Red Stripe Bottle Label Removal

I've been collecting Red Stripe bottles to bottle with because I think they look good. Today, I started soaking them in StarSan because I read here that it would remove the paint. That is true for most of them. There are a few that still look pristine after hours of soaking and occasional scrubbing with steel wool. The other bottles, the paint was all smeary after soaking and came right off with steel wool. Any suggestions on removing the paint from the holdouts?

Try a soaking in full strength vinegar. We used that to stip the 20 yr paint off of some hinges we wanted to re-use.

NOTE: DO NOT POUR THE VINEGAR ON YOUR GRASS!! It will die and be dead for a long, long, time.

I don't know about the baked-on paint for those bottles, but mineral spirits will remove just about anything. Nail polish remover might do it, too.

I had RS 12 bottles...6 of them were stored under my sink for about 4 years...and six more I got from my nextdoor neighbor...

Well six of them came clean in the regular strength concentration of starsan water after 2 weeks...

The other six are still just as solid after soaking in the double strength solution

I wish I had thought to mark which stripe bottles were which, to know if it was the older bottles that came clean or not...methinks maybe redstripe changed the chemistry of their paint at some point.

I wonder if different bottling plants have different paint, or what, but it seems to be that you are having the same issue as I did.

I don't think vinegar would work, it's really a weaker acid than starsan....

What are you using for a capper? I saved RS bottles and did one batch with my wing style and it was a bit akward to do. A lot harder than standard bottles due to that stubby neck. Not impossible, just harder. I ended up turning mine in for the redemption and stick to longnecks now.

Daddymem said:

What are you using for a capper? I saved RS bottles and did one batch with my wing style and it was a bit akward to do. A lot harder than standard bottles due to that stubby neck. Not impossible, just harder. I ended up turning mine in for the redemption and stick to longnecks now.

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I never had problems with my wing capper and Red Stripe bottles. I just pressed a little harder, but they capped fine, I did my belgian strong in a bunch of them, both with and wothout the print on them.

Any advice on how to apply the mineral spirits? It seems like a bad idea to let it get inside the bottles.

bytemyfoot said:

Any advice on how to apply the mineral spirits? It seems like a bad idea to let it get inside the bottles.

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Just rub it on with a rag or paper towels.

bytemyfoot said:

Any advice on how to apply the mineral spirits? It seems like a bad idea to let it get inside the bottles.

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A rag would give you the best control.

Mineral spirits are a natural laxative. Won't kill you to get some in your beer, but you may have to call that batch a Colon Cleansing Brew :cross:

Mineral spirits, turpentine, lacquer thinner, and goof off(or something like that) all had no effect. At this point, I'm becoming ok with having 7 bottles with RS labels on them!

I like the RS beer and we buy a sixer every now and then. I havent ever tried to get the lable off. I do soak them a bit but it hasn't even started to remove the paint.
I did have a slightly harder time to cap them with my wing capper, but not too bad. I might have lost two caps in the process. I do know that RS bottles will not fit in a regular six pack holder. Get too tight.

Hey Revvy did you let the starsan dry on the bottles? I did this with Corona and the paint flaked off but if i tryed to wipe off while wet it wouldn't touch it.

Xakk said:

Mineral spirits are a natural laxative. Won't kill you to get some in your beer, but you may have to call that batch a Colon Cleansing Brew :cross:

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Mineral OIL is food grade and a natural laxative....Mineral spirits is not safe to ingest.

CatchinZs said:

Mineral OIL is food grade and a natural laxative....Mineral spirits is not safe to ingest.

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Brain fart. You're right. My bad.

Those would look cool. I tried to get the paint off last year with just soap and some elbow grease. It didn't work, and I think my arm is still tired.

Can you get session lager where you are? Same shape bottles without the painted on stuff and pretty good.

If you are all about stubby bottles get some full sail session bottles. They have paper labels.

It's the box in the middle under the other bottles.

Also session black lager

BigKahuna said:

If you are all about stubby bottles get some full sail session bottles. They have paper labels.

It's the box in the middle under the other bottles.

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I had that NBB bottle opener in the bottle left in my wallet for something liek three years. Lost it two weekends ago. I miss it dearly

The painters I know say oven cleaner will take that right off

Read this forum...I am wanting to save Red Stripe bottles too CLR (Calcium Lime Rust) works wonders apparently. It's like $6 at Home Depot for 28 oz.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/silk-screened-painted-label-removal-154515/

Has anyone else had any issues with capping these? I don't want to save them all up and then not able to cap them.

HTH,
Lorne

I like the Red Stripe stubbies, but I only have one 12 pack of them. A standard Red Baron capper will cap them just fine, no issues.

I left the labels on. Its the only bottles I own where I did this, but with the odd shape I keep them together at home anyway.

I buy little pouches of chlorinated powder at my LHBS. It's a pink powder. You just mix it with warm water, soak bottles overnight, and it cleans the gunk out of old bottles, and the labels LITERALLY fall right off the bottle as I pull it out of the bucket.

Antler said:

I buy little pouches of chlorinated powder at my LHBS. It's a pink powder. You just mix it with warm water, soak bottles overnight, and it cleans the gunk out of old bottles, and the labels LITERALLY fall right off the bottle as I pull it out of the bucket.

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For paper labels I've found OxyClean is the most economic method... not sure what you're paying at your LHBS but a tub of OC is $8 and if you keep it just for de-labeling it will last you years.

I don't expect it works at all for painted on labels. I was wondering how to remove the label from a 22oz Stone bottle... going to try nail polish remover.

andrhamm said:

. I was wondering how to remove the label from a 22oz Stone bottle... going to try nail polish remover.

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Strong solution of StarSan

andrhamm said:

For paper labels I've found OxyClean is the most economic method... not sure what you're paying at your LHBS but a tub of OC is $8 and if you keep it just for de-labeling it will last you years.

I don't expect it works at all for painted on labels. I was wondering how to remove the label from a 22oz Stone bottle... going to try nail polish remover.

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CLR: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/silk-screened-painted-label-removal-154515/

I know this is a really old thread but wanted to chime in anyways. Session bottles did not cap properly for me with my Red Barron capper.

I have been saving RS bottles for a few weeks now for my next brew. I have about 24 now. RS bottles however sealed nicely. I'm one day hoping to make a Molson Canadian clone (the only beer my dad truly likes) and give it to him a couple of cases for Chirstmas. I guess its time to test the CLR then.