Lumpy post-cook help

[seadragonuk]

Hello, just tried making my first batch of liquid soap. used this recipe: https://nwedible.com/how-to-make-diy-liquid-castile-soap/ it never got to that translucent stages at 3 hours, so I kept on cooking - about 5-6 hours in the end and i could see it was burning a bit, so I stopped. Its now a very dark translucent amber, smells good. I'm in dilution phase and have been trying to dissolve but its very lumpy and doesn't appear to be dissolving on low setting after many hours. I got my stick blender out and it's now a liquid molasses (pic attached). any suggestions? Thanks

 

[AliOop]

Sounds like you over-cooked it and lost a lot of moisture. At this point, you definitely need more dilution water. Add small amounts and keep track as you go.

 

[seadragonuk]

Sounds like you over-cooked it and lost a lot of moisture. At this point, you definitely need more dilution water. Add small amounts and keep track as you go.

Thank you. this has helped

 

[Zany_in_CO]

For future reference, whenever using a recipe you find on line, it's best to re-calculate it to make sure the lye amount is correct.

It is also helpful to know the purity of the KOH you're using. It varies. You may have to up the lye amount for KOH that's 87% pure, for example.

Also, the water amount needs to be 3 X the KOH by weight for a successful outcome.

Once you recalculate, do us all a favor and save the printout as a PDF and post it here for input BEFORE you make it. (To save the time it takes for us to read through a lengthy description.) That way we can catch problems before they arise.

As for now, without know your exact weights or the SF used, I see two problems in that recipe as written:
KOH oz. wt. may be too low for the brand of KOH you used.
Water oz. wt. is too much for the 3:1 water to lye ratio needed for LS.

TIP: Weigh the paste before diluting it to get an idea of the amount of dilution water needed as shown in this thread.

 

[seadragonuk]

For future reference, whenever using a recipe you find on line, it's best to re-calculate it to make sure the lye amount is correct.

It is also helpful to know the purity of the KOH you're using. It varies. You may have to up the lye amount for KOH that's 87% pure, for example.

Also, the water amount needs to be 3 X the KOH by weight for a successful outcome.

Once you recalculate, do us all a favor and save the printout as a PDF and post it here for input BEFORE you make it. (To save the time it takes for us to read through a lengthy description.) That way we can catch problems before they arise.

As for now, without know your exact weights or the SF used, I see two problems in that recipe as written:
KOH oz. wt. may be too low for the brand of KOH you used.
Water oz. wt. is too much for the 3:1 water to lye ratio needed for LS.

TIP: Weigh the paste before diluting it to get an idea of the amount of dilution water needed as shown in this thread.

Zany, thank you so much for the quality response. i will heed all your advice in future!