It’s a big day for our little soap company! Yep… we bought in bulk.You may be asking yourself, “why is that important?”Well,It translate into lower pricing for you, our customers!
Brewers are always faced with the question, “What do I do with my spent grain?” If you are anything like us, we hate to throw it away. So, we’ve provided you with some alternatives to keeping that spent grain out of the landfill.
Compost: Most cities have a compost program where a company will pick up compost for you. If not, start a compost yourself if you have the space in your backyard. Your garden will thank you.
Dog Treats: As long as these grains haven’t come into contact with hops, you’re good to go. (Hops are toxic to dogs.) Dry the grain out (instructions here,) add some peanut butter and BAM... doggy treat heaven!
Bake With Them: You can make bread, pretzels, or pizza crust out of them. It’s high in fiber and protein.
Bathe With Them: Add it to your handmade soap. We use our spent grain in our Spiced Ale Beer Soap. The spent grain acts as text that helps remove dead skin cells.
We hope this helps you decide what to do with your spent grain!
‘Get Some’ Beer Soap by far is the best smelling beer soap I've ever smelled. It’s scent is pretty damn close to Abercrombie & Fitch's Fierce Cologne. Think grain, cardamom, lemon, orange and fir. YUM!!!
When my husband bathe’s with this beer soap, I always joke with him that he might be ‘gettin’ some’ that night (wink wink)!
To top off this amazing scented soap, we add homegrown cascade hops as an exfoliant. Believe it our not, we grow 11 different varieties of hops in our backyard.
So get a bar of our 'Get Some' IPA Beer Soap and let me know how your evening goes 😳… and while you're at it, try our Tobacco IPAand or Unscented IPA. We’ve also conveniently packaged them in a Three Pack for you!
This is a Public Service Announcement: HOPS ARE TOXIC TO DOGS!!!
We are now a proud owner of an Australian Cattle Dog! His name is Otter…(because he looked like one when he was born) and we’ve added Pop to his name because who in my generation didn’t like Otter Pops?
Otter-Pop is an amazing dog. He’s really good with the kids, especially our one year old. He trains quickly, and hasn’t peed or pooped in the house to date (I just jinxed it!)
As you know we grow and harvest hops. Hops and dogs don’t mix. When a dog ingests hops, the hops can cause Malignant Hyperthermia. That’s two big words for 'your dog can over heat RAPIDLY and die.' If you think your dog has eaten hops, get them to a vet pronto. Your dog may be vomiting, or having seizures.
On brew day, make sure you keep your unused hops away from dogs, and be conscious of spent hops that you may put in your compost. Dogs like those grains, so if you are adding spent hops to the mix, keep your dog away!
If you grow hops, cage them off. We’ve found that our dog LOVES digging them up.
Hey everybody today is our birthday! Not just mine, but Eric’s as well. I know it's kind of weird, huh? Yes, we were born on the same day four-years apart, and it gets even weirder because we met on our birthday. It’s kinda a long story, but here is the synopsis. We were just two teachers working at the same school, that happened to fall in love, get married, have three kids, started brewing beer, then started making soap and the rest was history.
To celebrate our birthday we want to offer FREE SHIPPING through the entire month of January. That means you can buy one bar of soap or 20 bars of soap and they are all shipped to you… FREE! That’s right! FREE!!!!! We also are having a huge sale as well. Check out our SALE tab and you can get an additional 10% off by signing up for newsletter by clicking on the Discount tab!
So.. happy birthday to us means happy birthday to you!
November 28 is the day. All. Day. For every three soaps you buy, you get an additional bar of soap for FREE. All you have to do is tell us your choices in the special instructions at checkout! It's that easy!
So you may be asking yourself... if I buy a three bar gift set, will I get an extra free bar? YUP. If I order a six pack of soap, will I get 2 additional bars for free? YUP, again. The bottom line is: if you buy gift sets or single bars, we just add the total amount of bars in your order and give you an additional free bar for every 3 bars purchased. It's that simple!
So rack up those free bars of soap, think multiples of 3!
There are two main ways to harvest your hops when it is time. You can either pick them off the plant or cut the whole bine down, and then pick them. Each way has their benefits. Below is a description of each that should help you determine which is best for you.
1) Pick The Cones Off The Plant - This technique should DEFINITELY be used if this is your plant’s first harvest. By picking the cones by hand off the plant and waiting for the bines to die, will allow important nutrients to go back into the root system for next years growth.
2) Cut the Bine Down With The Cones On It- This technique should be used on all future harvests. Make sure you cut two to three feet above ground so that the root system doesn’t become injured. Also, be careful not to damage the lupulin (the yellow sticky powder) as you cut the bines down.
And remember, you will need to have a ladder, clean shears, and gloves on hand. Wearing a long sleeve shirt is also important so you don’t get cut by the plant’s sharp barbed hairs!
Sometimes there needs to be a separation between soap and family. In 2014, my awesome Father came up with a brilliant idea. This idea was spurred by the fact that he couldn’t distinguish where my kitchen and living room began and where my soaping ventures ended. Everything was mixed together. “Hey Alyson, have you ever though of getting a soap studio?”
Of course I had, but our business was not making enough money to pay Bay Area rent. Though we had an extra bedroom, our family was expanding, and we needed it for a bedroom! Instantly, we both looked out into the backyard, which at the time was filled with weeds (aka a blank slate to build and grow things on!) To make a REALLLY long story short, by the following Fall, I had my soap studio, empty, but a studio! We went with Casita Shed of Castro Valley,CA to construct the studio. If you look at their prices, it beats the price on any Home Depot / Lowe’s shed by square footage and the labor was included in the cost. The fact that it went up in two days was AWESOME. I recommend them to anyone who has the ability to add one to their backyard! It was so affordable, that we built two… his and her studios… now everyone’s happy! I highly recommend this Bay Area Company. We had a great experience!
