Use KNOX! It's the best label adhesive

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I have done a couple batches with the spray bottle and haven't had any issue with the bottle gumming up or being difficult to clean. When I'm done I put some hottest tap water in the bottle and spray a bit through the nozzle to clean it. I do usually keep it in a bowl of hot water between sprays but i'm not convinced that it's necessary.
 
Has anyone done this on plastic bottles? Does it work as well on them as on glass? Plastic is my standard for cottage/camping, but I use glass for gifts & have only tried on glass so far (XMas 6-packs).

Bryan
 
I'm curious if the labels are tacky once they are dry.. or does it feel like a commercial bottle in your hand?
 
Just like a commercial label. It's awesome! For less than $2.00 at your local grocery store, it is definitely worth your time to try it for yourself. Betcha you'll never look back........
 
Yep, not sticky at all. Just bottle and label, magically affixed as if with glue, except it comes off in hot water.
 
I have found if you get some of the Knox on the glass and not where the label is, it rubs right off after it cools.
 
Awesome...I kind of made some sort've homebrew contribution. Never thought I ever would've posted anything sticky worthy! :mug:

Feel free to PM the mods of this particular forum topic if you want this stickied. I'd do it, but that just kind of feels boastful.
 
Has anyone tried using this as a sealer for sticky labels? I buy full sheet label paper and make my own, but like many of you, my labels get ugly quick. I wonder if this would be a fix. Also, would it work with an ink jet?
 
Don't know about using it as a sealer (seems like it would get a little messy just trying to apply it in that way), but I haven't had a problem using it with ink jet printers just as an adhesive...
 
I just used it and so far it rocks!!!! Yea Yea I know 6.9 ABV isn't an imperial, but I just left it after I printed them.

pumpkinalelabelbottle.jpg
 
Warthaug said:
Has anyone done this on plastic bottles? Does it work as well on them as on glass? Plastic is my standard for cottage/camping, but I use glass for gifts & have only tried on glass so far (XMas 6-packs).

Bryan
Click to expand...

I put labels on 20 PET bottles last night. I used a foam paint brush to wet the bottle and then applied the dry labels to that coating. They stuck well. But, today, I grabbed one from the fridge to check the label and it immediately fell off. I put another labeled bottle that was on the counter under cold water and it, too, fell right off.

I will try again today with a label that is damp with the gelatin solution and see if maybe that will work, but I doubt it, since the labels did soak thru last night after being applied to the bottle. I think the PET is just too dense on the surface, which is why the bottlers use a hot glue of sorts.

I will try mucilage and rubber cement today also.
 
Maybe try making your mixture a little thicker to see if it works better on plastic. I haven't tried it on plastic but I feel like there could be some differences. Mainly, glass doesn't bend at all. I wonder if a simple squeeze of the plastic just dislodges all of the hardened gelatin.

Otherwise this has happened with glass bottles when the gelatin mixture is too thin, or the water used to make the gelatin mixture wasn't near boiling.
 
nonameisgood said:
I put labels on 20 PET bottles last night. I used a foam paint brush to wet the bottle and then applied the dry labels to that coating. They stuck well. But, today, I grabbed one from the fridge to check the label and it immediately fell off. I put another labeled bottle that was on the counter under cold water and it, too, fell right off.

I will try again today with a label that is damp with the gelatin solution and see if maybe that will work, but I doubt it, since the labels did soak thru last night after being applied to the bottle. I think the PET is just too dense on the surface, which is why the bottlers use a hot glue of sorts.

I will try mucilage and rubber cement today also.
Click to expand...
Dammit! I had the same issue with milk. I think the issue is milk/gelatin are rigid once dried, so they don't handle flexible bottles well.

Bryan
 
Last night, I mixed a batch using just enough boiling water. This morning the labels slide off easily. The remainder of the gelation was allowed to set up in the container and was its normal gelatinous self. I'm pretty sure the gelatin us a no go for PET bottles.
 
Brewcrew02 said:
I'm pretty sure this is THE BEST way to label glass bottles. Coolest Shizzy EVAR! THANKS BE TO THE OP!!!!!! :rockin: :rockin::rockin::rockin::rockin:

EDIT: Here ya go...

