Another good use for Starsan

Bike N Brew said:

Worked fine on my DB bottle, though I had to give it a once-over with a scotchbrite after a couple days to help it along, then soak for another couple days.

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Hmmm, weird. I used a Scotchbrite pad now, and nothing's coming off. Oh well, I'll give it more time. It's only 3 bottles, no big deal.

Alas, I just soaked a Red Stripe bottle for 3 weeks... nothin'. The red ink came off a little, but the white is stuck on.

Oh well...

kvh

I've found that scrubbing after soaking does not work as well as giving them a rinse, then letting them dry before going at them with a scotch pad under water again.

I think the drying after soaking makes the paint brittle and it loses its ability to adhere to the bottle.

talleymonster said:

What does RO stand for?

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i believe it stands for Reverse Osmosis purified water

KVH did you ever re-try the red stripe bottles any success....

I tried out the star san on 3 Rogue 22oz Dead Guy bottles. After soaking overnight, I was able to simply wipe away the white paint with a scrubbie. The red paint seems to be on there a little better, but will come off with a little elbow grease. I opted to throw them back into the star san for another day. I'll let everyone know if the red comes off easily tomorrow.

This is fantastic news. I'm going to see if I can get 24hr turnaround with a high SS concentration. I will report back.

Just an update. After letting the bottles soak for another 24 hours, the red paint was coming off easily in some places. I threw them back in the starsan overnight, and this morning I removed the remaining paint with a light scrub Thank's Ed!

Well I've tried this repeated over the last couple weeks and had some interesting things happen...

Stone Bottles clean off beautifully....

Rogue and Mexican Coke bottles do not seem give up their paint EVEN when using the solution at double the recommended strength of stars & water.

I soaked them with the stones and redstripes for 2 weeks at regular strength...then mixed up the 2 ounces/5 gallons...and still no luck after another 2 weeks...

The most interesting thing was Redstripe Bottles....

I had 12 bottles...6 of them have been stored under my sink for about 4 years...and six more I got this summer 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 with the rogue and mexican coke bottles....

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.

So, I guess mucuraic acid is next?

You can clean Rogue bottles with a stainless scrubby pad. It takes a few minutes but if you only have a couple of bombers it is easy. This does not work even in the slightest on corona or red stripe.

People were asking about Sessions by Full Sail. In my opinion it is awesome. It is a lighter style of beer that is done right.

I soaked some bottles for weeks in star-san. When I pulled them out, there was a white filmy residue inside, at the bottom, that I could not clean out or scrub off with a bottle brush cleaner.
Is it starsan residue? I have never used starsan before.
thanks

EDIT: I put some warm water and baking soda in these bottles. After ~ 5 days I scrubbed and rinsed again; the residue came out.

Bump for some "user results":

The quarry:
Six Stone bottles (1 Ruination, 5 Arrogant Bastards), and two Rogue bottles that I've been trying to remove the paint on.

First, I soaked in oxyclean for about a week.
Result: On one or two of the AB bottles, I could scratch off some of the paint with my fingernail, but it was going to take a LONG time to get it all off.

So, I rinsed, doubled up the intensity of the StarSan, and let them soak overnight.
Result: The paint on 3 ABs and the Ruination came right off, the paint on the other 2 ABs came off, but was much more stubborn. Hard to describe. The easy four came off like watercolors running off the bottle, the two tough ones were more like little tiny chips of paint or glitter. It came off, but took a lot more work.

I also noticed that the AB bottles had very slightly different designs. One of those groups had a little box on the side that says "Keep refridgerated numbskull," the others didn't. Unfortunately, I can't remember which group was which, but they probably changed the bottle design and paint application. I think the one with the little box may have been the one that was easier to get the paint off of.

Nothing could get the paint off the Rogue bottles (a Mocha Porter and a Dead Guy Ale). Can't even get a *little* chip of paint off those. Short of a deep hydrocloric acid soak or some sandblasting, they're on there forever methinks.

