Photo by Lara Ferroni
To prepare sodium hydroxide lye for soapmaking, it needs to be dissolved in some type of liquid. The dissolved lye solution is then emulsified with oils to create soap. Distilled water is usually the liquid of choice for dissolving lye. But, some soapers prefer to use other liquids such as milk, tea or alcoholic beverages. Using alternative liquids (anything other than distilled water) in cold process soap is an intermediate to advanced soaping technique. It requires a few extra steps to prep and can affect other aspects of the soaping process.
One of the most popular types of alternative liquids for cold process soap is alcoholic beverages. This includes beer, wine and champagne. These liquids contain sugar, which give the soap a stable and fluffy lather. Alcoholic beverages can also give the soap color and are great from a marketing standpoint. Some alcoholic beverages do contain beneficial properties like antioxidants, but it is debatable whether these properties make it through the saponification process.
Making soap with alcoholic beverages poses a few challenges. They contain sugar that becomes very hot when mixed with sodium hydroxide lye. This turns the liquid a deep color due to the sugars scorching and can cause an unpleasant aroma. In addition to sugar, alcoholic beverages contain...you guessed it! Alcohol. Alcohol and the saponifcation process don’t mix very well. In addition, many alcoholic beverages such as beer and champagne are carbonated. Carbonation and the saponification process don’t mix very well either.
The key to eliminating the alcohol and carbonation is to boil the liquid prior to using it for soap. This cooks off the alcohol, leaving behind a liquid that works better in cold process soap. Adding lye to alcohol or carbonated beverages can cause an eruption, so boiling the beverage is extremely important. If using a carbonated beverage, many soapers allow the beverage to go flat for several days then boil it to remove the alcohol. I’ve prepared my alcoholic liquid both ways, with similar results.
Beer, wine and champagne all contain a smaller amount of alcohol than spirits (hard liquor). In general, I don’t recommend using hard alcohol as the liquid in your soap. It can be done, but it’s a very advanced technique. There is a lot of alcohol to boil out in hard liquor, and it will cause your soap to accelerate. If you’d like to use a spirit in your soap, I recommend using a very small amount and supplementing the remaining liquor with distilled water, beer, wine or champagne.
The key to using alcoholic beverages in cold process soap is to boil the liquid first to reduce the alcohol and carbonation.
To prepare the alcoholic liquid, first weigh how much you’ll need for the total recipe. You can substitute 100% of the recipe’s liquid with beer, wine, etc., or you can substitute a portion and use distilled water for the remainder. Just keep in mind that the more alternative liquid you use, the more natural sugars it will add to your recipe. It may also give your recipe a darker colored batter, because the liquid will darken as the lye is added and the natural sugars scorch.
I always recommend boiling more liquid than you actually need in your recipe. This is because as the liquid boils, some of it evaporates and you may end up not having enough. If this happens, you can always add more distilled water to the liquid to make up for what was lost. It’s important to have enough liquid for the recipe because the liquid acts as the very important carrier for the sodium hydroxide. For example, let’s say your recipe calls for 10 ounces of liquid. To be on the safe side, I would boil about 12-14 ounces of my alcoholic beverage to account for the volume it will lose. Once it’s done boiling, eyeball the volume measurements and weigh the liquid again to make sure you have enough. If I were to weigh my liquid and only end up with 8 ounces and from the volume measurements, it was clear I was short on liquid, I could add 2 ounces of distilled water to make up for what was lost. Or, I could just use the 8 ounces and consider it a very heavy “water” discount. Click here to learn more about water discounting.
After boiling the liquid, it will be less in volume and weight. Make sure to eyeball the volume and weight the liquid after boiling to find out how much boiled-down alcohol you’re actually working with.
Once the alcohol has been boiled to remove the alcohol and carbonation, it needs to cool. You can place the liquid in the fridge to thoroughly chill, or you can freeze it and add the lye flakes to the frozen liquid. The colder the liquid, the less the sugars in the liquid will scorch when the lye is added. Less scorching means the liquid will not turn as dark and won’t smell quite as much. But freezing the liquid prior to adding the lye won’t prevent it from discoloring entirely. Adding the lye to the cool liquid slowly also helps keep the soap temperature down and preserves a lighter color.