Beer label using gelatin
Click to expand...

Nice! And here I am still placing the bottles into boiling water! I added your video to the OP.

I have to be honest, I probably wouldn't label beers if this process didn't exist.

nonameisgood said:
Last night, I mixed a batch using just enough boiling water. This morning the labels slide off easily. The remainder of the gelation was allowed to set up in the container and was its normal gelatinous self. I'm pretty sure the gelatin us a no go for PET bottles.
Click to expand...

That's really disappointing to hear, thanks for your efforts on testing this out. I'm sorry that it wasn't successful for PET. I updated the OP to reflect this.
 
nonameisgood said:
Last night, I mixed a batch using just enough boiling water. This morning the labels slide off easily. The remainder of the gelation was allowed to set up in the container and was its normal gelatinous self. I'm pretty sure the gelatin us a no go for PET bottles.
Click to expand...

What about lightly hair drying the tacky label after it set up overnight on the PET
 
Excellent thread! I've been using this method for the last few batches and have had great results. The ink from my ink jet printer still runs a little when they get wet, but they stay on in the cold and come right off when I soak them in a sink of hot water.
I got a little backed up in my labeling and just got done labeling 6 cases (I know, stupid!) and with just ONE packet of Knox. Every time it started to get thick I'd pop it in the microwave for about 20 seconds and it went back to liquid. Took about 90 minutes to do all of it including about 5 minutes drying time in between cases.
Thanks again for the tip!
 
Just a note, if people do want this thread stickied, just shoot a message to the mod. I feel like it's bad form to do it myself.
 
Awesome on two counts! First that sidepart's thread has been "recognized" (well deserved), and second that the project locator thread wasn't a snake! Thats a great collection, and I apparently skimmed past it all the times I've been over to the DIY forum.....:drunk:
 
Although I'm sure gelatin is a good label adhesive, I just use a few drops of white school glue dissolved in a few teaspoons of warm water. The glue is pretty resilient, but the labels come off under a stream of warm water and a $1 container of glue will last thousands of labels.
 
orangehero said:
Although I'm sure gelatin is a good label adhesive, I just use a few drops of white school glue dissolved in a few teaspoons of warm water. The glue is pretty resilient, but the labels come off under a stream of warm water and a $1 container of glue will last thousands of labels.
Click to expand...

Have you tried this on plastic (i.e. soft) bottles? The one limitation of gelatin is it is hard when dried, so on a soft bottle the gelatin cracks, releasing the label.

B
 
Sorry I don't use plastic bottles.

There are two kinds of white glue: the washable school glue and Elmer's Glue-all (Elmer's also has a washable school glue). I've used both and they are very similar, but the glue-all is a little bit more tenacious. The labels still come off under the warm faucet, but you may need to give the bottle a quick scrub with a sponge to get all of the residue off.
 
Tried this last night, using labels that were printed on fairly cheap paper, and using an Ink Jet printer. As of this morning, they look quite good - a couple little ink runs here and there, but not nearly as much as I would've expected. Haven't wetted them yet to test the adhesiveness.

BTW, I found that a natural bristle brush works just fine too - in fact, I think it actually helped the brush! It was always stiff when dry, but after being used for labelling, and a quick rinse in warm water, it feels like a completely different brush!
 
Tested last night - ran under cold water, and the ink in the paper didn't run (it had already run a little when I first applied the label), and the label didn't budge. Ran under hot water, and it came off in about 30 seconds, with no residue. Success!
 
For the record, I picked up a box of the kroger brand gelatin and dissolved one packet in a cup of hot water and stirred until it was clear.

Worked rather well for applying the labels, stayed on in ice water and came right off with a hot rinse.
 
started using this method 2 batches ago and it's AWESOME!! took some bottles on vacation where they sat in an ice bath for about 5-6 days and the labels still stayed on and came off with ridiculous ease in warm water!!! I've used 1 packet for 2 batches now, the best solution out there for labeling, glad I found it!
 
