Using other liquids in HP

[candlemama]

I'm curious how many people have tried using other liquids in place of water when making HP. Some I would like to try at some point: coffee, beer, tea, and of course goat's milk or coconut milk. Can the other liquids be used to dissolve the lye, like with CP, or do you typically add them after the cook? I've seen a couple tutorials online for HP beer and coffee soap where these other liquids were used in place of water before the cook. The only tutorials I've found for HP milk soap say to add it after the cook, I'm guessing because the heat would do something nasty to the milk.

What has been your experience? I'm just wondering if adding milk or beer after the cook would be worthwhile since it wouldn't really be saponified with the oils at all?

[Loulougirl]

Sorry I don't have an answer for you candlemama, but I'm curious about this too! lol Hopefully someone with experience will chime in

[candlemama]

I'm just wondering if adding milk or beer after the cook would be worthwhile since it wouldn't really be saponified with the oils at all?

Now that I'm rereading this... I don't think beer would get saponified anyway since it has no fats... but I still don't know what the point would be in adding beer after the cook.

[Barbara AL]

You could use beer as the full liquid but the beer has to be flat. I do CP and use full beer but my beer in flat. I cook the beer over the stove until it is flat but it back in the fridge to get cold for the next day to add the lye in. The beer might stink while cooking it but it doesn't come out in the soap.

Barb

[carol k]

I've brewed strong green tea & used it in place of the water. I just used it as I normally would the water, just added the lye to it. No problems at all.

[LuminousBoutique]

I'm making some HP tomorrow and planning on using beer as my liquid.... I'll let you know how it goes. Barbara is so right on making sure its flat. I do the same thing, basically bring it to a simmer and let it simmer for about 30 min... then I pour it in a mason jar, lid it, and let it sit in the fridge for 2-3 days. DH calls it a "waste of good beer" but he loves the beer soap, lol. :rolleyes2

[LuminousBoutique]

Just did HP with Beer... it may just be the recipe, but it took longer to start to gel in the oven, almost a full hour.. my regular recipe takes only 25-35 min. So that was different and a bit odd...

I needed 16oz liquid so I used a 12oz beer (corona), disolved my lye in my extra 4oz of water and let that cool to about 100*, then (carefully) poured in my cold, flattened beer. Doing it this way seemed to help with the awful smell thats produced when the lye is disolved straight in the beer. It traced great, and other than taking longer to gel it seems like all is well.

Its Ocean Breeze and I did a bit of layering, I'll post a pic when its cut tomorrow. It was easy as pie, I'll be doing another batch tomorrow with Blue Moon beer, I'll see if that is slow to gel too. It could just be this new recipe I'm using. I've never HP with lard before and I had a request to make a batch with it.. in fact I havent used lard in over 10 years... so maybe thats whats causing the slow gel. Dont know!

[katshe]

sounds like an interesting soap...I would like to know ...what qualities does it add to you soap? Might have to try this.