Pumpkick Beer Soap

Today's experiment is using beer as the liquid in the lye solution. I have used beer in soap twice before but never colored the soap. I used an Oatmeal Stout in one along with a vanilla almond fragrance mix. It was so dark that it lathered brown and looked like a chocolate bar!

The second time I used beer from a home brewer who was nice enough to give me the beer before it went through the stage that creates carbonation! However I accidentally did a silly 'experiment' with that batch and mixed the lye solution with the oils at about a 30° temperature difference, talk about acceleration! I got it into the mold and it made a nice functional soap, but it was very rustic looking. (If you are ever wondering why you are supposed to mix the lye solution with the oils when they are about 10° of each other, that is why. Things instantly go to a thick trace and there is pretty much nothing you can do but mash it in the mold and hope for the best.) This beer was a lighter colored ale so the color was pretty light compared to the first go at using beer.

This time I used Pumpkick Ale, by New Belgium Brewery. It's a really tasty beer and I would have drank it instead of soaping with it, but I had an opened and unfinished one that was perfect for the job. Waste not, want not! It's a lighter colored beer, sort of amber orange. With that in mind, and that it certainly would discolor the soap, I picked warm fall colors. I also used Cedar and Saffron by Bramble Berry to fragrance. This fragrance also discolors, not too bad though, a med tan. I didn't see any notes on this fragrance being a trace accelerator, but I have read in forums that it is. The comments on the Bramble Berry website about this fragrance had lots of people stating it was well behaved. So I thought a semi-simple pattern with three colors would be appropriate. If it all went awry I could just dump them in and call it a day.

To prepare the beer I poured it in a plastic bowl and let it sit in the fridge for a couple days. I poured it on Saturday and soaped with it Tuesday night. Pretty much it just has to be flat. I have heard many soapers boiling the beer to get the alcohol off, as alcohol can turn your batch into soap on a stick. I have yet to have an issue with the alcohol (I think... I've only done this three times mind you). I've also heard of freezing it in ice cubes like people do with milk soaps. If I had the foresight that would be a good way to keep things cool and slow.

I've read talk on forums about the "volcano" that can happen when adding lye to beer. Well... "volcano" seems a little dramatic to me, what I have experienced is more like 1" of foam. Never the less, err on the side of caution and always mix the lye into the beer slowly and use a container 3 or 4 times larger than the amount of beer. I also always mix in the sink so if things get out of control, I can easily wash it away.

Beer gets a funny smell to it when you add lye, but if you've soaped with silk, Aloe, milk, etc. you know about funny smells and to keep your face/nose clear while mixing. In general, I wouldn't lean directly over the bowl while mixing lye with anything!

Another experiment in this batch was using a palm oil free recipe. I do really like what palm oil brings to a bar of soap, but I'm running low. I used 50% olive oil which could have helped keep things slow that might not have been as slow otherwise. I used 15% cocoa butter to make the bar harder and bring some conditioning and creamy lather. I soaped around 115°-120°F.

Everything went fabulously during the whole mixing and design process. But boy oh boy... if you are too cocky and want to be brought down a peg or two, make soap. I am continually reminded that I have no idea what I am doing and that making soap is hard. It seems simple and in theory it is, add A to B and viola, C. I mean making good soap is hard. Soap that is pretty and functional and feels amazing on your skin. So without further ado, enjoy this riches to rags story...

The star of the show!

The red vibrance mica and the orange red mica are from Nurture Soap Supplies (part of my recent haul). The yellow oxide and the fragrance oil are from Bramble Berry.

For my recipe I used a little less than 7oz of beer. As you can see there is some foaming going on, but nothing severe. I just keep mixing until it settles down.

All mixed in! The lye turned the beer a much darker color.

Ok, per usual I didn't take many pictures of the design steps. Luckily the fragrance oil behaved fine during the design process. I wanted a simple slab mold swirl. I like big chunks of color so I didn't do much manual swirling at the end. I poured the three colored soaps in as follows:

1. I poured each soap into the mold in an s shape. I would have gone around the bend again but my mold is small so that is as many turns as I could fit.

2. I went red, orange, yellow. I poured each color directly over the color before, keeping with the S shape. I tried to keep the pours to an even amount, but since I'm not a robot there is some variation. No matter!

3. I tamped down the mold a few times as things started to mound up. I poured at a thin to medium trace. Nice and pour-able, but not too thin. I didn't want it to thicken up too much by the end. Just keep on with this until all your colors are used up. If they start to get grainy, give them a stir or a few swirls in the container. My orange got grainy by the end so it has a little more texture than the other colors on top.

4. Using a chopstick I swirled back and forth diagonally. I just did one pass in one direction.

And here it is! Looking great for now! I really like how the red darkened. Smells really fantastic by the way!

Then, next day. Alas poor Pumpkick, let me count the ways I screwed up...

I couldn't tell if this was fragrance oil separating out or oils from the recipe. I have had soaps overheat before and usually (don't quote me) it's the fragrance oil weeping out. I've overheated the worst in my column mold and while using milks. I stupidly did not think the soap would be able to get hot enough at 30oz in a flat slab mold un-insulated. I think we can agree I was mistaken. I waited a few days to see if the oil would reabsorb. I have heard it could. It didn't. I dabbed it off and unmolded. I let the soap dry out-out of mold- for another few days.

I THOUGHT my orange was getting a little chunky while I poured but didn't try as hard as I might have to stir it back up. This is why they say to stir your soap if it gets grainy. It will look grainy in the finished bar. Got a few little heat tunnels, some soda ash and some crumbly tops and corners. I have read that a high percentage of cocoa butter can cause this. I didn't think 15% was that high, but after further research it seems 10% is usually the top amount recommended.

Chunky Orange

Soda Ash.

Crumbly cracky.

So don't get cocky! That is the moral of this story. And if you aren't sure if something will overheat (milk, beer, honey, etc), pop it in the freezer or fridge. Of course I will have to try the elements in this soap in other soaps to be sure (like I plan to with the Baby Bar). Also I just can't let myself be conquered by this. I will admit I got kind of down about this batch. So I will be using beer again and Cedar and Saffron fragrance again until I get it right. On with the show!