In my book, Pure Soapmaking, one of the recipes uses a mixture of rose wine and champagne (see the final bars here). After the mixture is boiled to help remove alcohol and carbonation, the mixture is frozen. Then, the lye is added directly to the frozen liquid. As the lye is added to the frozen wine blend, the liquid begins to melt as the temperature increases. The increase of temperature causes the sugars to burn the liquids slightly, causing the color to change from a light pink to a deep orange (see bottom right photo). If the wine blend wasn’t frozen prior to adding the lye, the lye solution would have become much hotter, which would have resulted in a darker liquid.
Freezing alternative liquids prior to adding the lye helps prevent the liquid from burning, but won’t always prevent it entirely! Photos by Lara Ferroni.
After the lye is added to the liquids, allow it to cool to appropriate soaping temperatures (we like soaping around 100-130 °F). Once the solution is cool, it’s ready to use just like lye solution made with water. Keep in mind that the lye solution made with alcoholic beverages contain sugar. This will cause your trace to move quickly. When working with alternative liquids, I prefer to use a slow moving recipe with plenty of liquid oils.
Using alcoholic liquids with sugars will cause an increase in temperature. This means the soap will be more likely to go through gel phase. This is also true for soap made with honey, milk or purees. ‘Gelling’ and ‘gel phasing’ in cold process soap refers to a part of the saponification (soapmaking) process where the soap gets warm and gelatinous – up to 180 degrees. If you’d like to learn more about gel phase, click here. If you’d like your soap to go through gel phase, keep it warm but be careful to not over insulate as too much heat could cause a volcano. If you want to prevent gel phase, I recommend soaping cooler and placing the soap in the fridge or freezer for several hours up to overnight to keep temperatures cool.
Once the soap is made, soap made with alcoholic beverages still need 4 to 6 weeks of cure time. The smell of the beverage will not last through the saponification process. Using alcoholic beverages does not affect the shelf life of the soap, as all the sugars in the liquid go through the saponification process and turn into soap. The sugars will add to a stable and fluffy lather!
If you’d like to learn more about making soap with beer or other alcoholic beverages, check out the tutorials and blog posts below! In addition, making soap with alcoholic beverages is similar to making soap with other sugary liquids like milk, so you may find those blog posts helpful as well.
Bramble Beer Soap
Luck of the Green Beer (CP Tutorial)
Black and Tan Beer Soap
Advanced Oatmeal Stout CP
Guest Tutorial: Marbled Beer Soap
How to Add Lye to Milk for Cold Process Soap
Hi!
I was wondering how possible it would be to have a CP recipe that used both beer and pureed fruit… I know that would be a lot of sugar to have in the mix, but I was wondering maybe if I did a 50/50 mix of beer and water (or even less beer), and not a huge amount of puree? I was hoping to try to play around with incorporating a fruity beer with real fruit puree to see how that turned out, but I don’t really want to waste time and money on multiple batches if they are over-saturated with sugars and won’t work out well! Thanks!
I think that’s a great idea – by using water and not a lot of fruit, the soap shouldn’t get too overheated. Just soap at lower temperatures and put your mold in the freezer for a full 24 hours. If you find it’s still gelling, you can add less fruit for your next batch.
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Hi, just a quick question…. can we add in the alcohol / spirits at trace like an additive? Or I will HAVE to mix it in lye first? I had made your Black and Tan Beer Soap with some variation in the oils and it was a sell out!! This time wanna try with Old Monk Rum so this question.
Thanks in advance 😀 And a big thanks for all your tips, tricks, recipes & vdos. They helped me a lot to gather courage for soaping!!
Cheers,
Ruchi
You can definitely add a few ounces at trace if you like! You’ll still want to boil the alcohol and let it return to room temperature. Then, add that at trace and stir well. You may notice it accelerates, so be prepared to work fast. You may want to discount water from the main amount so the soap doesn’t get too wet. Also, a small test batch is really helpful when you’re working with new types of alcohol.
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Would it be ok to use half beer and half water? Mix the lye with the water and add cold beer at thin trace?
