Is it worthwhile to reduce beer over the stove to a fraction of its starting volume to enhance the beery qualities of the final soap?

[SpaceCorgi94]

I'm doing a 5% superfatted soap with some beer in leu of water. My recipe calls for 109g of water to the lye, and I've heard great things from using beer (soap qualities, fragrance, colour, etc)

All the recipes I've seen have talked about just boiling the alcohol out which is cool, but I know that such a drastic reduction (really, reducing it to ~30% of its starting weight/volume), but I also know that the more reduced a solution, the less water there is in it to react with the lye.

I've never made a beer soap before, is this even worthwhile doing? Should I maybe settle for reducing it to 1/2 the weight of the beer?

Full disclosure, I am reducing it over the stove currently, but I am happy to both add more water to it or just make the soap with a new beer. This is all a day or so away I plan on using it anyway so no stress! Everything's safe over here ahah

 

[lsg]

I have never reduced the beer. I let it set out, opened, for a couple of days and then pour it into a baggie and freeze flat.

 

[shunt2011]

I have just let it sit out for a couple days but, I have also simmered it down to a syrup. Both Have worked just fine.

 

[Obsidian]

I like to simmer it down to just a couple ounces of syrup. That way I cam get a whole bottle of beer in a batch of soap.
I use water to dissolve the lye, adding the syrup at trace. That seems to help prevent the bad smell produced when beer and lye are mixed.

Beer won't really scent your soap. It might be a little yeasty smelling for a week or two but that will fade while curing. If you want beer scented soap, you'll need fragrance oil.

 

[jcandleattic]

I dont' simmer out the alcohol from my beer I use for soaps. Just add a pinch or two of salt to flatten it (I no longer let it sit for days either) and use that way.
As Obsidian said, you won't get much scent from beer in the final bars, but the lather will be super nice.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

You can always use beer powder. That is what I use and it eliminates all the prep work for liquid beer.