# cragglemieSTer's Homebrew from start ongoing.



## cragglemieSTer

Right guys, many people have dabbled in the world of homebrew. 
The Bouncer, ODK and Rubbish Boys among others have very detailed threads of their own within Detailing World.

These have inspired me to have a crack at it myself.

I'm going to use this thread to document my progress and share with you from the start and see where it takes me. 

Ive researched a lot and gained some knowledge, spoken with certain people (probably annoyed them a little too  ) inc current known wax developers, professional chemists etc and have put together a few recipes that should produce a lovely wax.

This is literally the beginning. 
On Friday i ordered everything I need and will update with pics shots and progress as the brew turns to reality.

Hope you guys can share the ride with me :thumb:


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## camerashy

In the meantime could you list the items you have bought please.
What sized pots did you go for and are they glass ones
Thanks
Dave


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## cragglemieSTer

I've bought carnauba, beeswax, candelilla wax, white spirit, powder wax dye, scent, main solvent and a preservative to help shelf life. 
The pots I've purchased are initially 50ml sauce pots with lids along with a couple 100 ml screw top plastic pots all sourced on the bay.

I have my main recipe that will include all of the above however initially I shall be using some of the above to test mixing and cooling methods and to see each ingredients effects the end result.


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## cragglemieSTer

I shall also leave the colouring and scent to the last stage. I bought them now because I won't want to wait when that stage comes around lol.


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## Sicskate

This is all new to me, so I'll just sit and await your progress. 

Sorry I can't offer any advice


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## cragglemieSTer

Haha no worries. It's a learning for me too mate. Just wanna share and document it as I go but, I'm determined to end up with something epic.


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## Jonnybbad

sounds like you have already done some homework hope it works out well


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## cragglemieSTer

Thanks bud I have been for last 3-4 months I rekon


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## cragglemieSTer

Right little update,

all the ingredients for the recipe i have ordered have arrived YAY :thumb:

Decided to crack on a have a play.

Original plan was to leave colour and scent out of the equation until i have fully played and tested with the raw ingredients. Unfortunately, eagerness got the better of me but im glad i did include these as i beleive i may be taking the wrong route with these steps. From now they will be excluded.

I measure out the ingredients and kept everything seperate except the combo of wax flakes.










Added the wax flakes to the pyrex and started the heat to allow for these to melt and start blending




























At this point the colour addition had started to take over










Looks cool but too early to be playing with these things.

Solvent was added and mixed then poured into my sample pots to set









This was left overnight and this morning decided to give the wax the classic CD test.

The wax was easy to transfer to an applicator and spread very easy. Cure times are a little longer than i would like so tweaking will be required here.

Beading can also be improved however the run off abilities seem promising :thumb:






Time to slap a layer on the car and see what happens, in the mean time i shall be playing with tweaks in the recipe to see what we can improve.

Ill be back with a rundown of batch 2
:wave:


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## Liam_Kotula

Really looking forward to seeing the progress you make on this as you well know i will be having a dabble soon.... once I've got my car out the Garage and paid for lol.... keep up the good work man!


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## JacobDuBois

Keen to see what you make of this, have subbed and will definately be following as I've quite fancied the idea of testing the waters of home brewing.


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## cragglemieSTer

Update on Batch 2 and 3 coming tomorrow :thumb:


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## cragglemieSTer

ok so update is later than planned, work is hectic at the moment so sorry for that.

anyway, progressed with batch 2. this time i decided to take scent a colour out if the equation and focus on the raw recipe. Changed a few ratios and brewed.










And this is what she looked like straight from the pour.









Then as usual colour change once started to set.










Applied well but took a long time to cure which wasnt what i wanted however beading was generally ok from the CD test.










also realised the purple cds are better for this lol

Batch 3 saw further tweaking of the recipe. after chatting with a couple of people i decided it wont harm to chuck colour and scent back into the mix. This batch came out smelling of bubblegum and a blue tone. wasn't the blue I was expecting but was blue none the less lol
Here it is set next to batch 2










CD test again showed good beading on this also.










I got thinking about oils. The recipe didnt have any oils so i ordered myself a bottle off ebay.I hate waiting and curiosity got the better of me so i managed to find some pure olive oil. thought why not brew with a bit of this in it lol.
Cure time was still long however it had a much better feel to it. Spread really well. This confirmed the need for oil to be present in my recipe.
Came out looking like this.










