Beer Soap Lye Concentration

[Muskette]

Good morning everyone!
Over the years I've made many batches of HP beer soap, using a lye concentration of 30%. This past year I've gradually converted almost all of my formulas to CP, using a lye concentration of 35-40% and room temp oils and lye.
Today I'll be doing CP beer soap for the first time, and I'm wondering how low I can go with the liquid (100% flat, room temp beer). I'm guessing I can't do a 40% lye concentration with beer soap, but is 35% ok? I'm not doing swirls or color, and I'll be using WSP Nag Champa for fragrance. I don't mind acceleration as long as I can get it into the mold before it's solid. Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[DeeAnna]

I just want to doublecheck -- are you talking about "water as % of oils" or do you really mean "lye concentration"?

For a beer soap where you are using beer for 100% of the "water", you could go as low as 27% to 28% lye concentration to be able to use as much beer as possible in the recipe.

 

[Muskette]

I mean lye concentration. I like to use as little liquid as possible - it helps me prevent ash - so I normally soap at 35% or 40% lye concentration. I'm just not sure if this is ok to do with beer due to acceleration issues.

 

[kchaystack]

I would really suggest reducing the beer to drive off the alcohol in it. You only need to heat it to 175F (80C) for about half an hour to evaporate most of the ethanol, which is what really causes acceleration.

 

[Muskette]

Thank you both!