# warning about pre-batching.



## a4patch (Oct 7, 2009)

We are working hard to keep up with demand. We decided to pre-batch our oils. My husband weighted and melted the oil in our large pot. Our scales will only go to a certain weight around 10-12 lbs. Over that weight we have to measure it into a separate container and transfer it to the large pot. (the pot is so big we can not see the read out if the pot sits on the scales.) DH then transferred the oil to a 6 gallon bucket. I then came home and we made the premeasured oils to soap by adding them back to the pot and warming them up (cool day and the oils had lost their clarity from cooling)

The batches came up short and not quite tall enough. 

I believe each time we transferred the batch (340 oz batches) we lost a small amount of oil. 

I really need to come up with better system. I like the idea of pre batching, but need a better way to do this.

Suggestions welcome.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

I keep my barrels premelted and new starting when it gets here, my sunflower, safflower and my olive oils will be premixed in it's own barrel. Using the floor scale I simply pump out my oils into the 3.5 gallon buckets I soap in, in as many buckets as I am going to soap that evening...adding coconut oil and then my 1 of my 3 butters (cocoa and mango which go in only a few recipes still stays in the soap room and are melted in the microwave) Shea is melted this time of year without heat. 

By pumping exactly the same base recipe each time, except for one 100% olive oil bar/loofah, and one 100% coconut oil bar (which I always put them into their own bucket with the name of the soap on the outside, so no confusing that way, I am never confused on what I have done and what I haven't. I also have levels of each oil drawn in lines in each bucket, so I can stop pushing in the handle so hard when the level starts getting close to the weight...and full lines also, so I know I made a mistake if it didn't get to the top. I then lug them across the yard from my husbands shop to the soap room two at a time  Even with the new soaproom that part of my soaping has to stay like that, I keep telling myself the exercise and sweating keeps me young!

Not only does looking through sites like that helps you see layouts, what you would do and what you don't, but visit as many places in person (that will allow you) to see folks actually doing it. Vicki

I would not want to be melting several batches of oils and butters together unless I had a commercial vat that kept everything warm and stirred....check out soapequipment.com and even then who is filling that vat for her? Vicki


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

I've always suspected/known that. When mixing up a batch that will go for multiple batches I do like Vicki said.....the percentages of all the oils in the pot are the same as what my base recipe is. Then if I want to make a 32 bar batch I know to take out 60 ounces of oil and my scale can handle that with the pot.


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## a4patch (Oct 7, 2009)

I am not sure how I will do this, we are still working through. I have to have a pot that is at least 12 inches in diameter to avoid getting the motor in the soap. The buckets in our area that are 3.5 gallons or 4 gallons do not have this diameter. 

I will need to probably get a new HB or multiple pans.


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## Dorit (Apr 20, 2011)

I'm new so take this for what its worth: I do the Walmart and pre melt the crisco and coconut oil and pour into an empty bucket. When ready to soap I weigh out my oz. I always make an additional pound to cover what is left in the pan, utensills, etc so that the last batch is not short. I add the oo at soaping bc often I use herbs infused in the oo. Dorit


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Mine are orange Home Depot 3.5 gallon buckets and are 11 and 1/2 inches across. Yep you need a better stick blender  You can order buckets of all sizes, 8 , 9 , 10 gallon, anything on line. Uline.com has a bunch of buckets.

And you all can't just make this up as you go, adding more oils or guessing that your coconut oil is dispersed good enough that when you pour your first batch out of multiple pours of oils that it's close enough...each has their own lye amount they need. I would rethink this whole idea of multiple master batches mixed together and then poured out separately.....oils with the same sap value are fine, but not the others.

Was that a typo Dorit, because if you are using Crisco and soft oils, because Crisco is nothing but soybean oil, that is the reason for your brittle soap and breaking edges. Crisco is not a butter like Lard, it is only butter consistency because it has been hydrogenated.


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## a4patch (Oct 7, 2009)

HD...the one place I have not looked. We have looked all over.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Do you know somebody who is successfully doing master batches of all their oils and butters like you are trying to do (without a melter and stirrer). Vicki


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## a4patch (Oct 7, 2009)

Most of the soapers I know do not make large batches. I know of one guy that makes 100 bars also at a time, the same as ours. But i do not think he does master batches.


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

I only do it when I'm making several smaller batches on the same day. The oils gets stirred before taking any out. I worry too much about them not being equally dispersed to do it on a large scale. It certainly would be nice though.


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## Faye Farms (Sep 14, 2009)

I master batch but I always give my oils a good stir every time I pour out a batch. In the winter I need to remelt the master batch if I don't get to soaping everything the same day. During the summer my master batch stays liquid enough that I can just give it a good stir and soap. When you master batch you always have to figure a little extra as that last batch will always be short. I don't think there is any way around that other than measuring out every single batch in it's own bucket.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

That is what I mean Peggy. I pour 72 bars at once (into 2 log molds) one scent, but everything is premixed into one bucket only. I also do not understand why you would be shy the last molds, you are then shorting your cure weight you are guaranteeing on your labels. I also don't understand how it is faster to lift all that weight, why not just use multiple buckets with exactly one scent in each bucket.

I just did my oils for tonight. I have 4 buckets out there ready to go, 3 of them will pour 3 different scents into two log molds each, that will cut 72 bars of 3 different scents, the last bucket will pour 1 slab mold and 1 log mold cutting 60 bars in two scents... I will pour my Just Soap tonight into one and then scent and dump oatmeal in the rest of the batch to pour OMH. I simply put the first mold on the scale, tare it and pour my soap in by weight...repeat without having to tare, this way there is no guessing visual on how full the mold is, it is accurate to weight...using a spatula to get the last soap out of the bucket leaves no soap behind.

To master batch all that into one container is huge amounts per night, I couldn't possibly lift it all, but I can lift individual buckets holding each pour. And more importantly I can pour them by myself.

I have tried all sorts of multiples, 2 logs, 1 slab, and once that 5 gallon bucket starts getting to full, I splash, I so prefer to soap in 3.5 gallon buckets. Or I have to pour the first one with the mold on the floor...the 7 gallon bucket fiasco should have been on video....so 72 bars is my top, which is nicely 2 of my molds filled for logs, or 3 of my molds poured for slabs with textured or swirled tops. It still gets me to my numbers I need to be soaping 4 nights a week, around 300 this time of year, until the kids are weaned and milkers are dry. I would also bet it is faster to do it with multiple buckets rather than one large one. I also am old, and getting older by the moment


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

I can make 96 bars at a time in the kelsie vicki molds but NEVER combine the oils. They all go in seperate pots. I have to seperate them anyway to add various scents and whatnots, but I do them all at the same time. Since I line my molds on the bottom I can't add scent or herbs or whatever in the mold so they need to go in buckets or pails anyway. I've tried doing two batches in one pot and then seperating them out to make different soaps but I never came out better like that. Or, are you making 100 bars of the same type? I guess that would be a different story.


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## a4patch (Oct 7, 2009)

Yes, 100 bars of the same type. 

I am not sure I made it clear that the shortage is in transferring the oils from container (pan, bucket, back to pan) and not a shortage of the soap. Each time he transferred it to a new container, I think he lost some of the oil. (which probably made the lye off too.)


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