Consistency Issue

[rssgnl27]

I'm having an issue with my soap all of the sudden. I've been using the same recipe for the last few years and have never had this happen.

When combining the lye/water (in my case I sub 100% for frozen goats milk) with the oils, within 15-30 seconds it solidifies, kind of the consistency of jelly. It's all clumpy (you can see a bit of the consistency in the picture of the soap.

I've tried a few different things...
1) Making the oils hotter/cooler (thought it was a false trace)
2) Changing/omitting essential or fragrance oils
3) Making smaller batches

none of that has made a difference

I DID try substituting the lard for shea butter and it made a perfectly fine batch.
So I switched to a different brand of lard, thinking it was something to do with the brand (maybe it switched or something without me realizing) although it didn't happen as fast, it still happened.

My recipe is below and the pictures of the last batch of soap I made too. That soap had bentonite clay and just peppermint oil in it.

I wouldn't mind subbing out lard for shea butter but its so much more expensive. Are there alternatives to lard that aren't too expensive (besides palm oil) that would keep my bars on the harder side.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Soy wax?

 

[penelopejane]

Do you have to use 100% goats milk?
A lot of us use the split method to make goats milk soap. 50% goats milk/50% water. It means the goats milk doesn't need to be cooled and it is so easy to make GM soap this way.

 

[lsg]

As penelopejane stated, you can dissolve the lye in water and add goat's milk to the oils. You might also reduce the percentage of coconut oil and lard and use a higher percentage of liquid oils and try upping the liquid to 38% of water to oils.

 

[rssgnl27]

I’m going to try using 25% water 75% milk. Do you think the milk/lye concentrate is too cool?

Will try upping the soft oil percentage and liquid conc. to 38% as well.

I just don’t understand I’ve been making it the same exact way for many years without issue. I’m trying to think of something that’s different. And this has happens to about 6 batches now so it’s not like a one time thing.

I’ll look into soy wax, never heard of using that.

 

[dibbles]

What about just replacing some of the lard with shea butter. That would help with the cost, if the shea butter batch worked for you. Just a thought.

 

[penelopejane]

I’m going to try using 25% water 75% milk. Do you think the milk/lye concentrate is too cool?

Will try upping the soft oil percentage and liquid conc. to 38% as well.

I just don’t understand I’ve been making it the same exact way for many years without issue. I’m trying to think of something that’s different. And this has happens to about 6 batches now so it’s not like a one time thing.

I’ll look into soy wax, never heard of using that.

This isn’t going to work to avoid the graininess. Lye needs the same weight of water at a minimum to dissolve. So if you have 200g lye in your recipe you need 200g of water to dissolve it. Then you can substitute milk (Not frozen) for the rest of the water in the recipe and add it to your oils - not to the lye. You can add powdered milk to the GM to make it 100% milk when it is all incorporated. So if you used 200g water to mix the lye add enough GM powder to the milk component that would be required to make the 200g into milk.

If you use this split method the rest of your oils - coconut and lard - can be as high as 40*c or 110* F and the milk will still not burn.
So do the split method I’ve explained above and soap warm enough so all your oils are totally clear.

You have probably not been taking the temperature of your batter so that could be leading to inconsistencies. It is either that or you are taking it to different levels of trace each time.

what is liquid concentration? Do you mean lye concentration? If so I’d keep it around 30-32 for this recipe. If you mean water as a % of oils do not increase this. Try and work only with lye concentration as it is easier (there is a good reason but it’s complicated just take my word for it). A lye concentration of 30-32 gives you a good amount of water to play with while mixing the batter but won’t make your soap warp.

 

[Susie]

What temperature are you soaping at?

 

[rssgnl27]

This isn’t going to work to avoid the graininess. Lye needs the same weight of water at a minimum to dissolve. So if you have 200g lye in your recipe you need 200g of water to dissolve it. Then you can substitute milk (Not frozen) for the rest of the water in the recipe and add it to your oils - not to the lye. You can add powdered milk to the GM to make it 100% milk when it is all incorporated. So if you used 200g water to mix the lye add enough GM powder to the milk component that would be required to make the 200g into milk.

If you use this split method the rest of your oils - coconut and lard - can be as high as 40*c or 110* F and the milk will still not burn.
So do the split method I’ve explained above and soap warm enough so all your oils are totally clear.

You have probably not been taking the temperature of your batter so that could be leading to inconsistencies. It is either that or you are taking it to different levels of trace each time.

what is liquid concentration? Do you mean lye concentration? If so I’d keep it around 30-32 for this recipe. If you mean water as a % of oils do not increase this. Try and work only with lye concentration as it is easier (there is a good reason but it’s complicated just take my word for it). A lye concentration of 30-32 gives you a good amount of water to play with while mixing the batter but won’t make your soap warp.

I've admittedly not taken the temp of the batter, so I'm sure that's one step I will add when soaping.

Could I simply do 50% water and 50% milk to fix that lard/water ratio? Or would that not work. Also, I freeze all my goats milk for the season so I can make it in the off season. Should I simply thaw it before mixing the lye, I'm just wondering because it thaws kind of weird.

I meant water as percent of oil weight, is 36% still okay or should I alter that?

What about just replacing some of the lard with shea butter. That would help with the cost, if the shea butter batch worked for you. Just a thought.

I could theoretically do that, just wondering the reason my current recipe isn't working.

 

[Susie]

Leave your water as percentage of oils alone. Your lye concentration is all you should be adjusting ever.

My concern is that you are soaping too cool and you are getting false trace. That's what it looks like to me.

 

[penelopejane]

I've admittedly not taken the temp of the batter, so I'm sure that's one step I will add when soaping.

Could I simply do 50% water and 50% milk to fix that lard/water ratio? Or would that not work. Also, I freeze all my goats milk for the season so I can make it in the off season. Should I simply thaw it before mixing the lye, I'm just wondering because it thaws kind of weird.

I meant water as percent of oil weight, is 36% still okay or should I alter that?

You can do 50% water (add your lye to this) and 50% milk (thaw this and add this to your oils. SB your milk and oil before adding the lye to ensure a good mix.

Use lye concentration of 30-32. Don’t even look at the water as a percent of oils. I agree with Susie that you are probably soaping too cool. But I think the GM is also having some effect.

 

[rssgnl27]

Okay, I just made a batch. Tweaked my recipe and took temps.

changed to 31% lye concentration, and changed my oil ratios a bit.
coconut oil- 25%
lard- 30%
sunflower oil- 45%

I still used 100% frozen goats milk (as experiment).

The lye/milk mixture was 70*F when I mixed with oils, which were at 120*

Trace seemed normal, everything seemed back to normal. We'll see after the bars cure how well they turn out.

Thank you so much everyone for your input, especially @penelopejane