Failed beer soap

[AKjulz]

Gave a go at my first beer soap...epic fail
When I mixed my beer (Very dark oatmeal stout) lye mixture with my oils (both at about 85F) it almost instantly seized. I stick blended for about 3 seconds, turned to grab some clay and bam! Big gooey mess. I stirred it by hand some and added some FO anyway and squished it into column molds. We'll see what happens.

14.5 oz palm
13 oz olive pomace
11.5 oz coconut
4.5 oz castor
2.25 oz each Shea and Cocoa butter

6.6oz lye
13oz stout beer - flat and near frozen
7% superfat
Any comments on what I did wrong? took the photo within 2 min of adding lye to oils with no FO. And it didn't get very hot. But when The lye/beer solution was cooled and I was adding it to the oils it did seem a bit syrupy, don't know if that's normal.


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[kazmi]

I'm going to follow this to learn from the pros (thinking about doing a beer soap myself soon). I hope that this ends up working out for you!

 

[lpstephy85]

Ditto as Kazmi said...


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[AKjulz]

Hopefully someone can enlighten us and many will learn from this batch


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[Obsidian]

I suspect that even though your beer was flat, it still contained alcohol which can cause seizing or volcano. When I make beer soap, I always boil the soap and reduce it by half or so. Never had a problem with seize.
If it doesn't turn out, you can rebatch it and it should be ok.

 

[hellogorgeous]

I suspect that even though your beer was flat, it still contained alcohol which can cause seizing or volcano. When I make beer soap, I always boil the soap and reduce it by half or so. Never had a problem with seize.
If it doesn't turn out, you can rebatch it and it should be ok.

Ditto! I always boil the beer and reduce it to half as well.




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[AKjulz]

Okay, so cook the beer down first then add water for the remaining liquid. Is is okay to add the lye to the beer (after alcohol is removed) or is it better to dissolve in water and just add the beer at trace?
Do you think it will be safe to use (after cure of course) as is? Would rebatching be for cosmetic reasons only? The consistency/texture when I "poured" it was that of a rebatched soap.

Thanks for the help!


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[lpstephy85]

Okay, so cook the beer down first then add water for the remaining liquid. Is is okay to add the lye to the beer (after alcohol is removed) or is it better to dissolve in water and just add the beer at trace?
Do you think it will be safe to use (after cure of course) as is? Would rebatching be for cosmetic reasons only? The consistency/texture when I "poured" it was that of a rebatched soap.

Thanks for the help!


Should be safe to use as long as it passes zap test. Glad I stuck around for this one


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[Obsidian]

I dissolve my lye in the water portion then add the beer to the lye but next batch, I will try adding the beer after light trace, see if that helps with the scent some. Lye and beer is just nasty smelling.

 

[DeeAnna]

I boil down beer to about 1/2 the original volume and use it for all of my liquid. I freeze the concentrated beer exactly like some do for a milk soap -- and then add the lye to the "beer cubes" and stir. I don't get a bad odor when doing that.

Beer does give a young soap a distinctive bready, yeasty, slightly sour tang, but the odor mellows fairly quickly. I try to use fragrances that will go well with that kind of scent. One I just finished was scented with "Autumn Afternoon" from Majestic Mountain Sage. Any kind of warm spice scents -- cinnamon, ginger -- would be nice too.

As long as your soap passes a zap test, I'd let it alone to cure. I'm going to bet it will be a nice soap, if a little rustic looking.

 

[judymoody]

I also suspect some residual alcohol.

You might also want to up your liquid a bit. Eyeballing your recipe, looks like your lye solution was around 34-36%. That might have contributed to your soap setting up quickly.

I add my lye directly to my boiled (and then cooled beer). It stinks in the short term but cures out in a couple of days.

 

[green soap]

I do it like DeeAnna. Boil the beer for 2 hours (calculated this leaves only 5% of the original alcohol) then I freeze it. When I need to make beer soap I take the frozen beer out and start thawing it just a little, add the lye and it works fine (under extractor of course). It smells funny when you are doing this, but I love the resulting unscented beer soap! Even unscented it smells nice and malty-hoppy and the lather is fabulous. So I also think you will enjoy the soap even if it does not win any beauty contest.

 

[paillo]

I 2nd what judymoody said.

I usually do soap with some kind of milk, so I do the liquids like this:
Half the liquid is boiled, refrigerated beer as my lye portion.
The other half is some kind of milk, with sugar and sometimes avocado, pumpkin or other puree added at trace.

I've only had problems when I didn't boil the beer down.

I also suspect some residual alcohol.

You might also want to up your liquid a bit. Eyeballing your recipe, looks like your lye solution was around 34-36%. That might have contributed to your soap setting up quickly.

I add my lye directly to my boiled (and then cooled beer). It stinks in the short term but cures out in a couple of days.

 

[cmzaha]

Just remember to always expect the worst when using beer or wine when making your lye solution, then you will always be prepared it the lye water erupts. Some micro brews are just not trustworthy even with boiling and freezing the beer. I make beer soaps for a local micro handcrafted brewery with their beer and mash and I no matter what I do lye with erupt with their beer. I find soaping room temp with a 50/50 lye solution is best. Add in the beer after the lye is stirred in well and slowly add in the beer after the lye is mixed in. It can still heat up considerably to use caution. I used one beer that sat in an open container in the fridge for 5 days, boiled it and froze it, mixed it in my lye and fortunetly it only reached the very top of my container. That is when I went to the 50/50 lye solution method.

 

[AKjulz]

Thanks for all your help with this one. Unmolded it today....what's the word for this texture ...rustic?


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[DeeAnna]

Yep, rustic it is! It might not look too pretty, but it might be one of your most pleasant soaps to use. Good save!

 

[Fyrja]

Sounds like you use the same process I do DeeAnna. I boil it down to half of its original volume. I try to use it as all my liquid but if I'm a little short I add a little water. It doesn't hurt as it's basically a beer concentrate at this point. Then I let it sit at room temp for a few hours. The reason being that if there is even a smidgeon of residual alcohol left it will continue to evaporate out. Then once it is room temp I freeze it uncovered again to kill any lingering alcohol. I defrost a few days later to slushie state and then add my lye. I also soap my oils at room temp. I've found that the soap is just easier to work with this way. I should add that if I'm using tussah silk I add the strands to the hot beer and then freeze them with the mix.

I've never had it seize up this way and I make beer soap constantly as it's my most popular soap.

There's also a handy dandy chart about cooking with alcohol here.

http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/blalcohol12.htm

Obviously I don't boil my beer for 2.5 hours. I think the cooking method they describe is a slow simmer. If I boiled for that long there'd be none left. So my rule of thumb is to reduce it by 50% and then give it time out in the open for the rest to evaporate out and then to freeze.

A friend of my husband, who brews his own beer asked me why I just don't use wort instead. That is the beer right before it goes into the fermentation process and makes alcohol. I may have to get a beer kit just to try this. As it is I usually use guinness stout for my soaps because I love the dark brown color that the bars are when finished.

 

[lizflowers42]

I always freeze my beer. I have not done the boiling method, and I haven't had any trouble. I don't even bother to let the beer go flat anymore before freezing-just pour it into a big tupperware container and freeze. Then I scoop out my amount when I soap. No problems at all :::knocks on wood!:::