Tips for removing labels and that sticky glue?

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jarrodaden

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Any veterans want to share any tricks they know for quick and easy ways to remove labels AND the sticky glue residue from store bought beer bottles?
 
It depends significantly on the brand, but I've found that a round or two of PBW followed by StarSan seems to make pretty much everything scrub off easily.
 
I soak in OxiClean Free for a day or so, and the majority of labels come right off. I then scrub at the glue with a sponge to get any remaining residue.

Any bottles that still have labels after this (very few) aren't worth the time, so I just recycle them.
 
Soak in hot water and baking soda for an hour or so and the labels will slide right off. The glue will usually come off with a dish towel if the water is still warm. I just did a batch of 70 bottles in my tub. Turned out nice and clean and baking soda is cheap so I dumped in an entire box.
 
Most people use Oxyclean, I currently use 2-3 tablespoons of ammonia in bucket of water. With the 5-6 bottles, most labels slide off in a matter of hours.
 
if nothing else works, or if you need to remove lables that are usually plastered all over used corney kegs, get some spray on paint stripper from home despot. takes everything right off.
 
Warm oxyclean UNSCENTED and about an hour soak. Most labels (especially Duvel and Bell's) come right off. Others, (I'm looking at you, North Coast Brewing Co.) are a PITA to get off. Either way, a steel pot scrubber takes off the glue residue.
 
Jumping on the oxiclean free bandwagon here. Soak overnight, then a hot water rinse for the stubborn glue residue that remains.
 
Hot PBW and a green scrub pad! Mostly you need to melt the glue with warm/hot water, them the PBW does a pretty good job of dissolving the gum. Just remember to rinse in hot water as well.
 
Hot PBW and a green scrub pad! Mostly you need to melt the glue with warm/hot water, them the PBW does a pretty good job of dissolving the gum. Just remember to rinse in hot water as well.

Another "PBW" reference. This noob brewer has no idea what that is.
 
Basically Oxyclean or something similar. The stuff is a brewer's best friend... Well, after beer, of course!

"All your home brew are belong to us!"
 
1 -Soak in warm water
2 -Take butter knife and remove labels
3 -Remove glue with a Magic Eraser. (The Magic Eraser is awesome for removing glue residue)
 
Totally depends on the type of label the brewery uses. Most use "cold glue" and those are the simple ones that are removed by the oxyclean hot water method. Other breweries use a "pressure sensitive" label and the glue on those can't be removed with oxyclean, elbow grease, magic erasers, goo gone, etc. Once you run into a brewery that uses the "pressure sensitive" type just remember not to try to remove those labels.
 
If I soak a bottle overnight in oxiclean and I don't find the label floating (or nearly falling off) in the morning, that bottle goes in the recycle bin and I take a mental note of what brand it is. Some places use a non-water soluble glue.
 
I use a simple heat gun at work to remove 98% of labels
then your cleaner of choice for the leftover glue.
 
When I was first collecting bottles waiting for my brew kit to come in,I used a homer cheapo bucket with enough PBW (Powdered Brewer's Wash) to cover 12-13 bottles by 2" or so. An overnight soak makes the labels float off,& dissolve the glue or make it very soft. A bottle brush & dobie make quick work of them after that. Rinse & onto the bottle tree to dry before storing in covered boxes.
 
Ok I think I can give some usefull advice as I reuse both beer bottles & wine bottles.
MOST beer bottle labels will come off with hot water and your choice of cleaner/sanitizer (I use bleach).

Stubborn labels (harpoon for one) require a green scubby, or at worst steel wool.

For wine bottles I soak and strip with green scrubby or steel wool - then use "goof off" to remove adhesive.
Aftrer goof off I do the bleach sanitation process. I immagine some difficult bottle labels will require this.

I hope this helps you out.
 
Goo be gone followed by soak in bleach. If you"re too cheap for goo be gone wd-40 peels them off even easier but is harder to clean up
 
I have a rubbermaid tote that i fill with water and 3 gallons of ammonia. bottles come out totally clean. it takes off the plastic clear labels too.
 
I have used just straight hot water/dish soap and let them sit for 30-45 min. I have had a couple labels take a little bit of elbow grease, but nothing to discourage me from giving up and paying $15 for another case of bottles from my LHBS. I'm a firm believer is reusing when possible so I'll take the time to clean off all my stubborn labels.
 
Olive oil, soap, and hot water and let it stay over night. If they dont slide off a green scrub thing works great.
 
Another "PBW" reference. This noob brewer has no idea what that is.


If I remember correctly, Oxyclean is very similar to PBW, but more readily available and a lot cheaper. In my experiences, PBW is more effective at everything it does, but because it costs more, I'll use less frequently.

All my beer bottles don't have labels any more, but I still de-label wine bottles. I use a 15 gallon rubbermaid storage container, dump in about two and a half scoops of oxyclean, and around 12 gallons of hot water. Then I'll put in as many bottles as can remain covered by the water and leave it sit overnight. The next day, about half of the bottles will just drop the label, the other will require varying degrees of effort to remove them. For the ones that don't simply wipe off, I have a razor scraper to remove the label and a small piece of an old green scrubby that takes off any glue residue. If I have more bottles, I'll reuse the solution. Doesn't HAVE to be hot, just seems to work better when it is.
 
Oxyclean overnight then I deal with labels depending on level of difficulty to deal with:
Easy to remove labels: Will have fallen right off. Awesome.
Medium to remove labels: Use a bit of scotchbrite (green scrubby thing).
Difficult labels: Scrape with utility knife and soak some more. Then hit it with the scotchbrite again.
 
I just did my first batch of 60 bottles. I used dawn with bleach alternative in a tub full of hot water. In an hour the labels were falling right off and i just went through with a .99 cent fingernail brush. Was real easy and took about an hour and a half all together.
 
I tried a couple different ways. Bleach didn't work hardly at all for me. Ammonia worked for me but wasn't exactly cheap in the quantity I was using. Baking Soda was mediocre at best and left residue which may be a problem unless you're running the bottles through the dishwasher. Any old oil (vegetable, canola, etc) will work to get the adhesive off if you're willing to scrub the paper off first but that's more work than I'm willing to invest. I've not bought Oxyclean in ages but Wal-Mart has a generic one that's about $1.50 a pound although the name escapes me at the moment and it works pretty well (can't tell any difference between it and Oxyclean). Recently I've been using "LAs Totally Awesome Power Oxygen Base Cleaner" of the Chlorine free variety and I can't tell the difference between it and the above Oxy clone performance-wise and I get it in 2 pound containers at the local Dollar Tree for only $1.
 
Mop sink full of super hot water + scoop of Oxiclean = 90% label removal by morning. The other 10% get a putty knife. All get a quick scrub with a blue scouring pad, followed by a rinse inside and out. Then onto the bottle tree.

Sidenote: The process of submerging the bottles was painful due to the hot water, until I bought a pair of Blichman brewers gloves.
 
I concur that most bottles will give up the label with just a good soaking in hot water, followed by a little elbow grease(EG) for the residual glue. I also collect bottles from a hot wing joint that gets some 24 ounce bottles from the local brewpub. Those labels are a PITA, they have the plastic over them. I have read that there is two kinds of glue, water based, and rubber based. The labels that come off easy are water based, the PITA ones rubber based. For the PITA labels I have found that if I first peel of the plastic, then soak them in hot water for a few minutes to get the paper part of the label off, then put some cheap vegetable oil on a piece of steel wool, with a little bit of EG the glue come right off.
 
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