The Handbook of Chemistry and Physics has a formula in an appendix for a glass cleaner. I have made & used it in the lab, and it will take -anything- off glass. It's based on concentrated sulfuric acid. I will not even venture to list this recipe here, because of its extremely hazardous nature for those not used to working with strong chemicals. It's in the reference cited above if you want to make some. Remember: when diluting an acid, you must add the acid to the water.

rico567 said:

The Handbook of Chemistry and Physics has a formula in an appendix for a glass cleaner. [/U].

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Just looked... I don't see it. I have CRC 73d ed. Where?

starsan also works wonders on yuor junk.. after a "suspect" drunken encounter.

rico567 said:

The Handbook of Chemistry and Physics has a formula in an appendix for a glass cleaner. I have made & used it in the lab, and it will take -anything- off glass. It's based on concentrated sulfuric acid. I will not even venture to list this recipe here, because of its extremely hazardous nature for those not used to working with strong chemicals. It's in the reference cited above if you want to make some. Remember: when diluting an acid, you must add the acid to the water.

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do you know why you have to add the acid to the water and not the other way around? just curious, thanks

so it will be diluted and not react violently in your face

hmm, we never talked about that in any of my 1000's of hours spent in chem courses or labs...seems like something they probably should have mentioned to us, seems like something very nice to know...found the answer at this link if anyones interested (probly not though hah)

http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistrystudentfaqs/f/sulfuricwater.htm

If you think your life's too placid, add the water to the acid.

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good stuff! maybe i should put sodium in water too?

I think that some of the problematic bottles are done by http://www.ceramicdecoratingco.com/ or competing companies. Paint is baked on at high temperature.

Revvy, I had a similar experience with red stripe bottles - some came off easy, others the paint didn't budge. I believe they were from the same batch but I didn't drink the beer...

curtis97322 said:

I had a similar experience with red stripe bottles - some came off easy, others the paint didn't budge. I believe they were from the same batch but I didn't drink the beer...

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wth? red stripe is awesome.... better than carta blanca but both also have nifty bottles.

mordantly said:

starsan also works wonders on yuor junk.. after a "suspect" drunken encounter.

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Just noticed this. That is great.

i have on a few occasions, stick before i lick. and not happy with the results. so starsan to the rescue.

I have used Strypeeze paint remover by Savogran for years. I haven't found a paint yet that won't come off with it. It only takes about twenty minutes to work on really thick paint(3-4 coats) I would imagine it would work on a bottle in ~5. BTW site lists it as safe on glass

I saw this thread last night, less than 12 hours ago and I had to test it out. I grabbed two 220z Stone Cali-Belgique bottles and put them in a soloution of 1oz StarSan and 1gal of water. This morning the paint simply wiped off of the bottles. No tough scrubbing needed. Thanks for finding this EdWort I am really excited to use these bottles!

Nice! Going to have to try this on my growlers. Not that I don't like Ballast Point but I feel funny giving out my brew with Ballast Point all over the outside of it.

Why isn't this a sticky?

I just searched after buying a growler of Dead Guy (not a big fan of the beer for the price, but it was cheaper than an empty growler at LHBS). I didn't notice until I got home that it was the dreaded painted label! Now I have something to try.

Sorry for the zombie bump.

It is easier to remove the label if you let them dry first.

I wanted to bump this thread!!! Such great info!!! Thanks "Search Button".

I just tried this for the first time. I got my hands on a bunch of Stone bottles. And while a week in oxyclean does help get some of it off (with a lot of scrubbing) this works like a charm.

I've had bottles soaking in double strength solution of starsan for about 5 days now. I just checked them and the paint wipes right off.

Bump....this was a great thread and saved me a bunch of time trying to remove painted labels THANK YOU



edit: at 2x strength it took 2 hours to remove the labels on the Stone brewing bottles but the Otto Brewing Moose Juice Stout is un touched as of yet even a copper scouring pad wont etch it yet.

