This is nothing more than a collection of commercial breweries and a description of how easy or hard their labels are to remove for the purposes of reusing for homebrew. I am merely starting the the list, so I hope others chime in with their label removal experiences. I'll try to keep the first post updated based on replies to this thread. BTW, the difficulties are all based on soaking in warm OxyClean solution for approximately 30 minutes. Here is what I have so far:
Difficulty Legend:
1: Falls off the bottle, little to no adhesive residue
2: Extremely easy, very light rubbing required for excess adhesive
3: Pretty easy, scrub pad needed for excess adhesive
4: Requires extended soaking (updated difficulty after extended soak in parentheses)
5: No loosening of the adhesive at all
Samuel Adams - 3
Sierra Nevada - 1
Harpoon - 3
Brooklyn - 4 (3)
Lagunitas - 1
Founders - 1
Belhaven - 5
Laughing Dog - 1
Weyerbacher - 1
Magic Hat - 3
New Belgium - 2.5
Summitt - 4
Great Divide - 4 or 5
Back Forty - 5
Marble Brewing - 5
Bells - 1
Shorts - 5
Dogfish Head - 0.5
Troegs - 4.5
Newcastle - 1
Tommyknocker - 5
Odell's - 2
Amstel - 5
Michelob - 2
Goose Island - 1
Kirkland Signature - 2
New Glarus - 1
Mendocino - 3.5
North Coast - 1.5
Abita - 1
Victory - 0.5
Fegley's - 5
Southern Tier Bombers - 5
Southern Tier 12 oz - 4
Otter Creek - 2
Long Trail - 2
Clown Shoes - 1.5
Fat Tire - 1
Lazy Magnolia - 4
Breckenridge - 4
Thanks to everyone who has provided additional beers so far. As was mentioned by microbusbrewery and 69Bronc have pointed out, the difficulty can vary from batch to batch if the brewery in question changes adhesive or some other factor. The difficulties indicated are based on the experience of the brewer providing the input. YMMV.
-AJ
Difficulty Legend:
1: Falls off the bottle, little to no adhesive residue
2: Extremely easy, very light rubbing required for excess adhesive
3: Pretty easy, scrub pad needed for excess adhesive
4: Requires extended soaking (updated difficulty after extended soak in parentheses)
5: No loosening of the adhesive at all
Samuel Adams - 3
Sierra Nevada - 1
Harpoon - 3
Brooklyn - 4 (3)
Lagunitas - 1
Founders - 1
Belhaven - 5
Laughing Dog - 1
Weyerbacher - 1
Magic Hat - 3
New Belgium - 2.5
Summitt - 4
Great Divide - 4 or 5
Back Forty - 5
Marble Brewing - 5
Bells - 1
Shorts - 5
Dogfish Head - 0.5
Troegs - 4.5
Newcastle - 1
Tommyknocker - 5
Odell's - 2
Amstel - 5
Michelob - 2
Goose Island - 1
Kirkland Signature - 2
New Glarus - 1
Mendocino - 3.5
North Coast - 1.5
Abita - 1
Victory - 0.5
Fegley's - 5
Southern Tier Bombers - 5
Southern Tier 12 oz - 4
Otter Creek - 2
Long Trail - 2
Clown Shoes - 1.5
Fat Tire - 1
Lazy Magnolia - 4
Breckenridge - 4
Thanks to everyone who has provided additional beers so far. As was mentioned by microbusbrewery and 69Bronc have pointed out, the difficulty can vary from batch to batch if the brewery in question changes adhesive or some other factor. The difficulties indicated are based on the experience of the brewer providing the input. YMMV.
-AJ