Beer (flat, boiled)
Replaces some or all of the water.
Opens the calculator’s starter recipe, 1000 g of oils, with this additive at the dose it fills in, ready to change.
What it is
Ordinary beer: mostly water, with some alcohol.
USDA FoodData Central primary source
How much
- 50 % of the water filled in (from a published recipe) Cable, The Natural Soap Making Book for Beginners primary source
- up to 100 % of the water Soap Queen supplier or guide
The calculator fills in 50 % of the water: 154 g for the 1000 g of oils in its starter recipe.
When and how
- Usually: as the lye liquid.
- Also used: at light trace.
- Let it go flat, boil it for 30 minutes and cool it before the lye goes in.
Cable, The Natural Soap Making Book for Beginners primary source
What it does to the recipe
- 91.96 % is water, taken off the recipe’s water.
USDA FoodData Central primary source
Worth knowing
- Boiling leaves some alcohol behind: food tables give 40 % left after 15 minutes’ simmering. USDA ARS primary source
- Caution: It heats the batch: work cool and do not insulate it, or it can crack or overflow the mould. Soap Queen supplier or guide
- It spoils fast: keep it cold and use it within days. Too much in the bar can grow mould. Anne L. Watson supplier or guide
Spoons and drops
- 1 tsp ≈ 4.95 g
- 1 tbsp ≈ 14.8 g
- 1 cup ≈ 238 g
USDA FoodData Central primary source
INCI name
Beer
- CAS number
- 8029-31-0
Recipes that use it
Guides that discuss it
Sources
Kelly Cable, The Natural Soap Making Book for Beginners (Althea Press, 2017): beer and wine left to go flat, brought to a boil and simmered 30 minutes, then cooled; 6 ounces of flat beer with 6.2 ounces of water; honey "1 tablespoon per pound at the most"; 4 ounces of pumpkin purée in a 3-pound batch (pp. 152–161).
Soap Queen, alcoholic beverages in soap: all of the liquid or a portion; the sugar "becomes very hot when mixed with sodium hydroxide lye" and speeds trace.
USDA Table of Nutrient Retention Factors, Release 6 (2007): alcohol stirred into a mixture and baked or simmered for 15 minutes, 40 % retained.
Anne L. Watson: beer must not sit "at room temperature for too long, or it will mold"; honey, "About 5% of the base oil weight is about as high as I’d go."