Does "Saniclean" work as well?

opps double post dang iphone

I use a product called citranox at work for cleaning and sanitizing musical instruments. It's commercial use is for cleaning large scale industrial food equipment. We use about a 4% solution at work. Maybe I'll take a quart of the concentrate home and try it on my corona bottles. I tried toluene acetone and lacquer thinner but they wouldn't touch it. That is some strong paint/ink they use. I couldn't buff it off with a stitched buffing wheel and red compound.

I haven't used starsan at all yet. When I run low on c-brite and iodophor Ill get some to mess with.

Anyone find a better method for removing the glue off the heineken pony bottles. I've been just peeling off the plastic soaking the bOttles and using a scuff pad

I proposed this idea to the chemist I know since she likes to drink and it's like a little challenge LOL

I too am wondering about the best way to remove Heineken bottle labels. Darn near impossible. Hot water and oxyclean loosen a little but then I have a sticky patch and have no idea how to get rid of that. Tried Goo-Gone. Didn't work.

On a side note. Hot water and oxyclean works great on Modelo bottles. Then I boil the foil cap for a few seconds and it scrapes right off. Nice clean Modelo bottles. Awesome!

Hmm........wonder how this will work on those bottles that have that nearly impossible to remove glue?.....gonna give it a shot.

Bumping this old thread...

I've tried the high dose of concentration of star-san for corona bottles (free from a neighbour) and after 2-3 days, the white paint rubs off easily. The blue paint however doesn't seem to want to come off. Will soaking them for a few extra days take care of this or will I have to try muriatic acid? I've got a jug of that stuff that I was supposed to use for the pool but never had to.

thanks

traderearl said:

The star san worked great on my stone bottles but it doesn't seem to do anything to my Rogue or San Lucas bottles. I have had them in there about a month and can't really get anything off of them. Has anyone else had problems with these?

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I have a solution to removing almost anything that can be adhered to glass (such as painted labels). There's a product called "Rust Remover" by the "Whink" Company. It's sold in most Publix and/or Walmart stores in an opaque rust/copper colored bottle.
Buy a pair of gloves while you're at it cause this stuff is pretty hard core.
Before using the stuff keep in mind that if it's capable of doing this as quickly as it does, you don't need me to list all the things that you probably should not spill it on. If you do spill it don't worry, it needs heat to work quickly so just wipe up the spill with paper towels, then use cold water and soap to clean the surface completely. If you get the product on your hands it's not a big deal unless you fail to rinse them off in a reasonable time IN COLD WATER NEVER HOT. So here's how to use it:
Fill your bottles with hot tap water, this helps keep the solution hot and makes the bottles come clean faster.
Find a glass container to set your bottle in that will minimize the amount of liquid needed to fill past the top of the paint. I used a wide mouth tall mason jar.
Squirt about a half cup of the rust remover into the jar.
Fill the jar the rest of the way with hot water until it is covering all of the paint.
Let it sit for maybe a half hour, then pull the bottle out wearing your rubber gloves and use a scrubbing sponge or something similar to scrub off the first layer of paint. If a base layer is left, rinse the bottle with warm water to remove the paint residue you just removed and then return it to the jar to soak for an additional half hour. Repeat the scrubbing process and at most you may have to do it one more time for the stubborn ones.
You can use the same solution for probably as many as 20 bottles or maybe more but just be careful where you're setting your gloves and sponges in between scrubbing and it's always a good idea to go ahead and rinse gloves and sponge in cold water between each use. When you finish with all the bottles a good rinse in cold water first and then some soap and water should have them crystal clear. Be sure if you pour the solution down a drain when you finish that you dilute it with as much cold water as possible and pour it slowly to prevent any damage to pipes and stuff cause as you can see the **** is legit.

You're welcome for the tip. Oh, btw your carbon footprint gets quadrupled everytime you even think about buying this stuff so try and be as sparing with it as possible. For the Earth's sake and all that.