Again CD bead test










I didnt want to use olive oil but rather something a little different. Mrs went out and ended up coming back with a bottle of sesame coconut and 2 other oils in one bottle designed for hair. Knew it would be pointless but hey its fun lets brew a batch with this badboy in it.
The last recipe if you recall had olive oil in. this was directly substituted for this wonderful concoction the mrs found and nothing else was changed. The difference is amazing. The wax came out super hard. Lesson learnt, the wrong oil or ingredient can really kill your wax.
It looked like this.


















Managed to do a CD test and it worked pretty well






So my delivery from the bay finally arrives whoop.










Now i can really make the recipe ive had in mind for days but didnt have the ingredients to make.
Batch 6 was brewed. Looked like this cooling,










Consistancy was great, easy spread. CD test saw the cure time down to around 8 mins (in house temps).

Beading looks like this. They are huge because i kept on spraying lol










Did a little spray test vid






This is getting somewhere now. I'm liking the progress. Time to have a play even further and see how much more i can improve this recipe and try to get a layer on the bloomin car.

Thanks for reading :wave:


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## cipriani

Well done looking like a big improvement on the final water test. Is that Sunflower oil you got?


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## cragglemieSTer

No bud it's not sunflower oil it's coconut bud.


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## cipriani

Ah ok, the coconut oil I use is solidified


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## cragglemieSTer

Finally Sunday batch 7 will be on the car along with an update


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## JayOW

Just a little tip, When adding the scent, depending on what is used to make that scent, this can alter the wax drastically and sometimes stop it setting altogether, so If you have a blend that works without any scent prepare for it to change again when you add the scent to it! if its a totally natural scent these are usually ok but if its a chemical based scent these can cause problems!


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## cipriani

Same goes for dyes as I found out


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## JayOW

cipriani said:


> Same goes for dyes as I found out


Depends if your using liquid or candle or powder dyes...


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## cipriani

I found that some of the oil based dyes react with exxsol, gave a strange smell and the wax solidified and cracked. On a recipe known to work


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## JayOW

Yeah your best off trying to limit the amount of liquids added to a blend...if there is an alternative then it's worth a shot.


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## cragglemieSTer

Great input there. Much appreciated bud


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## cragglemieSTer

So today i managed to get a layer on the car,
The car was washed but the bonnet was clayed and pre wax cleansed.
I applied my wax to half the bonnet and a sample from ODK to the passenger side for durability comparison.










As the waxes were applied a few mins apart once mine had cure( roughly 10 mins due to being cold) i buffed mine off leaving the ODK on the passenger side










Left a nice glossy shine to the paintwork.

ODK then cured and buffed that off too










Managed to get the PW on it and checked beading and sheeting abilities.






Also grabbed some beading pics after.





































Im happy how this has performed so far. There is always room to improve.
Going to try to add scent and colouring to see how this affects the recipe.

All feedback welcome.


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## JayOW

Looks very glossy and good beading... 10min cure time is about right in this weather... if it cures faster in needs to be very easy to remove just in case it's left longer... keep up the good works...looks promising so far!


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## cragglemieSTer

Appreciate the feedback buddy. im happy with the current results. just wish it would rain more lol

Hopefully now i can play with colouring and scent and see what effect this has to the wax itself.


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## cragglemieSTer

Well its been a while since i last posted but its a busy time of year.
Anyway, managed to get my scent and colouring ordered and added a slight tweak to the recipe which has helped develop better beading.
Heres the pics

Freshly poured,










Starting to set,



















Nicely Set,



















Lovely slick oily consistency. Spreads very easily. 2 swipes covered my bonnet.

was dark by the time i managed to apply to the car so only got a few CD bead shots atm.


















Very happy how this has turned out so far.:thumb:
More yet to come.

Thanks for looking.


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## cragglemieSTer

Some exciting news to come in early 2015, will announce more info when I'm able to but things have progressed very well indeed. :thumb:


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## cipriani

Interested to see what you've come up with. I'm playing with scents and colours just now, quite tricky.


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## cragglemieSTer

Ok so, continued to tweak the blend. Changed quite dramatically over the course of time. This is the latest blend results.

