I had never thought about making Beer soap until a microbrewery in our area approached me…. and to my surprise, it has become one of my favorite soaps, and the beer soap benefits are so good…..who would have thought washing with beer soap would be so good.
So..what is beer soap made out of?
Well, beer…when making beer soap the water is replaced with beer and wow what an amazing soap! You would think it might smell of beer but it doesn’t. Instead, it takes on the aroma of the hops and extracts that are used in the beer-making process.
There are so many different types of beer giving you a great variety to choose from, each beer will give the soap a slightly different color or scent.
Making a bar of soap out of your favorite beer is just not as simple as replacing the water with beer. There is a process first to prepare the beer before making soap, read about the benefits, and then learn how to process your beer before making soap below.
This soap produces a nice lather and feels smooth and silky on your skin.
The benefits of Beer Soap
Hops are known to contain skin-softening amino acids, which can help to soothe irritated skin, and the brewer’s yeast used in making beer has antibacterial properties, which are said to help in the fight against acne.
The Vitamin B that is present in beer will help to moisturize your skin.
Some of the best reasons to use beer soap are its ability to help maintain the skin’s PH balance, its anti-bacterial properties to help kill the bacteria that can cause acne and its moisturizing properties, and the thick creamy lather.
Beer soap is made from all-natural ingredients; you will not find any dangerous chemicals in this soap.
Soaps made with beer are often used as a multipurpose soap to wash the body and hair and for shaving.
Different types of beers will give the soap different colors from a light to a dark brown.
Making soap with beer is a more advanced process.
If you are new to making soap, it is best to get used to making soap before getting into making beer soap.
There are a few extra steps when making this type of soap.
The water will be replaced with the beer, but because the beer is carbonated that must be removed first.
If you were to add lye to beer that is still carbonated you would end up with a dangerous volcano of lye/beer mix.
Preparing your beer before making soap is very important! I cannot stress that enough.
Preparing the Beer
Prepare your beer before making soap follow the three-step process below:
1. After you have found the beer of your choice, pour it into an open container and let it sit for approximately 36 hours – stirring it now and again.
2. After this time place the beer in a pot and let it boil for 15 – 30 minutes. This will remove any carbonation that may be left.
Be sure to start with more beer than you need as more than half of the volume can be lost in the boiling, if you have lost more than you need after boiling you can always make up the loss by adding distilled water.
3. After the beer has been boiled let it cool down and then place it in the freezer for 6-8 hours. I have used ice cube trays or when making bigger batches, I put the beer in the container I will be using to add the lye to. I freeze it but not fully.
When your beer is frozen and ready you can start making your soap.
I also put my pitcher in a sink regardless of what kind of soap I am making. I do this because if the container ever split or broke at least it won’t be all over a counter or table but contained to the sink.
So with the pitcher in a sink put your beer ice in the pitcher and slowly start adding the lye. Make sure the area is well-ventilated and stir continually. As you add the lye the beer will begin to melt.
Your oils will be melted as usual and once the lye/beer mix and oils reach the required temperature they can be mixed as usual.
Basic Cold Process Soap Making Instructions
The recipe I use for making beer soap is as follows:
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- 900 Grams of Olive oil
- 225 Grams of Coconut oil
- 150 Grams Palm Kernel
- 125 Grams of Palm Oil
- 125 Grams of Grapeseed Oil
- 208 Grams of Sodium Hydroxide (Lye)
- 381 – 572 milliliters or 1.78 to 2.37 cups of liquid
This recipe calculation calls for between 1.78 and 2.37 cups of liquid. I use two cups of frozen beer and find it works well. When preparing the beer I boil more than I need and only use 2 cups.
The above recipe will give you 12 – 14 nice size bars.
A little tip – I boil the beer ahead of time and once boiled I cool the beer down and then put it into two-cup containers in the freezer for future use.
When the beer soap is made, cut, and cured it will be ready to give as a gift or sell.
So there you go a recipe to make your own soap and enjoy beer soap benefits for your skin
Put your soap in boxes
The link below will take you to other soap recipes.
Soap Making Recipes
Before starting gather all the equipment and ingredients you will need for your soap
Mixing your ingredients:
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- Put on your protective clothing, apron, safety goggles, gloves, etc
- Measure your water and pour it into the container you will be using for your lye/water mix
- Measure out your lye (sodium hydroxide)
- Slowly add the lye to the water, stirring to be sure it mixes well. This should be done in a well-ventilated area as the fumes can be quite strong. This will only last for 15 seconds or so. Stir until the lye is completely dissolved in the water. It will heat up to about 180 degrees and can now be put aside to cool down.
- While the lye/water is cooling use a scale and measure each of your soap oils and put them into your stainless steel pot.
- Place this pot on your stove or hot plate and turn on low to heat to approximately 130 degrees.
- Once the oils have heated to 130 degrees take off the stove or hot plate and let them cool down to about 100 degrees.
- When the lye/water mix and the oils are both cooled down to about 100 degrees they are ready to be mixed.
- Slowly add the lye/water mix to your soap oils and stir you can use a stick blender and hand mix. Mix the soap until it traces. This is when the soap begins to thicken; you can test this by using your spoon to drizzle the liquid into the pot. You will see the trace, as the drizzle will stay on the surface of the soap mixture.
- Once the soap has traced this is the time to add your scent and color.
- Mix the scent and color well
- Pour this mixture into the lined molds, cover it with a piece of cardboard or plastic, put it to bed (place a blanket over the soap mold) and let set for a day or two.
