recycled bottles

Sorry this is probably a FAQ but when recycling bottles whats the easiest way to get rid of the old label?

I soak them in a solution of warm water and baking soda for around 10 min, then just peel the labels off. Some brewers uses PBW and some may even use bleach or StarSan.

Oxyclean is the magic bullet......overnight in Oxyclean, the labels will be floating on the surface of the bucket in the morning. Doesn't get any easier.

Thank you Ill probably end up using baking soda unless they sell oxyclean at super markets.

I use ammonia. A quart of ammonia in a five gallon bucket (preferably not one of yer fermenters), and then fill it part way. Great for my wine bottles. Fill the bottles with water, then put them in the bucket, then top off with water to just below the top of the bottles. I can soak 5 or 6 bottles at a time, let them soak for an hour or 2. If the labels aren't floating after that, just take a razor blade and the labels scrape right off. I can get a couple dozen bottles a day cleaned like that.

I just always have a bucket of Star-San and water in the garage. Whenever I finish a beer I just dropit in the bucket. When the bucket is full I pull all the bottles out and the labels are usually floating. I just rinse them off real good and put them away.:rockin:

Oxyclean is sold at almost all grocery stores nowadays. 1 large tub lasts a very long time. There are very few labels that won't just fall off (and I do mean that, the glue too!)from using it. It is the very best thing I have used for label removal. I used to do a trash can with bleach, too much work. If you do small batches of bottles you can add about a Tbs of Oxyclean to warm water and do them that way. It usually takes about 15 minutes for normal labels to come off really easily. Trust me it is money well spent in terms of time (and aggrivation!) saved! Plus it'll pull off just about any caked on mold, etc if you fill the bottles.

A few brewery's that aren't worth the effort (in terms of recycling the bottles):

Amstel (someone gave me these, forget it, throw them to the recycler)
Weyerbacher (Plastic labels with some wierd glue that even after an Oxyclean soak does not want to come off)

Anybody that has a shiny label, be careful of those (glossy and thick). Some labels fall off with warm water like Franziskaner.

I've used oxyclean, and I've used ammonia. I think oxyclean works better, and if I'm soaking small batches of bottles in a sink or bucket I use it, but if I'm trying to clean a ton of bottles at once (like in a bathtub) I'll use ammonia just because it's dirt cheap.

I usually let them soak, removing labels as they let go, and then for stubborn glue I hit it with a scotch-brite pad. Wearing latex kitchen gloves is a good plan, dunking your hands in either oxyclean or ammonia for long periods of time isn't so pleasant.

I used B-Brite which basicly Oxyclean the trick I found was taking my 40qt. cooler and filling it with bottles standing up. 12oz bottles stand about an inch or so bellow the lip so I fill the bottles and the cooler with hotter then hell water/ B-Brite solution. Cleans all the gunk out of the inside and the labels slip right off in an hour or two. The nice thing is it hold 34 bottles and will keep the water warm a long time I have done a hundred bottles in an evening doing it this way.

Mine are easy... I give them to the wife - she takes the labels off and scrubs them up sorry no real help

oxyclean works great

dilligas2u said:

Mine are easy... I give them to the wife - she takes the labels off and scrubs them up sorry no real help

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I started off doing them myself but now use dilligas2u's method.

zoebisch01 said:

...Weyerbacher (Plastic labels with some wierd glue that even after an Oxyclean soak does not want to come off)...

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Those may be self-adhering labels. Two Brothers uses them and, IIRC, so does Lake Louie in WI. More and more micros are using them. They are a type of plastic and are pre-gummed. If so, they are easy to take off.

Fill the bottle with hot tap water and let it sit. I usually let it sit for as long as it takes me to drink the beer that was inside. This softens the glue. Begin peeling at one of the corners and then pull in a continous motion until it lifts free. Kinda like peeling masking tape from a freshly painted wall. If there is any adhesive residue left on the bottle, just blot it off with the peeled label; much like using tape to lift fuzz and hair from a sweater.

Another vote for oxyclean. Before I heard about this trick, I was soaking in bleachwater for weeks, then scrubbing and scraping for hours. It sucked. Then I heard about OC, and tried it out. I was flat-out dumbfounded. In a mere few hours of soaking, even the most stubborn labels that I had cursed a million time before (cough cough SAM ADAMS, BROOKLYN cough cough) because they were so difficult to scrape off, the labels just fell off. It's unreal. Accept no substitutes.

I've always used ammonia with pretty good success. I collect a case or so of bottles and dump them in the kitchen sink filled with warm water and a 'dash' of ammonia--not sure how much, just until it really starts to smell. Have them in there for about an hour or so and the labels come right off. A quick rinse and then they go right in the dishwasher to be sanitized. It's interesting, I've never had a problem with Sam Adam's or Amstel--as other posters here are stating. Maybe I just use way too much ammonia. Magic Hat's labels come right off as well as Erie Brewing Co.'s--if you can get that.

I've not used the oxyclean before but I'm going to give it a shot because my wife and kids sometimes complain about the ammonia smell.

I just cleaned a case of Yuengling bottles. I soaked the bottles overnight in hot water and that did nothing. I then put them in a cooler with hot water and a handful of dishwasing powder and let that soak overnight. That took the labels right off. Just a little bit of glue residue that washed off easily.