Does Beer soap smell like beer after cure? What eo to scent?

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aprice522

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I am a new soaper.
3 soaps done--first two batches make me realize I needed a new scale :) BUT, I believe will cure fine after a long time.

3 soap is nice, going well.

I have researched the salt soap (made it tonight!)

I have beer in my fridge my husband won't drink (my brother home brewed some and my husband is a great guy and drank it at my bro's place, but it will sit in the fridge forever!)

So, of course I will soap it.

I have read up on as much beer info as I could in the search I did but never found this answer...

will the beer smell come through after cure?

If nothing much--what would you compliment it with? I only do EO, due to family sensitive skin. (I soap for challenge and intrigue--I never want to sell)

I cooked down the beer while I soaped the salt bars tonight and am rearing to go.

I cannot wait to try this! It's like waiting for christmas morning! :)

However...I have supplies coming that won't arrive till Monday or so...including some oils I would like to be using in my soap.

I have OO, CO, cocoa butter, soybean on hand
I have AO, Castor, shea on the way (stearic acid too--but mainly for the shave soap that I am gonna eventually do).

Once day I will find a butcher to get lard/tallow to render or shop and try and remember to pick up some lard to try, but now I keep forgetting--(kids are out of school and driving me crazy!)
 
Beer soap doesn't smell like beer per say after soaping but it does smell different than plain soap that you use water in. It definetly won't have that beery smell in it which can be a good any bad thing (sometimes I really wish that scent would come though with stouts!)

I do a tea tree orange beer soap and it seems to compliment it well. I HP it though because orange oil doesn't stick in CP soap very well (unless its like 5x or 10x)

I would think a cedarwood blend would go very well!
 
I haven't had the scent come through, but I get a nice rich amber color from a local brew dark ale. I'm also looking for scent suggestions. :grin:
 
I boiled down a whole big bottle of Arrogant Bastard IPA for a 2lb loaf, and the soap smells hoppy and a little beery - its a nice smell.
 
Sunwolf, I have never made beer soap, but I second Galaxy on BB's Tobacco Bayleaf on any soap, it is really beautiful, and I think would work well for you with this one (if you are ok w/FO's).

ETA, actually I just thought of this, the last time I used TB leaf it did accelerate a little, but it was a brine soap, Galaxy have you had issues with it? Not sure how it would do w/beer since I have not used it.
 
Like others have said, beer soap smells different but not of beer. I've only used concentrated Bud in the two batches I've made... One I scented with a mix of orange and litsea cubeba EOs. The other was scented with an FO.
 
When I use beer, the scent that comes through a bit is from the grains used, so hops, barley, etc. Also I pick up a bit of a yeast scent. It's strong when first poured but fades with cure. It also depends on how you cook it down. I had a conversation with a local brewmaster recently and he told me since Ethanol has a boiling point of about 173 F. there's no need to bring it to a full boil of 212 F. If you do bring it to a full boil, you may end up scorching some of the grain elements which can result in a bit of a burned smell.

So I used his suggestions when I made beer soap last week and it turned out just fine. I heated the beer and maintained the temp between 175-180 F for 10 minutes. Once cooled, I put it in the fridge overnight. I mixed the lye in while the beer was in an ice bath to avoid scorching from that heat source, no problems. I ended up with a lye volcano once so was happy it didn't happen this time.

When I make soap with beer I usually try to build on the flavors of that particular beer. For Raspberry Stout, I used Black Raspberry Vanilla FO and Merlot Sparkle Mica. For Green Apple Ale I used Tart Apple FO and green mica. And so on.... But when I have a plain beer that doesn't have a distinct flavor I like to blend EO's like pine, cedarwood, rosemary, patchouli, lavender, litsea & 10x orange. I play around and mix & match. I also like forest-y, woody and spicy FO's. Fruit scents work well in beer too. Pumpkin Spice is amazing for a fall beer. Lots and lots of choices when it comes to beer soap! Beer and wine are some of my favorite liquids to use in soap. :D
 
I've used concentrated beer to make soap. After the soap is cured, the beer doesn't add a lot to the overall scent -- mostly a warm pleasant undertone that IMO plays well with most fragrances. Scent your soap however you like -- you don't need to stick with "beery" or manly scents unless you want to.
 
I made beer soap for the AL soap swap. I used a very dark oatmeal stout, and reduced it by 1/2. My kitchen reeked of beer for a couple days.

I froze the syrup, and when I added the lye to the cubes, it again smelled very yeasty - hoppy.

Once I added the fragrance, all the beer smell was covered or did not survive saponification.

The main thing was the color. The beer was very dark, and it colored the batter a dark brown, but the color lightened up alot after it has set up.
 

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