I mainly keg, because bottling is a pain in the ass for the most part, but I do like making labels and such, so I thought I'd give it a whirl!

KNOX is effing awesome as an adhesive for labels..pure genius!!!!

Thank you!!!
 
I am using this method for a batch for my wedding. I have applied about half of the labels to bottles and am running into an issue where if I place a bottle into water, the gelatin begins to become slimey and come off of the bottle/label. Would a second layer help? Would a less diluted mixture work better?

I am using labels that have been laser printed from a copy center and the paper they used feels a little thicker than regular printer paper - not sure if that could play any type of role here.
 
OddNotion said:
I am using this method for a batch for my wedding. I have applied about half of the labels to bottles and am running into an issue where if I place a bottle into water, the gelatin begins to become slimey and come off of the bottle/label. Would a second layer help? Would a less diluted mixture work better?

I am using labels that have been laser printed from a copy center and the paper they used feels a little thicker than regular printer paper - not sure if that could play any type of role here.
Click to expand...

A less diluted solution has stuck better for me. I try to stop short of applying snot to the back of the labels, but your hands will get remarkably sticky if you've done it right. Could also be that the water wasn't hot enough to start when you added the gelatin. I bring my water to a boil and then let it sit briefly. So it's super hot when I add the Knox, but not boiling. I haven't tried thicker stock paper either. My solution ends up soaking into the paper I'm using.

Last thing I'll mention, the labels don't slide off for me in cold water. If you leave them in a cooler with ice water for awhile though, the labels will get soggy. You could run your thumb through them to scratch off the label. I haven't had them fall or slide off though.

How long are you waiting for them to dry?

Sorry I don't have better advice. I hope you're able to get things working!
 
sidepart said:
A less diluted solution has stuck better for me. I try to stop short of applying snot to the back of the labels, but your hands will get remarkably sticky if you've done it right. Could also be that the water wasn't hot enough to start when you added the gelatin. I bring my water to a boil and then let it sit briefly. So it's super hot when I add the Knox, but not boiling. I haven't tried thicker stock paper either. My solution ends up soaking into the paper I'm using.

Last thing I'll mention, the labels don't slide off for me in cold water. If you leave them in a cooler with ice water for awhile though, the labels will get soggy. You could run your thumb through them to scratch off the label. I haven't had them fall or slide off though.

How long are you waiting for them to dry?

Sorry I don't have better advice. I hope you're able to get things working!
Click to expand...

Im thinking the problem should be solved, I will know 100% for sure tonight when I test it but it is looking like user error on my part (well I guess technically SWMBO but I think I'm conditioned to take the blame by now :confused:)! Application of the solution was taking place on the front of the label and not the back of it. The corners would stick down but once water got behind the label the solution would get slimey and it would start the removal process.
 
I've tried various concentrations, I've let the mixture boil, or just heated the water with gelatin sprinkled on the surface, etc. Unfortunately while the labels look good and seem stuck, by the time the bottles are through the conditioning phase, the labels often just fall off. There will be a shiny "varnish" on the back of the label but nothing on the glass....... it's frustrating to say the least, and I'm considering going back to the little Avery labels.

The gelatin just doesn't want to stick to the glass once it's dried out.


H.W.
 
Owly055 said:
What's it take to get the glue off?
Click to expand...

A little hot water... and when I take off labels, I've always scrubbed with steel wool, so it all comes off in one/two swipes.

I just put the label on a piece of scrap paper, hit the whole back with the glue stick (up to the edges), then smooth it onto the bottle.

Just don't get too much on your fingers, because it'll mess up the printing a little bit if it touches the front of the label.
 
Psylocide said:
A little hot water... and when I take off labels, I've always scrubbed with steel wool, so it all comes off in one/two swipes.

I just put the label on a piece of scrap paper, hit the whole back with the glue stick (up to the edges), then smooth it onto the bottle.

Just don't get too much on your fingers, because it'll mess up the printing a little bit if it touches the front of the label.
Click to expand...

I have used glue stick in the past and it's been a bear to get off. A quick soak in hot water doesn't do jack for me.
 

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