Red wine
Replaces some or all of the water. Dark tan. Soap Queen supplier or guide
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
Red table wine: mostly water, with about 10.6 % alcohol in USDA’s figures.
USDA FoodData Central primary source
How much
- 50–100 % of the water filled in Wholesale Supplies Plus supplier or guide
The calculator fills in 50 % of the water: 164 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
- Every 100 g takes 0.19 g of sodium hydroxide, which the calculator adds to the lye.
- 86.49 % is water, taken off the recipe’s water.
USDA FoodData Central primary source, Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 primary source, Stoichiometry primary source
Worth knowing
- EU law requires wine to have at least 3.5 g of acid a litre, as tartaric acid; the calculator adds lye for that minimum, so a sharper wine takes a little more. Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 primary source
- Boiling leaves some alcohol behind: food tables give 40 % left after 15 minutes’ simmering. USDA ARS primary source
- It darkens the soap, to tan or brown. Soap Queen supplier or guide, Faiola, Soap Crafting primary source
- Caution: It heats the batch: work cool and do not insulate it, or it can crack or overflow the mould. Nature’s Garden supplier or guide, Wholesale Supplies Plus supplier or guide
Spoons and drops
- 1 tsp ≈ 4.9 g
- 1 tbsp ≈ 14.7 g
- 1 cup ≈ 235 g
USDA FoodData Central primary source
INCI name
Wine
Recipes that use it
Guides that discuss it
Sources
Soap Queen, soap with wine: "The red wine gives the soap batter a dark tan color".
Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013, Annex VII, Part II, point 1 (wine): wine must "have ... a total acidity content, expressed as tartaric acid, of not less than 3,5 grams per litre or 46,6 milliequivalents per litre". At 0.994 g/mL (USDA, 1 fl oz = 29.4 g) that is at least 46.6 × 39.997 ÷ 994 = 1.875 mg NaOH per gram.
Neutralisation stoichiometry with IUPAC 2013 molar masses: grams of NaOH per gram = protons × 39.997 ÷ molar mass. Disodium EDTA dihydrate (372.24 g/mol) takes 2; sodium bicarbonate (84.007 g/mol) 1; magnesium sulfate heptahydrate (246.47 g/mol) 2; borax decahydrate (381.37 g/mol) 2, to sodium metaborate; malic acid (134.087 g/mol) 2; citric acid (192.124 g/mol) 3. An acidity given in milliequivalents per litre takes that many millimoles of NaOH per litre.
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).
Wholesale Supplies Plus, wine in soap: "50% water and 50% wine"; unboiled wine "can overheat".
USDA Table of Nutrient Retention Factors, Release 6 (2007): alcohol stirred into a mixture and baked or simmered for 15 minutes, 40 % retained.
Anne-Marie Faiola, Soap Crafting (Storey, 2013): 8.9 oz of coconut water as the whole lye liquid; "The lye turns the coconut water a bright orange color. This is normal and does not affect the final color of the soap" (pp. 129–131). "14.5 ounces freshly brewed and cooled green tea" as the lye liquid, which "turns a brownish hue when it reacts with the lye" (p. 173). Wine: "boil off the alcohol before adding the wine to the lye", 10 to 15 minutes, topped up with distilled water to 16.5 oz for 50 oz of oils; otherwise "alcohol may react violently to the lye, causing a bit of a volcanic eruption" (pp. 148–150).
Nature’s Garden, wine soap: "a wine that has a high sugar content speeds up gel".