AMyers
Well-Known Member
Not exactly sure where to put this, but since it's probably something people more experienced with goat milk would know, I'll put it in beginners.
I have been using goat milk provided by a friend for my goat milk soaps. She freezes it immediately, so I get it frozen, chisel off what I need for my batch, and toss it back in the freezer. Then I add my lye to the frozen milk. So, I never see the raw goat milk in liquid form.
I got a batch recently that was really weird. I chiseled off half for a batch of soap, and wanted to try my hand at lotion, so tossed the other half in the fridge to thaw overnight. As I added my lye for the soap, it got all chunky. Fine. I figured that it must have just had a lot of fat that was starting to saponify. Then it started getting these weird black flecks, that looked like little fiber particles (like what sheds off a yarn of poor fiber quality is what I thought, but then, my first passion is fiber) and I started to get worried. What I should have done was dumped that, and made my soap with water. But instead I filtered out the gelatinous chunks and the dark fibers and continued soaping. Of course, that soap was a colossal failure. My fault for not following my instinct!!
I thawed the other half of the milk for using in my lotion, and discovered that the milk had those weird chunks from the start. I filtered those out, pasteurized my milk according to the instructions I'd looked up, made the lotion, and everything went swimmingly well. The lotion is beautiful, smooth, white, and better than anything I've used in a long time!
So, long story to get to the short point: If I thaw the rest of my goat milk, (she moved, I only have a couple bags more :cry: ) to make sure I can filter out any other incidences of these chunks, then re-freeze, there shouldn't be a problem with using this milk in CP soap, right? I know you don't want to thaw and re freeze stuff you're going to eat. But for soaping, I should be fine. Right?
I have been using goat milk provided by a friend for my goat milk soaps. She freezes it immediately, so I get it frozen, chisel off what I need for my batch, and toss it back in the freezer. Then I add my lye to the frozen milk. So, I never see the raw goat milk in liquid form.
I got a batch recently that was really weird. I chiseled off half for a batch of soap, and wanted to try my hand at lotion, so tossed the other half in the fridge to thaw overnight. As I added my lye for the soap, it got all chunky. Fine. I figured that it must have just had a lot of fat that was starting to saponify. Then it started getting these weird black flecks, that looked like little fiber particles (like what sheds off a yarn of poor fiber quality is what I thought, but then, my first passion is fiber) and I started to get worried. What I should have done was dumped that, and made my soap with water. But instead I filtered out the gelatinous chunks and the dark fibers and continued soaping. Of course, that soap was a colossal failure. My fault for not following my instinct!!
I thawed the other half of the milk for using in my lotion, and discovered that the milk had those weird chunks from the start. I filtered those out, pasteurized my milk according to the instructions I'd looked up, made the lotion, and everything went swimmingly well. The lotion is beautiful, smooth, white, and better than anything I've used in a long time!
So, long story to get to the short point: If I thaw the rest of my goat milk, (she moved, I only have a couple bags more :cry: ) to make sure I can filter out any other incidences of these chunks, then re-freeze, there shouldn't be a problem with using this milk in CP soap, right? I know you don't want to thaw and re freeze stuff you're going to eat. But for soaping, I should be fine. Right?