You can definitely do a water and beer mixture! When you mix the lye and water, make sure there is enough water to fully dissolve the lye. If you notice any flakes that don’t want to dissolve, add more water until they do (and subtract that from the beer amount). Then, you can add the beer at trace. Keep in mind the lower amount of water will accelerate trace, so be prepared to work fast! 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Do i still need to boil it before adding at trace?
Sorry for the wait, I missed this question. Yes, you want to boil it to get rid of any alcohol or carbonation.
Ok I would love to make a beer soap (the oatmeal stout) for some brewery friends. Currently we use goats milk in all our recipes. Can we still use goats milk in place of the water and at what temps should be be trying for? Thank you!
You can definitely use goat milk! Are you wanting to use a mixture of beer and milk, or use the milk in place of the beer?
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Advanced Oatmeal Stout Cold Process Soap: https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/cold-process-soap/last-call-advanced-oatmeal-stout-cp-2/
Yes, I was wondering too; we currently use goat milk and ice cubes with the lye. It is a 1:1 ratio in our palm-oil free soap. Could we do your charcoal and cedar beer soap recipe and just replace some of the beer with goats milk?
Yes, that will work just fine. I’d recommend freezing both the beer and the milk so they melt and at the same rate when you add the lye. Then pop the soap in the fridge or freezer for 5-24 hours to keep it cool.
I recently tried a beer soap and a wine soap. With the beer soap, I boiled the beer and then froze it. I soaped at temperatures around 110. The finished product had the rough texture I’ve seen in your blog photos associated with over-heating. Probably my fault because ever since my first batch of soap I keep thinking I HAVE to insulate every batch I make. Also, the beer I used was a Honey Wheat Ale. Could the honey have caused the problem?
With the wine soap I was even more careful. I simmered the wine, froze it. My recipe was 5% apricot kernel oil, 45% olive oil, 20% coconut oil, 5% castor oil, and 25% canola oil. I soaped at less than 110 degrees. I didn’t exactly insulate but placed a towel just over the top. My house is cold. :). Tonight I unmolded and cut it. It was pale in the center with a perfectly squared edge of dark red around it. (I used red wine and no colors because I was in new territory.). Just now, an hour after, I looked at it and I swear the whole thing looks pink! No dark edge. Am I hallucinating or can soap change its appearance that quickly once exposed to air?
I hated chemistry in high school, but soap making is so much fun. I can’t stop even when I keep getting mysteries.
Hi Sarah!
With beer and wine soaps, you’ll want to avoid insulating. When the soap heats up, it can cause the beer and wine to overheat. That can lead to an odd texture, discoloration and more. I would recommend leaving the soap at a colder room temperature uncovered, or even pop it in the fridge for 5-24 hours. 🙂
Also, your wine soap had partial gel! That creates the ring around the edge. That will go away as the soap oxidizes when it’s exposed to air. We had the same thing happen to these bars: https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/cold-process-soap/buttermilk-bastille-baby-bar-on-soap-queen-tv/
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Thank you for responding!
I will resist the urge to insulate when using anything alcoholic. 🙂
You’re welcome! 🙂
I want to try a cup soap using beer. I’ve read about boiling the beer then freezing it and I also read about just letting the beer sit out in an open container to go flat then freezing. Is it best to boil? Do you have to freeze it or can it just be refrigerated?
We have found it’s best to boil the beer! When the beer is left out to go flat, all of that carbonation may not go away. Boiling really ensures it’s out of the beer so your soap doesn’t do odd things. Then, after it’s boiled, we refrigerate it overnight. If you like you can freeze it, but we’ve found refrigerating it works well. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
I have some color in rubbing alcohol that I distilled from soaking daylilies in the alcohol that I want to use in a soap recipe. This alcohol does not have suagars in it as it is not a drinking alcohol. Do I still add water to it to boil off the alcohol?
Hi Julia!
Using rubbing alcohol can be a bit tricky. Because it’s almost entirely alcohol (usually 70-99%), boiling off the alcohol will leave you with no liquid. I wouldn’t recommend using it in soap. Instead, you can use other options like beer or wine, which have a lower alcohol content. You can also use distilled water. That works really well. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Hi!
I made a wine soap using berrywine fragrance oil, which I love!
when I mixed the lye with the wine it produced an awful smell ( I prepared the wine and I iced it)
A month has passed by and although that smell isn´t that strong now, the berrywine aroma seems not to have survived…
The soap is just fine but the smell isn´t what it was supposed…
what did I do wrong?
