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Teach Soap • View topic - Boiling beer?

Teach Soap

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 Post subject: Boiling beer?
PostPosted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 1:34 pm 
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Joined: Thu Jun 04, 2009 12:37 pm
Posts: 1007
Location: Barksdale AFB, La.
Hi, all! I just made my first batch of beer soap today and as far as I can tell all went well despite a slight hiccup.

I planned to substitute the beer for most of the water. I know that the beer needs to be very flat and very cold. I also simmered the beer for about 10 minutes, too, to make sure it's flat and to burn off the alcohol.

So, here's what I did: I poured the beer into a bowl and left it in the fridge for a couple of days (whisking it a few times a day), simmered the beer for 10 minutes the night before I planned to use it, and then stuck it back into the coldest part of my fridge to get cold again for the next day. The beer reacted with the lye just fine, no volcanoes or anything.

The bummer was that when I simmered the beer, it reduced by more than half! I expected to lose some of the beer to evaporation, but I wasn't expecting that much loss. I figured that I'd need to use a little water to make up the difference. (It was a small 2-pound batch, so I was thinking I could get by with one bottle of beer and a bit of water.)After simmering for 10 minutes I had only about 5 ounces left from my 12-ounce bottle.

I went ahead and made the soap anyway using what beer I had and distilled water for the rest.

Did I do something wrong when I boiled the beer? I monitored the boil and tried to keep the simmer low. Should I have covered the pot while boiling, or is that a bad idea? I did notice that very early on, right after the beer reached a boil, some froth kicked up and then dissipated. Could I have stopped boiling at that point and taken it off the heat?

Is it absolutely necessary to boil the beer? Are there some tried-and-true ways to get the beer flat and safe enough to soap with without simmering it? If I do need to boil it, how can I minimize evaporation? I don't want to have to start with twice as much beer than I need to make sure I end up with the right amount for my recipe.

Thanks for any insights!

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 Post subject: Re: Boiling beer?
PostPosted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 8:18 pm 
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Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2008 11:14 pm
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Location: Mistress Of Lather
Sounds fine to me. You want to boil off all the alcohol, so your soaps won't seize.

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 Post subject: Re: Boiling beer?
PostPosted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 4:01 am 
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Joined: Tue Apr 22, 2008 3:16 am
Posts: 798
Location: Pennsylvania
look at it this way, the the water in the beer is going to evaporate out as the soap cures leaving behind the beer essence anyway. So useing concentrated beer is just fine.


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 Post subject: Re: Boiling beer?
PostPosted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 4:05 am 
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Joined: Thu Jun 04, 2009 12:37 pm
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Location: Barksdale AFB, La.
Thanks, soapbuddy and Linda! I thought maybe my boiling technique was not quite right. So it's normal to lose more than half the beer when you boil it? If I want to use beer 100% in place of the water, should I just plan on starting with twice as much beer than I actually I need for the recipe to make up for the loss?

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 Post subject: Re: Boiling beer?
PostPosted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 6:21 am 
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Joined: Tue Apr 22, 2008 3:16 am
Posts: 798
Location: Pennsylvania
say your going to use 8 oz. for a 2 lb. batch. If you reduce the beer by half then you have 4 oz. of beer. You then can mix your lye with 4 oz. of water and add the beer at trace.


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 Post subject: Re: Boiling beer?
PostPosted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 10:48 am 
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Location: Barksdale AFB, La.
Thanks, Linda! What I ended up doing was combining the beer with whatever water I needed to make up the difference in my pitcher and dissolving the lye in the full liquid amount.

And I finally get what you're saying about how using concentrated beer with additional water is kind of like using the beer as is, since the water would evaporate anyway during the cure. By boiling the beer, I removed the water, but then added it back in, so same difference, I guess. When I read that this morning, it didn't click in my mind right away - with the time change, my brain gets out of bed an hour after I do. :lol:

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 Post subject: Re: Boiling beer?
PostPosted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 11:55 am 
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Location: Barksdale AFB, La.
Uh-oh, just read on the Soap Queen blog ("Luck of the Green Beer" CP tutorial) that you should measure your beer by volume instead of weight because beer tends to be heavy and you can end up accidentally discounting your liquid. I had it drilled into my head to always measure by weight (grams). I weighed the boiled beer and the water together in the same pitcher to come up with the total amount I needed. I needed 12.54 ounces of water (356 grams), and I used 146 grams (about 5.15 ounces) of beer and 210 grams (about 7.4 ounces) of distilled water for 356 grams total liquid. (The recipe called for water at 38% of oil weight. The water:lye ratio is supposed to be 2.761:1) Am I in trouble? :roll:

I haven't cut the soap yet, but I didn't notice any trouble while making it. The measurement looked about right on the side of my pitcher, which has ounce markers on it. If you are using beer (especially beer that's been boiled and concentrated) and water together, how should you measure them? Sorry for all of the questions ...

Edited to add: Just cut the soap and didn't detect any zap, so I guess I'm okay?

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 Post subject: Re: Boiling beer?
PostPosted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 12:56 pm 
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I always go by weight. I feel it's more accurate. Besides the lye calc that I use says to use a liquid. So water or beer is liquid to me. I bet carrot juice would be heavier too.

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 Post subject: Re: Boiling beer?
PostPosted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 1:38 pm 
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Location: Barksdale AFB, La.
Whew, thank you, soapbuddy! That makes me feel a lot better. The recipe said "water" instead of "liquid," but since your lye calc doesn't differentiate between liquids, I'm guessing you can successfully use any liquid at whatever amount it gives. Glad to know that you measure all of your liquids by weight and it works!

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 Post subject: Re: Boiling beer?
PostPosted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 3:49 pm 

Joined: Wed Jan 19, 2011 10:22 am
Posts: 114
Location: Ocala, FL
I ended up using 4 beers for my soap and still didnt have enough, it definitely evaporated when boiled! I used about 28 oz. of beer and 10 oz. of water. I too measured by weight.

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 Post subject: Re: Boiling beer?
PostPosted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 5:29 am 
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Joined: Thu Jun 04, 2009 12:37 pm
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Location: Barksdale AFB, La.
Thanks, luvsoap! Sounds like you had a similar experience boiling the beer. I'm glad to hear that measuring by weight worked out fine for you, too. I was worried that I was making all kinds of mistakes with this batch!

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 Post subject: Re: Boiling beer?
PostPosted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 3:49 pm 
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Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2009 5:45 pm
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Location: Wisconsin
Wow, that is alot of beer to have to sacrifice :roll:

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 Post subject: Re: Boiling beer?
PostPosted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 4:01 pm 

Joined: Wed Jun 23, 2010 8:49 pm
Posts: 94
Location: Tampa Bay Area, Florida
I'm only allowed to make beer soap if my DH can't stand the beer. He would have drank it anyway until I said I could make soap. He was thrilled that he wouldn't have to drink it.

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