Anybody tried doing this before?
I’ve used a little beer in soap, and some herbs that gave a little scrubby character. I think the spent grains would give you something like that, I wouldn’t use a lot but a little would be great.
Can you point me to a how-to or something? My only soap-making knowledge is from Fight Club.
Interesting. My neighbor makes soap and she recently started homebrewing. I grow hops so I wonder if she could make me some hop scented soap.
I just googled this up, there are several sites with info and places to order materials. Look at their stuff on cold process soapmaking. You need oils and lye. The simplest oils to use are lard and olive oil, although I use canola since it is similar to olive in terms of fatty acid composition. You’ll need to find a source of lye, there are several online places to get it and I don’t recall where I got my last stuff but I still have quite a bit.
You could also do a melt-and-pour soap, they sell that at craft/hobby stores like Michaels or Hobby Lobby. You can just melt, add your brewing adjuncts and pour into molds. That would be a lot simpler and less work than the cold process.
De Proefbrouwerij makes an “Agent Provacateur” soap that has cascade (pellets?) added to it. Smells GREAT. Hops are an excellent addition to soap, and don’t forget they’re antimicrobial (right? or is it anti-something else?)
I’ve been making my own soap for 5 years. Stupid simple to do it to. I’ve both cooked soap and used the cold-process method- which I prefer. Alcohol and sugars can have odd effects when added to soap. Pellet hops ought to work well. Spent grain might be a little scratchy and prone to going mouldy in soap.
Here’s some pics of a batch that was made in November last year.
Here’s a link to a calculator that I use: http://www.thesage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php
Euge, you need to start a new topic somewhere and give us a rundown of how you make soap. I’m interested in your process.
Euge do you use a stick blender to emulsify yours? And how much excess oil do you use in your recipe? I made so much soap a few years ago that I still haven’t gone through it all. One of my favorites was oatmeal milk and honey, made a very nice golden color. I used baby food oatmeal.
OK
Yes and I have experience with milk and honey and even sugar. Would like to discuss this.
Started a thread about soapmaking: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=7679.0
I thought the same thing. 
I am making my first batch this weekend. Baking the grain on a low setting for around 7 hours drys it out to prevent mold buildup.
OK, now that’s hardcore!
I’ve started making my own beard oil with the hop oils from http://hopmybeer.com - I call it “Hop on my Face”
Nothing beats smelling like hops first thing in the morning 
Nice. My beard oil smells of north western forest and sawdust.
Two years ago I built new trellises for my hops and came into a lot of contact with the bines while training them up the trellis. Half an hour or so later I had hives over 3/4 of my body. I won’t be using hops soap.
Interesting how old threads get revived.
I made a batch of soap with hops a while back. The hops oxidized and turn the soap brown and there was zero hops aroma (I used cascade pellets). The soap turned out fine and the hops made it nice and exfoliating, but otherwise it was a waste of hops. I think you would have to use concentrated oil to get some aroma.
You gotta be careful putting organic material in your soap such as leaves or fruit or the like. It can get moldy as previously mentioned.
I haven’t had this problem using oatmeal or dried basil flowers for their scrubbing properties, but I keep the amounts fairly low.