

Alcohol will cause soap to seize. Those who use beer or wine in their soap will usually boil out the alcohol first. Not sure how that would work for moonshine.

 

[lsg]

I think moonshine would have too high an alcohol content. If we hear there has been a big explosion down South, we'll know you tried it.:grin:

 

[boyago]

Yeah, moonshine is mostly ethonal so you could use the white lightning to treat the soap ash or coat your imbeds but aside from that I'd leave the shine out of the batter. If you are going for the cool and highly marketable theme your could probably incorporate the spent mash into your soap somehow. Since you can make moonshine from just about anything sugary or starchy I'd find a shiner that uses a base you'd like to incorporate. Some use potatoes and there has been a couple threads about potato soap lately, A friend of mine would rave about a peach moonshine from his home county in Virgina, there is a top notch garlic farmer in Gilroy CA that shines his unmarketable garlic (Buffy soap!). You could also experiment with the yeast cake left after the fermentation. Yeast if chalk full of vitamins but I'm not sure wither they would survive the saponification or not but it sounds cool and might be worth investigating.

 

[Candybee]

You can use any liquor in your soapmaking but you have to "burn off" the alcohol content first. Be very careful doing this.

I have made CP soap using various whiskeys and bourbons. I have a vanillar bourbon soap I make using Kentucky bourbon. I also have some beer soap and wine recipes. Beer and wine you can let them go flat before use. But high content alcohol like moonshine, whiskey, bourbon, gin, vodka, etc., you will have to de-alcohol them first.

When I do add them to my soap I add the liquor at trace as part of my liquid. I always de-alcohol it first then chill it before adding. Works out just great. So far every liquor I have added discolors my soap.

To de-alcohol my liquor I pour out a few oz in a large quart pan and simmer it on low for a while. This will help burn off some of the alcohol. Then I light the liquor with a match and let the rest of the alcohol burn off. You may have to do this a few times to burn off all the alcohol and still have the amount you want for your recipe. Burning off the alcohol eats up a lot of the liquor especially the higher the alcohol content. So I generally look for the lowest alcohol content liquor and use that. Also, I use an old quart pan I don't mind throwing out if I scorch it.

 

[Seawolfe]

Some of the clear soap recipes I've seen use ethanol in the process. Maybe that's an option?

 

[Obxshelly]

Thank you for your thoughtful reply. Lots of good information there, I appreciate it.