Removing plastic labels?

I have a BUNCH of bottles with plastic labels on them. Whats a good way to get'em off?

Happy Friday!

You might try a good soak in hot water and oxyclean...though I have found those plasticy labels to be a real pain in the ass. I usually just recycle those bottles now.

JLem said:

You might try a good soak in hot water and oxyclean...though I have found those plasticy labels to be a real pain in the ass. I usually just recycle those bottles now.

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Completely agree with the pain in ass. I had a bunch when I first started brewing and tried a bunch of different things and nothing worked. I tried boiling them, the dishwasher, five days in oxyclean and even took the labels off and let them sit in the oxy another couple days and the glue was strong as ever. I ended up hand scrapping off the glue on each bottle because it was the only thing I had and was bottling the next day but swore plastic labels off at that point. Save yourself the time and frustration, just recycle them.

Thats a real bummer, because a local bar right down the street from me goes through them like water, and he's started keeping them for me! I stopped by on a Monday AM, and in a week and a half there were two cases of empties waiting for me...

Thats when they remembered to save them!

There is always the option of leaving the labels on. Nothing says you have to remove them, yes it's nice to not be pour your beer labelled as something else, but free bottles are free bottles.

I'd give the hot water and Oxyclean a try. Also hot water and TSP might be worth a try. While most plastic/vinyl ones are a pain, I've had some come off surprisingly easy (e.g. The Bruery). I think it really depends on the adhesive used.

I have not tried it yet, but my local brewery, Rahr & Sons uses these plastic labels... Naturally I have a BUNCH of them as do lots of guys in my LHBC. One of our members SWEARS up and down that Star-San actually works better at getting them off than anything else he has tried. He said it worked VERY well. Go figure... Try it and let us know.

Try a wallpaper remove tool, the kind that scores the wallpaper. Or maybe even score the plastic with a fork.

Alternatively can you put your own label over the plastic one?

Huaco said:

I have not tried it yet, but my local brewery, Rahr & Sons uses these plastic labels... Naturally I have a BUNCH of them as do lots of guys in my LHBC. One of our members SWEARS up and down that Star-San actually works better at getting them off than anything else he has tried. He said it worked VERY well. Go figure... Try it and let us know.

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The Rahr and Sons are a pain compared to paper labels but they will come off pretty easy soaked in warm water and oxyclean overnight in a cooler

I also noticed that if you peel the clear plastic coating off first, it will allow the warm water to soak better into the label substrate.

I turn on the oven to 350 and throw them in for 5-7 minutes. Everything just pulls right off while the bottles are still warm (usually in one piece). I remove any stubborn residual gunk or glue with wd-40 or adhesive remover if necessary. Piece of cake...wear an oven mitt.

I used to just peel the plastic labels off and remove the residual gum with Goof Off or WD40. A bit of a mess.

For some reason, the Star-San approach sounds appealing (don't know why).
I'll give it a shot and report back

For the glue itself, the best thing is pure acetone. Avoid breathing it and use in well ventilated place.

MC

Pilgarlic said:

I used to just peel the plastic labels off and remove the residual gum with Goof Off or WD40. A bit of a mess.

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+1 That orange goo off stuff works every time with minimal effort. Just make sure to wash your bottles off really well after using it

Good ol' soap and water then hit them with a magic eraser. The magic eraser works wonders for getting all of that gunk off!

heating in the oven is a new one. I have not tried that.

I have tried many chemicals to remove bottle labels and glue. The success depends entirely upon the type of glue, and it varies between beer brands. The most successful overall has been an overnight soak in OxyClean. Some labels slip right off. If not, I scrape off most of the label with a dull dinner knife or edge of a spoon and scrub the residue with the hard side of a blue scubbie sponge. Universally, it is better to scrub under warm water than cold.

I have also tried soaking in plain warm water, with OxyClean, dissolving the glue with straight Simple Green (citrus cleaner), liquid dish detergent, powdered dishwasher detergent (TSP), paint thinner, acetone, pine oil, and Bon Ami, an abrasive cleaner. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. it depends on the glue.

Sam Adams labels slip right off with water. The bottles have their name molded right into the glass. I do not use those bottles because I do not want their name on my beer. I'm just being a snob.

I got a few beers from UK, and they seem to have those apocalypse-proof plastic labels on them... I found that hot B-Brite works well to get them off. Soak in overnight in a cooler with hot solution and they peel off well enough, and little bits can be removed with a green scratch pad.

