I love my beer soap and always buy from a local brewery rather than buying the store bought brands. I like the deep beers, hefeweizen, ales, and wheat beers are my favorites. Often times you can detect the fruits and herbs used in making the beer so I try and add fragrance that compliments the beers ingredients.

I have a local honey wheat beer that uses local honey and since I live in So California there is a lot of orange blossom honey and the fragrance in the beer reflects this. I chose a blend of honey and orange blossom fragrance and it really complimented that beer.

How To Make Beer Soap

I pour all the beer into a plastic pitcher and then hit it a few times with a stick blender to get up a huge “head” on the beer, and then let it settle down.

I do this many times during the day until the beer starts to go flat. For some beers I will let it set out for a few days and do this until all the alcohol has evaporated. I know some people heat the beer to remove the alcohol faster but I think it destroys the properties of the beer to heat it so I just let it sit out and put it in the fridge until it is really flat.

I then pour the beer into a plastic zip bag, lay it flat and freeze the beer. I can then just take out what I want, measure, and use just that part and freeze the rest again for another time. This is the same principal I do for milk, teas, coffee, etc.

I add the lye very slowly to the frozen beer, really SLOW so that all the lye will dissolve. On occasion I will dissolve the lye in a small portion of distilled water and then add the frozen ingredient to that and then there is no problem with the lye dissolving. The choice is yours and both work equally well.

The important thing is by doing it this way the liquid, beer, milk, etc., is not burned when the lye is added. But with beer and wine it is really important to make sure it is flat and all the alcohol is evaporated because it will heat up if not done.

You can use any recipe for soap you want, just use the beer as the liquid portion. If you want to keep it a lighter color and keep some of the natural beer fragrance then do not allow it to go into gel. Instead as soon as you pour into your mold put it into the freezer. After a day or so I take it out, thaw it, and then cut it and set it to cure for at least 6 weeks.

During this time you may smell more of the beer than the fragrance but in time the beer will settle and mellow out and the scent of the fragrance will come through.

Because of the natural ingredients in beer it makes a wonderful creamy, conditioning, lather. It is a great seller for me and is often purchased by folks that love beer.

You can use any one of your favorite soap recipes in making beer soap. Just remember to make sure the beer is flat and cold. Use an extra large bowl and pour in the lye slowly – otherwise it will bubble up and may overflow the bowl.