After blending and set,










Car freshly washed, clayed and wax prepped car.
Applied single layer of the wax and allowed to cure for 10 mins. 
Easily removed with a plush microfibre.

Here is the gloss level left behind,










The the beading that has resulted since applying,



















Few final tweaks then ready for release. :thumb:


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## cragglemieSTer

A couple of further tweaks here,


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## cragglemieSTer

Managed to apply to the car and grab some beading and sheeting. compiled into a vid for ease lol.


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## Mikej857

Very impressive


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## cragglemieSTer

Thanks buddy


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## billy...

Very nice man, went and ordered some stuff to give it ago myself because of this


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## Bigoggy

Looking good crags


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## cragglemieSTer

Thanks guys,
Still not 100% on the blend, have been tweaking and tweaking, there are a still yet more tweaks to complete and ill post up further progress. 
Currently I have a tweaked version on my spoiler. 
Spread like a dream and buffed like a dream even in 2 degree temps. Cured within 10 mins. Further tweaks to improve durability yet are needed.
This was off this mornings dew.


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## cragglemieSTer

couple more after a 2 min rain. wax brewing makes you appreciate rain a little more lol
Poor phone pics


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## cragglemieSTer

And one last pic grabbed from a slightly different tweak which was applied to my old mans bonnet.


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## cragglemieSTer

Still chugging along with this. undergone several revisions since i last posted.
Tried to improve the beading. it beaded very well anyway but wanted some rounder beads. 
Conducted a durability test on my daily driven car. Protection lasted 3 months which is what i aimed for when i started. Just awaiting a new scent to arrive in then it will complete.
heres some pics,


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## percymon

Beading looks very good - on par with the Zymol Ital I have on for the winter


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## cragglemieSTer

percymon said:


> Beading looks very good - on par with the Zymol Ital I have on for the winter


Wow that's an amazing compliment. Many thanks mate.


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## magpieV6

Jesus wept, that looks bloody impressive ! Nice work. 

When will you be releasing, I want to try it!


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## percymon

cragglemieSTer said:


> Wow that's an amazing compliment. Many thanks mate.


Beading like that deserves praise mate, thats all .

This was Ital one wash after application as a comparison..


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## cragglemieSTer

That's cracking percymon!
I love beading . Had to make a wax that beaded well. 
Appreciate the feedback I managed to


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## cragglemieSTer

Made a home made wooden pot for an experiment.


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## CrookyMonster

i am loving that wood  how did you do that pot ?


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## cragglemieSTer

Old fence post cut and milled on a wooden lathe. It's only pine wood so far to soft for practical use. I'm going to use oak for my next attempt.


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## cragglemieSTer

Scents! 
Can't decide


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## Supermario

Based on the light cream colour from above I'd recommend something like a sandlewood smell, goes hand in hand with the colour IMO :thumb:

Keep it up very interested in this been tracking for a while


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## cragglemieSTer

Supermario said:


> Based on the light cream colour from above I'd recommend something like a sandlewood smell, goes hand in hand with the colour IMO :thumb:
> 
> Keep it up very interested in this been tracking for a while


not a bad call that to be fair. I had french vanilla in mind, however the manufacturer obviously has a different idea of french vanilla to what i have lol.

Ive ordered a few samples to test with. hopefully should be here soon.


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## WAZ92

So.... Let's start off with I don't do many reviews but I had to do one for this one for Craig as a massive thank you for letting my try one of his beautiful waxes out!
Received a wax from Craig to try out on my little beast and how could I say no?
Done the usual two bucket method along with claying and a very slight correction with my trusty Das 6 pro using 105&205. 
Now the wax its self was a oily and nice soft wax. Very easy to spread and had a beautiful scent that was like marzipan to me. It had a typical show wax consistency and that's just perfect in my eyes! 
The wax went on very smooth, I waxed a panel at a time a left to cure for a few minutes. As with most good waxes a little goes a long way spreading with my auto finesse wax mate.......
Now anyone who knows me knows I love i good show wax and this is beautiful.
It gave a beautiful wet look gloss to my white VW paint. I hope my pictures can do this justice.
Spraying with a spritzer bottle she had lovely little beads that are always nice to see! Sheeting was very good also as you can see from the video. (Need to grab this from my camera ASAP) 
I'm very impressed so far with just the looks but will update with durability over the next month or two to let you know how it gets on. 
Once again a massive thanks to Craig for giving me the opportunity to try out one of his waxes. 
Big thumbs up from me. 
Well done dude. I like it. 
Pictures bellow.