I tried the hot oven method last night... All I can say is WOW! :rockin:
I put them in the cold oven and turned it on to 300*F. By the time the oven was heated, the bottles were PLENTY hot. I would grab one bottle and close the oven. (Use oven mitts or pot holders) I used the blade on my pocket knife to start a corner peeling and the rest came off like BUTTAH! There was very little residue left over on the surface. After peeling, I set them on a cookie cooling rack for about 5 minutes 'till they were cool enough to handle with bare hands. Then I took them straight over to the 5 gallon bucket of star-san to sanitize for my bottling session. What little residue left on the bottles seemed to be loosened up by just a short soak in the star-san. I de-labeled almost 2 cases of bottles last night using this method. REALLY EASY! Just make sure the bottles are good and clean when you put them in the oven. I ALWAYS double rinse my bottles as soon as I pour them so this is not an issue for me, but you don't want to be baking yeast/beer on the inside of these bottles.

Plastic labels suck. I just recycle them and stick with the paper labels.

These came off so easy, I would rather have the plastic label bottles over Paper now... Really, I was VERY surprised how easy they came off.

Huaco said:

These came off so easy, I would rather have the plastic label bottles over Paper now... Really, I was VERY surprised how easy they came off.

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Thats awesome and also info I could have used a couple years ago. 11am and I have already learned something new today. Time for a beer

Huaco said:

These came off so easy, I would rather have the plastic label bottles over Paper now... Really, I was VERY surprised how easy they came off.

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It's nice, isn't it ? I started putting all of mine in the oven only a few months ago and wouldn't do it any other way. Now the plastic labels are my preferred type too. I usually can remove a dozen or so labels in less time than It used to take me for one.

birdley123 said:

I have a BUNCH of bottles with plastic labels on them. Whats a good way to get'em off?

Happy Friday!

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Throw them against a wall.

Yeah... I actually did two different batches last night. I started with just 4 or 5 bottles to test it out. I let the oven cool off and then loaded it up with bottles. And now it just hit me... I have two ovens! I could probably bust through 2 cases or more at a time with double ovens going...

jonhays said:

Good ol' soap and water then hit them with a magic eraser. The magic eraser works wonders for getting all of that gunk off!

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I just discovered using the Magic Eraser a week or two ago. I'm never doing anything else to clean up the goo left behind by the sticky plastic labels. Those magic erasers incredible for cleaning up the bottles!

I googled this thread as I started soaking a dozen bottles with plastic labels and pulled them out to try the oven method... the hot water I had them soaking in had the same effect! Labels peeled right off, with minimal leftover goo! The bottles hadn’t been in the water more than 5 minutes, which seems a lot nicer than prepping your oven and waiting for them to cook.

My tap water runs crazy hot, too hot to immerse your hands in, so maybe soaking in boiling water for a few minutes would do the same. My guess is that the heat loosens up the glue enough to peel well.

caviat, I do think that different brewers use different adhesives, and maybe I got lucky... This batch was plain old Bold Rock Cider - I love the clear bottles for my ciders/cysers

mmandajade said:

I googled this thread as I started soaking a dozen bottles with plastic labels and pulled them out to try the oven method... the hot water I had them soaking in had the same effect! Labels peeled right off, with minimal leftover goo! The bottles hadn’t been in the water more than 5 minutes, which seems a lot nicer than prepping your oven and waiting for them to cook.

My tap water runs crazy hot, too hot to immerse your hands in, so maybe soaking in boiling water for a few minutes would do the same. My guess is that the heat loosens up the glue enough to peel well.

caviat, I do think that different brewers use different adhesives, and maybe I got lucky... This batch was plain old Bold Rock Cider - I love the clear bottles for my ciders/cysers

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I’ve been accumulating Bold Rock bottles and prepping to try my first round of label removal. If you’ve discovered any more tips for them. Let me know!

Try filling the bottle with hot water from the tap and give it a few minutes for the glass to warm up. The labels usually peel off more easily then.

Difficulty: it often leaves a layer of adhesive on the bottles. That adhesive is not water-soluble, and you'll need some mineral spirits or acetone to remove that. In the end, you may decide some bottles are better off going in the recycle bin. Depends on your tenacity.

Verac said:

I’ve been accumulating Bold Rock bottles and prepping to try my first round of label removal. If you’ve discovered any more tips for them. Let me know!

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My go to bottle label remover is PBW. An over night soak in PBW and a scotch bite scrubby to get that last bit glue residue. Never fails me.

I have tried Oxyclean with unacceptable results. White powdery residue, took a soak in PBW and bottle brush to clean it up. For me, the minor savings in money is not worth potential problem.

This is where somebody chimes in how they have used Oxyclean and never had a problem. I am sure that is true. I am a right tool for the job kind of guy. PBW goes in the brewery, Oxyclean in the laundry.

Verac said:

I’ve been accumulating Bold Rock bottles and prepping to try my first round of label removal. If you’ve discovered any more tips for them. Let me know!

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Blow dryer...hot setting.