I made some Beer Soap yesterday, full details on my blog, but here are some pictures and stuff.
According to online-sellers of Beer Soap, its good for dry skin, dandruff and all that stuff.
Note: Making soap involves Caustic Soda, this is dangerous/nasty stuff, you MUST understand what you are doing before you attempt this.
I'm not going to explain how to make soap here, or even the recipe I used, there are various websites which can do that much better than I can - please read them and understand the process before attempting this at home.
The first step in making soap usually involves mixing Caustic Soda (Sodium hydroxide, NaOH) with water, however since I'm making Beer Soap, I replaced the water in my with beer - a Black IPA. The beer needs to be uncarbonated, so I took the beer directly from the fermentor, which I then froze to a beer-slushy. Caustic mixed with water (or beer) can get very warm/hot, so freezing it first helps keep the temperature down, however the mixture it also tends to smell a bit - a not very nice smell.
Next the oils are weighed out (all quantities, even liquids, are weighed when making soap, since it's a more accurate measure), all the oils I used are available in the local supermarket:
I've been making 'vegetarian' soap, oil/fat component of the recipe for my Beer Soap from included about 30% Olive Oil, 30% Coconut Oil (aka Copha in Australian supermarkets), 30% Palm Oil (aka FryMaster in Australian supermarkets) and small amounts of Caster and Soy oils. The solid oils (Palm and Coconut) need to be melted, on a gentle heat before they are mixed with the other oils:
Next the stinky caustic beer solution is added to the oil in a large pot:
After a short time of stirring with the stick mixer the soap starts to thicken (this is called 'trace'):
This is usually when you add colours and fragrances, since I was making Beer Soap, I added some whole Pride of Ringwood hop flowers that I crushed coarsely in the spice blender:
Before it gets too hard the soap is put into molds:
Once the molds are filled, the soap should be starting to solidify. The soap then needs about 24 hours to 'cure', during this time it is wrapped up to keep warm (and it does get noticeably warm):
My previous soap making attempts can be seen drying in the background: Triple Mint-Olive and Goat 'n Oat Soaps.
After a day or two the soap is hard enough to slide out of the molds.
It needs a few weeks to fully dry and harden before it should be ready to use.
According to online-sellers of Beer Soap, its good for dry skin, dandruff and all that stuff.
Note: Making soap involves Caustic Soda, this is dangerous/nasty stuff, you MUST understand what you are doing before you attempt this.
I'm not going to explain how to make soap here, or even the recipe I used, there are various websites which can do that much better than I can - please read them and understand the process before attempting this at home.
The first step in making soap usually involves mixing Caustic Soda (Sodium hydroxide, NaOH) with water, however since I'm making Beer Soap, I replaced the water in my with beer - a Black IPA. The beer needs to be uncarbonated, so I took the beer directly from the fermentor, which I then froze to a beer-slushy. Caustic mixed with water (or beer) can get very warm/hot, so freezing it first helps keep the temperature down, however the mixture it also tends to smell a bit - a not very nice smell.
Next the oils are weighed out (all quantities, even liquids, are weighed when making soap, since it's a more accurate measure), all the oils I used are available in the local supermarket:
I've been making 'vegetarian' soap, oil/fat component of the recipe for my Beer Soap from included about 30% Olive Oil, 30% Coconut Oil (aka Copha in Australian supermarkets), 30% Palm Oil (aka FryMaster in Australian supermarkets) and small amounts of Caster and Soy oils. The solid oils (Palm and Coconut) need to be melted, on a gentle heat before they are mixed with the other oils:
Next the stinky caustic beer solution is added to the oil in a large pot:
After a short time of stirring with the stick mixer the soap starts to thicken (this is called 'trace'):
This is usually when you add colours and fragrances, since I was making Beer Soap, I added some whole Pride of Ringwood hop flowers that I crushed coarsely in the spice blender:
Before it gets too hard the soap is put into molds:
Once the molds are filled, the soap should be starting to solidify. The soap then needs about 24 hours to 'cure', during this time it is wrapped up to keep warm (and it does get noticeably warm):
My previous soap making attempts can be seen drying in the background: Triple Mint-Olive and Goat 'n Oat Soaps.
After a day or two the soap is hard enough to slide out of the molds.
It needs a few weeks to fully dry and harden before it should be ready to use.