Hi Teresa!
When the lye reacts with the wine, it can create a pretty distinct smell! That smell should fade as the soap continues to cure. We find it’s usually fairly subtle after 6 weeks of curing.
As for the Berrywine Fragrance Oil, it should be present even with the wine! It will smell different than in the bottle, as it’s mixing with the wine in the recipe. How much did you add to your batch? Let me know and we’ll get this figured out. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Hi Kelsey!
I added 2 oz of fragrance to the recipe (49 oz of oils): 1 oz berrywine + 0,4 oz fig + 0,6 pear . I didn´t have any more fragrance and I really wanted to test my wine recipe…
After 6 weeks of curing, the bad smell is really subtle but the wineberry isn´t showing off its marvellous scent…
So maybe I should have used more fragrance? 🙂
Thank you very much for your quick reply, btw! 🙂
I think using more fragrance would help! I plugged 71.41 ounces of cold process soap in our Fragrance Calculator (we measure the total weight of the soap including oils, water and lye). For a strong scent, you can add up to 3.6 ounces of fragrance. That should make the scent a bit stronger! 🙂
Fragrance Calculator: https://www.brambleberry.com/Pages/Fragrance-Calculator.aspx
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Help! Every time I try to deviate or do things on my own, bad things happen. I wanted to take a very simple recipe and sub merlot for water. I boiled off the etoh, placed in refrigerator and even placed in freezer an hour before I began. I modified the recipe using your calculator to allow for a 5% super fat. I used 5 oz palm, 5 oz coconut oil, and 12 oz olive oil. My lye was 4.1oz and wine @ 14.2 oz. It smelled pretty awful at first, even though liquid was very cold. It tested first at 145 degrees. I heated my oils and combined with both at 125 degrees. It took awhile to get to trace, much longer than usual. I then used a merlot fragrance oil from natures garden because they said it performed beautifully in CP, no acceleration or ricing. I had to stick blend another ten minutes and I had terrible ricing throughout. It looks like grits gone wrong. I tried a similar recipe with aloe vera gel (not liquid) and never reached trace. Ugh! Any advice? Thank you!
Hi Jennifer!
Your recipe looks just perfect, you prepared the alcohol the way we do, and your temperatures were right where we typically soap. Because of that I’m stumped as to what happened! Recipes with a higher amount of a soft oil like olive oil do take a bit longer to trace, but they shouldn’t rice. I’m wondering if it’s the fragrance oil. I would recommend making a small test batch with the same ingredients but no fragrance oil. If it performs well, I would recommend trying a different fragrance that performs well for the next batch. 🙂
Read more about misbehaving fragrances here: http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/soap-behaving-badly/
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Thanks Kelsey! I also am wondering whether my lye is bad? I did another recipe and again took awhile to get to trace, and my soap in the mold is very wet. I tossed the lye I had and am going to try with another lye.
That may be it! How old is your lye? Where are you storing the lye? Also, you may check to make sure the label says sodium and not potassium. Potassium hydroxide lye is used for liquid soap, and won’t set up properly in cold process.
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Where is the info about #puresoapmaking contest? I can’t find anything about it and it was over on Monday. Thanks.
Hi Martina!
We sent a private message to all the winners yesterday! Thanks so much for participating. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Thanks. It should have been announced though. Congrats to the winners!
We will be updating the blog post with the winners soon! 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
#PureSoapmaking Inspiration and Contest: http://www.soapqueen.com/bramble-berry-news/puresoapmaking-inspiration-contest/
More great info for my reference file – thanks! How long do you boil it for Like a rolling boil? Seems like it would expand and overflow the pot. I don’t imagine it would take too long to burn off alcohol. What exactly would be the purpose of using alcohol based liquids in soap?
Hi Michael!
You’re welcome, glad you like the post! 🙂
When boiling alcohol, we do recommend using a large pot, as it can grow in size as it boils. You want it to get to at least 173F and stay there for a couple minutes. That’s the temperature when that alcohol starts to burn off. So, I would say get it boiling and let it boil for 10-15 minutes or so. That will ensure any alcohol and carbonation is fully boiled out!
