What is room temperature?

[dibbles]

I don't know how much help this will be but this is fairly typical for me. My soaping space is in my basement which is chilly regardless of the time of year. Somewhere in the mid 60F range probably. My usual batch size is 32 oz oils. I often use coconut at 20-25%, lard at around 40% and the rest in liquid oils. I mix my lye solution and mix my colorants, prep my working area, weigh my FO and hard oils while it cools. Then go do other things. When my lye solution is around 90-95, I melt my hard oils, add my liquid oils and additives and get started. My starting temp of combined fats and lye solution is usually anywhere from 85-100, most often in the 95-100 range. By the time I am done splitting the batter and coloring the temp can be anywhere from 80-90. When I am using butters or soy wax, I start when everything is a bit warmer - 110 or so. If I am using beer or an FO that is a heater I start more on the cool side. I do move my soap when it is poured to the main living area of the house. In the winter I put it on a heating pad and insulate well to encourage gel. In the summer I just cover with a towel if the temp in the house is 75F or higher. Lower than that, I might turn on the heating pad for awhile to give it a boost.

You will get faster with practice, and you will also find the method that works for you.

 

[earlene]

I did not ask my question in the most direct way, but it was mostly focused on just how low the batter temperature can go without risking a firming up of the hard butters and oils that leads to false trace. Is it 80 F, 75 F, 70 F, etc.?

I'd have to say it depends on the specific recipe and the proportions of the specific oils and waxes, if any AND the melting points for each. The combinations of higher melting points of different ingredients are going to impact the overall mixture. You are probably familiar with the concept of a eutectic system, but to know the actual effect of any such mixture, all ingredients need to be taken into account. So coming up with a hard and fast rule of which temperature is 'RT' for every possible scenario would require too many specifics. I'd say you have to look at the recipe, then decide based on the ingredients. Or simply let your experience teach you over time, as it will.

When I soap with only soft oils, say a 100% OO recipe, I can soap at my real room temperature with no difficulty; the same is true if my recipe is only about 20% hard oils (the hard oils I use). When I soap with 70% hard oils in my home's winter real room temperature, the hard oils start to re-solidify too fast. If I happen to include some beeswax or lanolin in my recipe it changes even more. So really, in my experience it is recipe dependent. This week I am working with a recipe that contains 70% hard oils, so that's why I use that figure as an example.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

If I am using beer

. I didn’t even think to include beer or sugar into my list of newbie challenges! The complexities of artisan soapmaking are at least as challenging as some of the science I’ve done!

 

[dibbles]

. I didn’t even think to include beer or sugar into my list of newbie challenges! The complexities of artisan soapmaking are at least as challenging as some of the science I’ve done!

Beer and honey can accelerate and heat up, but I dissolve sugar in my batch water in almost every batch to boost bubbles, and it doesn't cause me any problems.