Please help w/ beer as liquid malfunction.

[lizard1232]

Hey guys. Long time listener, first time caller. Really love the show.
Anyway, tried my first beer as liquid soap the other night. Used Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout. I had poured it into a Pyrex measuring cup and let it stand for over 24 hours prior. I used the beer as 100% liquid, melted all my hard oils, and soaped cooler than normal at about 100 degrees F. During the soaping I got an accelerated trace. After 30 seconds of SBing it was thick, lumpy pudding. I did not use any fragrance or additives other than what's mentioned in my SoapCalc attachment. I got it glopped into my log mold and then CPOPed it. The next morning it wasn't what I would call soft, but it's still a little sticky and a little weepy. It doesn't zap. Can someone at least explain the marbleized area?

TIA,
Liz

View attachment Holy Trinity Beer Soap.pdf

 

[FifthCap]

All the bars look like that or are there variations throughout the mold?

 

[newbie]

You would never be able to duplicate that in a million years, I bet. It looks like half the soap got hot enough to get stearic blobs and the other half didn't. IS the heat source for your oven more on one side than the other? I have no idea how it is so half and half.

If you left your beer out just to flatten, it would still have the alcohol in it and that will cause your soap to accelerate like mad. That probably accounts for the pudding in 30 seconds. The other part... no idea! But it's cool actually.

Wait! I see you mentioned a cardboard divider. What did you do with that? That could be part of the mystery.

 

[lizard1232]

All the bars looked like that. My apologies for not mentioning the divider. I just used it to divide the two sides for the half and half look and pulled it out afterward, although with such a thick trace, that probably wasn't a good plan and it will probably break in half. The oven gets warmer in the back, but the mold was placed in lengthwise so the end of the mold on both sides should have reacted similarly, right? And since the SoapCalc wanted to be an attachment that you have to open, I used the TD on one side and the clay on the other with oils from the recipe.

 

[cmzaha]

You would never be able to duplicate that in a million years, I bet. It looks like half the soap got hot enough to get stearic blobs and the other half didn't. IS the heat source for your oven more on one side than the other? I have no idea how it is so half and half.

If you left your beer out just to flatten, it would still have the alcohol in it and that will cause your soap to accelerate like mad. That probably accounts for the pudding in 30 seconds. The other part... no idea! But it's cool actually.

Wait! I see you mentioned a cardboard divider. What did you do with that? That could be part of the mystery.

I have to agree with Newbie. Really does look cool. Please be very careful and use a large container when mixing beer with lye, especially if you have not cooked off the alcohol. The foaming you had was most likely the beginning of a lye volcano. When using all beer as a replacement for liquid it will cause severe heating of the lye. Trust me all beer and wines cannot be trusted, no matter what you do to remove all the alcohol. I know people probably get tired of me mentioning it but I have some beers that I can cook, freeze and leave open for a week that will still volcano if added straight to the lye. I always use a oversized pitcher and mix in the sink when mixing in any amount of beers, wines and liquors

 

[lizard1232]

I use a 4 quart pitcher and an extra long handled whisk for all my lye mixing just for that reason, but thank you for looking out.

 

[Obsidian]

To me, it looks like it thickened so fast, it didn't get thoroughly mixed. The easiest way I've found to use beer is to simmer a bottle down to 2 ounce or so and add that at trace.

 

[OliveOil2]

I also simmer mine down and pour in before trace, my reduction is about 50% so a 12 oz bottle would give me 5-6 oz. I want to cook out the alcohol, and make sure it is really flat. As Carolyn stated, you cannot be sure when you add the beer to the lye. The smell is still like a yeast bread when done with this method, but not nearly as strong.Also for beer soap you could try an even cooler temp. 100 degrees is still warm, I would prefer to make a beer soap at below 80, but everyone has their own preference.

 

[newbie]

If you used TD in one half and clay in the other, I would bet money that the marbled side is the TD side. TD seems much more likely to end up with a crackle look or stearic issues than soap colored with other things.

I also boil beer down to a syrup or at least down to small volume and then add it to the oils, not to the lye. I just boiled down 9 bottles of beer into 10-12 ounces of liquid. I make a 1:1 lye solution and then add the rest of the liquids (beer plus water or water or milk or whatever you'd like) to the oils, blend it really well and then when ready, add the concentrated lye water. Works like a charm.

 

[lizard1232]

Actually, it appears you were correct with the first answer, newbie. After a good lathering the marbling appeared on the light side as well so it does seem to be stearic blobs. Tonight, I'll try again using the boiled beer and soaping at even lower temps. Thanks, guys.