Beer and Lye weirdness

[Cashie]

Hi everyone,

This is the first time I've attempted beer soap, so here are the steps I took (after watching a ton of videos):

*Opened a can of Fosters Ale and left it opened in the fridge for a week.
*Measured cold Ale into lye pitcher
*Added measured lye while stirring
*Felt pitcher start to melt at the bottom (it didn't actually melt, but that's what I thought was happening)
*Feverishly scrambled to pour ice and water into bucket and stuck lye mixture in to cool off
*Waited a little while then lifted pitcher out of ice to check what happened.

What actually happened is something solidified at the bottom of the pitcher, not sure if it was the lye or the beer. I took pictures.

The first picture is the pitcher with the beer/lye mix and part of the solids.
The 2nd picture is just the solids.

What did I do wrong?

 

[lpstephy85]

I have only done one beer and one wine soap so not an expert. My only guess is the lye didn't dissolve completely, but let's see if someone with beer soap experience comes by.

I did wine soap today: boiled down the wine to half the amount and then stuck it in the freezer. Subtracted the final amount from my water amount. Mixed my lye and water then add my slushie wine to the water and stirred them together. Cooled that off and proceeded as normal.

If you try it again you can do it that way. If you want the total amount to be beer, freeze the beer first in to cubes after making sure it is flat. Then once frozen measure it out and then slowly melt by adding the lye. Will keep it from getting really hot.

 

[Obsidian]

Your lye didn't dissolve completely, next time add it slower and keep stirring. I had the same thing happen with milk once but it did eventually break up and dissolve.

 

[boyago]

Looks like a lye cake. I did that once when I poured the NaOH directly onto the soap and didn't mix it up enough. I beat the hell out if with my blender and it seemed to dissolve well and the soap turned out well. You didn't mention boiling off the alcohol of the beer. The leftover chummy booze should be taken out before you make the soap too. The Alcohol with mess with your soap.

 

[Cashie]

Ah, lye cake. Now that sounds familiar. Thank you, everyone. I didn't heat the alcohol off of the beer because the soaping 101 tutorial said that wasn't necessary. I'll try it again next weekend, with the alcohol cooked off of the beer and I'll try pouring my lye in more slowly.

 

[stargazer44]

I don't cook my beer. I open it and leave it on the counter for a day or two, then freeze it in ice cube trays. I then add my lye slowly and stir constantly. I have never had an issue with my lye dissolving or my beer melting doing it this way.

 

[lizflowers42]

Yup, that's a big block of lye. I would not attempt to save it and start over No telling how much lye actually incorporated into the beer at this point. You could risk using too much lye, or not having nearly enough lye in your mixture. This sometimes happens to me with just water if I don't add slowly and stir right away.

 

[kikajess]

Ah ha! When the day comes for me to try beer soap, thanks to this post, I now know tol let two beers sit for a week in the fridge. That way I will have a back up beer in case the first mix goes awry. Thank you for the heads up, Cashie!

 

[Cashie]

I did throw it out and restarted with a goats milk and coffee mix. That batch worked fine.

I think I'll try again this weekend with a non alcohol beer and see how that works.

 

[judymoody]

Huh. The only time I ended up with lye cake was when I made a beer soap with a friend's home brew. I have made beer soap many times before and since without incident.

My only advice is to keep stirring the lye until it's absolutely dissolved. I find I have more trouble with very cold liquid than room temperature.

 

[AKjulz]

When working with beer in soap I wonder if question of "to boil" or "not to boil" is a matter of just how much alcohol is in that particular type of beer as they do vary greatly. The first one I made using a local micro-brew, carbonation removed but not boiled, reacted quite violently with the lye. Next time I tried boiling first (both times they were chilled) and it worked fine. Not sure exactly but I know it has a pretty high alcohol content, may try it with a cheap low alcohol content beer and see if there is a difference... Unless someone has already tried, in which case Do share

Just my musings. Glad your jug didn't melt out from under you! I always fill my sink with a few inches of COLD water, stick my jug of liquid in the basin and then add the lye. Keeps it cool and if there is an issue at least it's in the sink ; )

 

[lizflowers42]

Judymoody-I notice lye cakes happening when I use frozen or very cold liquids! That seems to be a good enough explanation for me!

 

[lizflowers42]

PS: I have never boiled my beer. Just let it go flat for a few days, then freeze it. I use a very deep Rubbermaid pitchure to mix my lye into so I have not had any "volcanos" yet. The only time I have had a volcano was when I stupidly decided to mix my honey into my water before adding the lye.