So, you're not ready to keg yet? Still rocking brown glass? You know you're gonna drink the beer anyway; so it might as well be good beer and the labels might as well magically disolve right before your eyes. So what do you get? Here's what I've found with recent brands...
TLDR; buy Southern Tier and Bells. Soak in very hot water.
* Souther Tier: BUY IT... the beer F-ing rocks, and *both* their 22s and 12s use a very water friendly adhesive. The 22s have plastic labels that peel off easily leaving a cob-webby adhesive that you can easily remove with your fingers. The 12oz bottles have paper labels, but don't bother peeling them off. Soak in very hot water for about 5 or 10 minutes and the labels almost fall off.
* Bells: beer is great, and the labels peel off easily in hot water. They leave lines of adhesive on the bottle, but this can be scraped off easily with fingernails or a knife. After scraping, return to hot water to soak; remove and rescrape until most of it comes off. Then lightly scrub with hot soapy water to remove anything that's left.
* Rush River (WI): labels literally fall off after 10 minutes in hot water. Beer is pretty good too.
* Steel Toe Brewing (MN): plastic labels like Souther Tier's, come off fairly easily in very hot water, but may require cleanup with Acetone. But hey, they're 22s so you don't have to clean as many!
* Ninkasi: beer is excellent; paper labels can be scraped off with a kitchen knife after 15 minutes in hot water. You'll do a bunch of scraping to get the paper off but paper doesn't have feelings so don't worry about it. Return to hot water to loosen the remaining adhesive, then use your fingernails to scrape it off, and finally lightly scrub with hot soapy water.
* Widmer: good beer, labels like Ninkasi.
* Deschutes: great beer, labels like Ninkas and Widmer
* Southern Oregon Brewing: plastic labels that peel off easily and use water-friendly adhesive.
* New Belgium: labels come off easily in very hot water; scrub lightly to remove remaining adhesive and clean with hot soapy water.
While Summit (MN) makes good beer, their bottles are a complete waste of time to delabel. Don't bother trying.
TLDR; buy Southern Tier and Bells. Soak in very hot water.
* Souther Tier: BUY IT... the beer F-ing rocks, and *both* their 22s and 12s use a very water friendly adhesive. The 22s have plastic labels that peel off easily leaving a cob-webby adhesive that you can easily remove with your fingers. The 12oz bottles have paper labels, but don't bother peeling them off. Soak in very hot water for about 5 or 10 minutes and the labels almost fall off.
* Bells: beer is great, and the labels peel off easily in hot water. They leave lines of adhesive on the bottle, but this can be scraped off easily with fingernails or a knife. After scraping, return to hot water to soak; remove and rescrape until most of it comes off. Then lightly scrub with hot soapy water to remove anything that's left.
* Rush River (WI): labels literally fall off after 10 minutes in hot water. Beer is pretty good too.
* Steel Toe Brewing (MN): plastic labels like Souther Tier's, come off fairly easily in very hot water, but may require cleanup with Acetone. But hey, they're 22s so you don't have to clean as many!
* Ninkasi: beer is excellent; paper labels can be scraped off with a kitchen knife after 15 minutes in hot water. You'll do a bunch of scraping to get the paper off but paper doesn't have feelings so don't worry about it. Return to hot water to loosen the remaining adhesive, then use your fingernails to scrape it off, and finally lightly scrub with hot soapy water.
* Widmer: good beer, labels like Ninkasi.
* Deschutes: great beer, labels like Ninkas and Widmer
* Southern Oregon Brewing: plastic labels that peel off easily and use water-friendly adhesive.
* New Belgium: labels come off easily in very hot water; scrub lightly to remove remaining adhesive and clean with hot soapy water.
While Summit (MN) makes good beer, their bottles are a complete waste of time to delabel. Don't bother trying.