Teach Soap

I am having issues with when i cut my soap it has orange lye heavy areas. But the same loaf of soap i cut a few bars from with orange lye heavy spots, i let sit another day cut into it and now seems fine. I know it was lye heavy because it got onto our coffee table and burned it. It was literally leaking out of the bars. But the bars from the same loaf that i cut several hours later seem just fine. No lye leaking/seeping, or crystals forming. Nothing. Now I am curious if somebody has had this happen before? I followed the recipe exactly. Its the same recipe I have been using for years now, and I have never had it react like that before. But I also made it using beer instead of water. I used the same oils and beer and made a hot process batch along with cold process-oven process and they turned out perfect no issues at all. But Is it something to do with I am not letting it sit long enough before cutting? This is how i prepare my beer: I open the bottle pour it into a larger container then add 1/2 an ounce of either white sugar, brown sugar, raw sugar, sea salt, or epsom salt then stir vigorously to get as much carbonation as I can out. I then let it sit out for a minimum of 24 hours. I then freeze it in ice cube trays.

If anybody could help me out with this I would really appreciate it. This is my first time working with beer in soap, and I wonder if I just need to let it sit in the mold longer before cutting to let the lye completely saponify with the oils, or what exactly is going on.

Thanks in advance!

It sounds like the soap wasn't done with saponification before you cut it. Soaps that don't go through a gel phase can take up to 3 days to fully saponify.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

I've only made a few beer soaps but here are a couple of thoughts. 1) Saponification takes longer than 3 hours if you're talking cold-process soap, especially if you put it in the freezer which slows the process down. Salt bars must be cut in around that time just because they will get too hard otherwise. Just in case, try the zap test on a bar of your beer soap. 2) I've never added anything to my beer to help it go flat. Many people boil their beer but you need to watch it if you do. 3) There is plenty of sugar in beer so adding more will make it more likely to overheat. Good luck! Beer soap can be awesome.

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Linda

I learn so much when I can't leave well enough alone!

Thank you both! I figured I just wasnt waiting long to cut into them. So from now on I will wait a few days. I am making them for fathers day, though they wont be ready to use until a few weeks after fathers day.

Thanks again!

Soap that does not gel, need a longer time to cut.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Do you have any experience with how long soaps typically need that do not gel before unmolding and cutting? And i am able to unmold soap after only a few hours if put in the freezer? But not cut it for a few days. I only have 3 molds, and was hoping even though I cant cut the for a few days I could take them out of the mold and put them on my drying racks for a few days before cutting.

I cut my ungelled soaps within 24 hours with gloves on, since the soap can still zap at this point.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.