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## Supermario

Eager to try this out Craig!

Any news when this will possibly be finished/released?

:thumb:


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## cragglemieSTer

Final test blend out for review with field testers. Had some amazing feedback and a couple pics 
which ill upload tonight.


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## Treganin

Fascinated by this, as a complete detailing noob the results look fantastic and this could be incentive I need to try my had at using wax! 

I going to subscribe to the thread and will follow with interest. Will look out for a release date and prices.

Does the colouring have a beneficial effects or is it 'just' for show?

Would adding a black colourant work better on a black car for example? What would make the wax better for a black/white/metallic/pearlescent car for example?


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## cragglemieSTer

Colour of the wax is purely an attractant to the purchaser and has no effect on the wax results.
I'll jump on the pc and upload the results


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## Dannbodge

That's awesome progress.
Have you tried to make a purple one?


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## cragglemieSTer

Yep I have made a purple, came it fairly dark but that's fairly easily fixed


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## cragglemieSTer

Here they are


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## Treganin

cragglemiester said:


> here they are


wow!!


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## Pittsy

I have just stumbled across this thread and i am amazed, great work fella :thumb:
I knew alot of work goes into developing waxes but am suprised at how much.
the thing that struck me was the difference in beading on the CD tests with just a small tweek with the ingredients.
I love to see some good beading action and what you are producing is up there, keep at it fella will be watching with interest :thumb:


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## cragglemieSTer

Thanks guys indeed one minor tweak can complete change a wax. That's surprised me the most to be honest.
Have a couple beading shots off the White focus st from the previous page coming up


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## cragglemieSTer

Natural rain beads on roof


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## cragglemieSTer

curiosity used today for this beauty for a pre show season detail, image sent to me via facebook and lost a little detail 










Blend is officially complete :thumb:


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## cragglemieSTer

Owner of the Audi previously posted offered some more feedback today


"Hey man, quick update with wax.. I've now washed the car 4 times since its last wax which was the weekend before.. still an effortless job and no dirt or grime sticks to the paintwork at all.. paint is smooth and still has an amazing gloss .. Water beading is tremendous even after 4 washes.. seems a very durable wax .. can't wait to try the next one"

:thumb:


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## Mikej857

Sounds and looks like you've cracked it with this blend Craig


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## Supermario

What scent did you decide on in the end Craig?


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## cragglemieSTer

Black cherry mate
Smells like almonds


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## magpieV6

Craig is this the wax I have a sample of? 

When are you thinking of releasing it? I'm deffo going to buy a pot


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## cragglemieSTer

It is indeed dawn. Hope you liked it :thumb:
Be interesting to see the results on the clio (s) haha you have so many


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## magpieV6

Ooooh, might have to give it a going over tonight! What's the expected durability?


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## cragglemieSTer

3-4 months tho has had longer from provisional tests


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## magpieV6

Finally got round to giving this wax a little some play time, glad I did.

Ok so I only got around to giving the front end some wax as my mate wanted to go home, lol.

Firstly, the smell. I luckily absolutely adore Cherry scent so it had a good start! It's a nice medium texture that swipes out nice & easy, spreads very nicely on it's own (I usually like to spritz the pad before applying but wasn't needed here)

I applied it to the bonnet, front bumper & wings and came off with ease. (Was talking too so was on easily for a good 5 mins)

Left a lovely slick feel to the paint, great gloss too and my car smelt awesome!

I look forward to rain tomorrow, failing that I may be inclined to wash her later! 

From what I've seen of the water behaviour on this wax, and now having used it I think it will sell well & I for one will be buying a pot. My wax addiction is growing again!

Lovely wax Craig, cheers for allowing me the chance to try it. It will be put on the ph1 as soon as I get her home! 

Really rubbish pic, sorry!


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## Sicskate

I like the pots, they look like the black and whites hair wax pots


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## magpieV6

Any news on this ?


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## cragglemieSTer

for further info see the ODK manufacturer section. Thanks guys


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## Hufty

Hey Craig I bought one of the pots and it was great to read this thread to see the development. Loving your work man!


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## cragglemieSTer

Thanks Hufty, appreciate the support buddy.


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