- Once it has sat for a day or two, remove the soap from the mold and cut and put it out to cure for 4 to 6 weeks.
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You might want to check this link out for some great gift ideas for those beer lovers.
Gifts for Beer Drinkers
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Beer soap? Really? I’ve never heard of it.
But with so many benefits like its anti-bacterial properties I will be trying to source some.
I do often wonder what kind of chemicals are contained in normal soap. Everything mass produced is increasingly more unhealthy. Is it better to use a craft beer or does it not make any difference?
Thanks for the article.
I like to use craft beer, but really your can use any kind. The beer gives the soap a beautiful lather and I find my customers really like the light smell of the hops, although adding scent to it is always an option.
Thank you for such a great post. It was very informative and helpful to understand. I just made my first batch of Dark Guinness Beer soap yesterday (hot processed). I was a bit nervous, and it turned out beautifully. I love the fact that this soap can be used for more than just washing your hands.
That’s great Victoria. Beer Soap is so moisturizing I love it! Happy Soap making
I’ve made beer soaps but I don’t boil the beer. I just open it and leave it partially covered on the counter for a week. By that time it’s flat ten I freeze it
Hi Sally,
A friend of mine who is also a soap maker had tried that method, but said she still had issues with it becoming somewhat volcanic. Maybe she omitted the freezing part. That would make sense.
I’m a little lost, where is the recipe? I only see directions for preparing the beer.
There is a link to the soap making recipes on the page just under where it says Basic Cold Process Soap Making Instructions – here is the link
Soap Making Recipes
Beer soap is something that I have never heard of before and its been interesting reading all about it in your post. I also never knew the benefits of beer on the skin. Nowadays a lot of people are looking for more natural products and so this would be popular for people who have never came across it before. I like the fact that it smells of hops, which is lovely. Looking through how you make it, it does take time, but its well worth it.
The beer soap is really nice. Like you read, I had no intention on making it but I’m glad I did. It has turned out to be a popular soap for sure.
I have never heard of beer soap before but it sounds pretty interesting. I love beer and soap so I feel that this would be an excellent product for me.
I’m not sure if I would have the time to make my own beer soap, even though it sounds easy enough. Do you recommend any places where you can buy homemade beer soap? I would love to try it!
Hi Nicki, Yes I can recommend some beer soaps for you. Just follow the links below these are all very good Beer Soaps
Beer Soap from the Beer Soap Company
Beer Soap Made with Guiness Stout
Beer Soap by Swag Brewery
Hi Tes!
I never would have guessed that beer would be a preferred ingredient in making homemade soap. Also that it wouldn’t smell like beer, and have a nice creamy lather. Could it be used by men for shaving?
I love all the step by step instructions, both for the beer soap and all the other soaps and natural products on your site. Since I am sensitive to the chemicals used in processing so many of the health and beauty care items commercially available I am really excited to come across this information about making my own all natural products.
Thanks so much for providing this useful information, I’m looking forward to reading and learning more from your site.
All the best,
KyleAnn
Hi Kyle Ann, glad you are enjoying the site, as for your question about using beer soap as a mens shaving soap, what a great idea! All you would have to do is replace the water used in shaving soap with the beer and follow the instructions for using beer in soap. Good luck and if you make it, let us know how it turns out.
So, I boiled the beer for 30 minutes and there was no beer left…
Hello Pamela,
Always start out with more beer than you want to use in your recipe as some will be lost when boiling, just the same as when boiling water, also I’m not sure how hard a boil you had it at. You need to boil the beer but it doesn’t have to be a hard boil. I bring the beer to a boil and then gently boil it for about 30 minutes. I have never boiled it to nothing. Also, if after boiling you are a little short you can always add some water to make up the difference.
This isn’t a recipe so much as a guideline. Are some oils better than others when making a beer soap? My go-to recipe of the moment has 53% olive oil, coco and palm at 20% each, and 7% castor for sudsing. Would I omit the castor oil since the beer is going to bring that quality? If it smells like hops and extracts it would seem that some scents would work better than others—-herbals like rosemary perhaps? I’m intrigued and will probably set out some beer next Wednesday for a weekend batch, I just hope it doesn’t end up like a lot of the oils I’ve tried (like jojoba) that come with all sorts asserted values and properties, yet seem to add nothing to the soap that isn’t produced by the olive oil.
The recipe I use is at the end of the post. I find the oils in this recipe to work very well and it makes a wonderful soap. You could still use castor oil it is a great oil to get more sudsing from you soap. I like to leave my beer soap unscented and leave it with the slight scent from the beer. Every kind of beer seems to scent it a little differently but not strong scented. For sure add Rosemary if you would like or experiment and try others. The scent from the beer is so slight that I don’t think it would change other scents to much. Happy soaping
Thank you for this. I remember, as a kid in the 80s, beer shampoo was the *in* thing. It seemed every brand had a ‘beer’ product. So glad to see it again. Thank you!!
Yes it was! It really is a nice soap I too am glad to see it come back.
I am anxious to try this soap….looks like fun ….where can I fund the boxes to give them as gifts ?
It is a great soap and you can use whatever beer you like. I custom the labels according to the beer used. Great gifts for beer lovers.
You can different soap boxes here are some links to a few:
BLACK SOAP BOXES
MINI SOAP BOXES
SOAP BOXES WITH ROPE
CRAFT BOXES WITH WINDOW
Enjoy your soap making