Label Removal Thread

[TVarmy]

I just tried baking soda and a nylon scrubber. Worked great. I used one box in five gallons of hot water (got a little overexcited while shaking it out of the box, I guess).

I was cleaning some bottles from the Sam Adam's Brewmaster Collection (variety pack) and some Sierra Nevada Torpedo bottles. The Sam Adam's labels needed a few minutes to soak (and the foil lined Boston Ale needed to be scrubbed off piece by piece). The Torpedo bottles let go of the label easily, but left behind a milky white residue, which scrubbed off equally well as the clear residue on the Sam Adam's bottles.

I wash my bottles in the dishwasher to sanitize them, so I didn't bother with rinsing. There was a little bit of baking soda residue when they dried, but that will dissolve right away when cleaning. Baking soda is a salt, after all.

[pnohe]

oxiclean soak in the tub...never fails

[Josephbrew]

I will not recommend using the dishwasher to remove the labels. The dishwasher will get damaged. For labels removal Oxiclean + hot water works good; some labels are very easy and my favorite bottles are from Wernesgruner, Bud American Ale, Sierra Nevada, Sam Adams and Red Stripe. Unfortunately Red Stripe paint is impossible to remove?

[Monty420th]

with the bottles I use, Sam Adams, I just soak with warm water over night, come home from work...they seem to peel off just fine and then I use a magic pad and get rid of any film from the glue. Take an extra 3 minutes for the 12 pack but seems to work fine this way

[Marsdude]

My favorite bottles, so far, are from Odell's and Deschutes. The labels come off easily and I really like the design of the bottles.

[upperNY01brewer]

Ive found at least for me that a combination of bleach and baking soda in hot water work wonders on label removal. Ive got a bucket that I use just for that purpose. Place the bottles, usually about 8 or so fit in the bucket with about 3 oz. of bleach and 3-4 oz of baking soda topped off with hot water and within the hour most labels are floating or are very easy to remove. I then remove the bottles and remove the remaining glue with a kitchen scrubbing pad. Best part is you can continue using the water with the mix in it with some more bottles by just adding more hot water and abit less of the bleach/baking soda mix.

[JakeTheHopDog]

The wife tried Oxi Clean last night. She's making a collage of beer bottle labels, so she wants them in good shape. She’s tried everything and finally tried Oxi Clean. Soaked the bottles for 5-10 minutes in hot Oxi Clean, spun the bottles in the solution, and the labels came right off. She’s convinced.

[deprecated]

I've had pretty good luck with just hot water and stainless steel brillo type pad.

Left Hand Brewing bottles are the exception. Love their beer, hate their glue.

[JakeTheHopDog]

Wife’s using Oxi Clean, which works great, but it is messing up the label from Bells Two Hearted Ale. It’s taking the red right out of the label. She’s making a collage of beer labels and this one is ugly without the red, it's just green.

Any ideas?

[TVarmy]

Jake, I'd suggest she try very hot water and see if it comes off in about an hour. If that doesn't work, baking soda might work, but it's alkaline like Oxyclean, so maybe the red ink is soluble in alkaline chemicals.