Also, we love adding alcohol because it adds nice fluffy bubbles to the soap. It’s also great for marketing, and a great use of leftover beer or wine. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Great tutorial. I just thought I’d add that I use wine fairly frequently and have never noticed enough of a difference between boiling off the alcohol and using it straight from the bottle to bother with boiling it. The only times I’ve noticed a real difference between wines is when I use a higher sugar wine (with less alcohol, actually). Anything carbonated is another story.
Thanks Ariella, glad you like the post! We like to boil the alcohol off the wine to prevent the trace from accelerating too much. It sounds like you’ve found a great method that works for you though! One fewer step is always nice. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
I just thought I’d add to this, if I may. My only attempt at using alcohol in soap was a disaster because I had not done my homework. I measured the merlot and lye and poured the lye in at once. The instant I stirred, a huge volcano happened. Fortunately, it was in a tall container and I had gloves on to prevent singed fingers! It smelled HORRIBLE and turned dark brown instantly. Furthermore, I planned a hot process batch so the cooking made it smell even worse and get even darker. I decided to accent it with white embeds. The soap was awesome, but the smell never left and even I could not stand to wash with it. Even the lab smelled disgusting. I did use it successfully for washing dishes and in the laundry so an excellent but horrible smelling soap did not go to waste. The large amount of water in a top loading washer was enough to dilute the smell. Bottom line: research first and follow the experts’ advice on how to use alcohol in your soap everybody.
We’ve had some alcohol boil overs in our lab too and they are pretty scary! That smell is very unpleasant as well. Boiling the alcohol is something we recommend to prevent that. Thanks so much for sharing James! Glad there were no singed fingers. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Very interesting. I’ve heard of people using honey, (I assume it has a similar end benefit in addition to its humectant properties) but didn’t realize it made for a stable and fluffy lather. So, why not just add sugar? You would be able to control the amount in the recipe much better than using a liquid in which the amount of sugar is unknown. Just wondering. So, if adding granulated sugar, how much per pound of soap would one use comfortably?
Hi Irene!
Using beer and other alcohol in your soap is fun to do! It’s a great way to try new liquids and techniques, and adds some amazing bubbles. It’s also great for marketing. For instance, Marissa (below) is thinking of selling it a local beer festival, which I think is a great idea. 🙂
You can use sugar if you like though! Sugar adds some great bubbles as well. We recommend about 1 tsp. per pound of soap to start with. Too much sugar can cause the soap to accelerate quite a bit, and can caramelize and discolor the soap. You can dissolve that in your water before adding the lye, or mix it with water and add it a trace (making sure to discount the water from the main batch so it won’t get too wet).
You can also use honey! Learn how to use honey in this post: http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/adding-honey-to-cold-process-soap-tips-tricks-recipe/
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Thanks for the info!
You’re welcome! 🙂
Another thought… And I haven’t tried cold process yet, but have been heavily researching (and lurking around here). I had an idea about beer based skin care products (including soap) to sell at a local beer festival. I spoke with a local microbrewer about it and he said that a few soapers buy the wort from him, cheaper than beer, and he sells by the bucket. From what I understand, it has everything in it that beer does, but the yeast has not been added yet, so no alcohol. Probably more sugars though, so there’s that to deal with…
Oh that sounds interesting! We haven’t worked with wort, so I’m not sure how that would work in the soap. With the added sugar, you could do a 50:50 ratio of distilled water to beer to prevent too much scorching. If you give it a try, let us know how it goes! I’m definitely curious. Also, I think that’s an amazing idea to make beer soap for the beer festival! 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Its a really wonderful book. I got it yesterday. I cant want to try all recipes. What I love most is that all recipes from the blog and now the book are precise. I learned soaping in this blog. Every single recipe I tried turns out fantastic, allowing me to open my business.
I love the edition, its very well written, and so nice arts. Really well done. Congratulations.
Wow, that is high praise indeed. Thank you, Maria. I really appreciate your support and your enthusiasm for the blog and the new book. I’m so happy that you’re finding the recipes produce consistently good results AND that you’ve been able to open a new business with it. YAY! That is incredible – and exactly the reason I do what I do, day in and day out. =)