Ah, beer. Who hasn’t heard of this bubbly brew or watched the Superbowl specifically to be entertained by the brewery industry’s commercials. While appealing to a broad spectrum of people, beer is a versatile beverage with a broad range of uses. It makes a tasty marinade, a moist and light bread and, fantastic soap! Yes, soap. Once the alcohol and its drying effects are removed, beer makes a near perfect skin care addition to soap. Since beer is primarily hops, many of this herb’s properties and benefits become a skin cleansing asset when added to soap. The diverse array of beers from micro breweries and distinct contributions from craft breweries add a new dimension to soap crafting options with beer. Belgian lambic ales bring the richness and nutritional value of fruit to the beer market and when used in soap, these ales transfer these attributes to skin care. Oats, barley and wheat are mineral-rich grains that contribute an array of health promoting benefits to everything they touch, including soap. By adding lambic ales and whole grain beers to soaps, we bypass an otherwise risky bacterial potential and avoid the need for preservatives. Because of the fermentation process used in making beer coupled with the preservative and antibacterial benefits of hops, beer grants our skin the opportunity to directly benefit from these botanical ingredients when it would otherwise be problematic to the soap making process or require preservatives. If an ingredient requires a synthetic preservative to maintain purity, the reason for using “natural soap” is defeated.
In addition to adding flavor to beer, hops make a relaxing tea. Traditional uses for hops include anti-stress or sedative blends along with sleeping formulas. Beer soap brings some of hops’ relaxing effects to the bathing experience making beer soap a great cleansing choice after a strenuous workout, whether in the gym or the yard. Hops have a slightly sweet fragrance and soaps made with beer initially display a sweet under note because of this. Over time, this fragrance tends to diminish and aroma notes contributed by other ingredients tend to be more dominant. For example, with their fruit additions, lambic ales add a beautiful, rich fruit scent to soaps made with these luscious beers. Fruit beers broaden the soap coloring palette as well so that a framboise or raspberry lambic ale grants a garnet tone to soap. Raspberries are packed with vitamins and minerals and contain ellagic acid, a compound found to have anti-carcinogenic activity on skin cancer cells as well as other cancers. Black currant or cassis lambic ale lends a rich note to bar soap acting as both a distinct coloring agent and fragrance additive. As a healthy skin addition, black currants are packed with anti-oxidants along with Vitamin E and Vitamin C among other nutrients. A robust brown color, oatmeal stout combines the skin soothing benefits of oats with hops’ anti-inflammatory, skin-softening attributes for a gentle, skin-loving wash.
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