soaking bottles to get labels off

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hurst1979olds

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I never did bulk bottling before and needed bottles. I bought some Abita and Dos Equis. I soaked them over night in borax and baking soda...I didn't have oxyclean. The labels were still partly on but came off with very little effort. But the bottles are now etched. They have a texture and can be seen....do I need new bottles again but use oxyclean next time.
 
You can see a little white hazing on the bottles in the water....that's the little pits on the bottles from the etching

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were the bottles etched on the inside or just the outside? The only potential problem I see is if it got etched inside as wild nasties could easily hide in all the nooks and crannys.
 
When I've soaked bottles to get the labels off, I haven't used anything other than water. Just some good hot water to fill up whatever you put them in (I use a cooler), then let them sit for a day or two. Most of the time the labels come off pretty easily. Then just a quick little scrub with soapy water (I've used dish soap) to get the last bit of residue off and they are ready to go.

I don't think there is any reason to use other chemicals. There have only been a couple breweries that have had labels that were tough to get off the bottles (damn you Breckenridge!!!).

I can't help you with deciding if those etched bottles are still safe to use, but hopefully you won't have that problem in the future.
 
I expect your glass is not etched; glass is fairly inert until you start using rather reactive chemicals (at two different jobs I chemically modified glass for a handful of years). Try cleaning one of the "etched" bottles with vinegar and a paper towel. I expect that it's just deposits from your water and baking soda and will rub off as the vinegar reacts with the deposits.

If the test bottle starts to come clean, just soak all of your bottles in a dilute vinegar solution.
 
I will try the vinegar tomorrow and hope it helps. I stuck my pinkey inside and I dont really feel anything inside. maybe alittle just past the bottle cap.
 
My thought is you just have a film that formed from what you used with water. I don't think either product you used can be used to "etche" anything. My guess is it is just a fine layer of stuff. Rise em out and see what happens.
 
Try the vinegar idea on these. I use a 5 gallon homer cheapo bucket with PBW solution to remove labels & clean the bottles by soaking a couple hours or overnight. Great lakes bottles are ones that have really tough labels. Seems like they & others that use computer labels have really tough glue. But sam adams,paulaner,franziskaner,michelobe & the like have labels that come off in an hour or so. Even the glue dissolves or is really soft.
I use a dobie & my bottle brush to clean them inside & out. They come clean very quickly.
 
I usually just fill the sink with bottles and fill it with hot water from the tap and let them soak for an hour. Works pretty well.
 
I recently had a Port Wipeout IPA bomber and the label just peeled right off with nothing but my fingers.

I've yet to try another bottle to see if it was a fluke, but it was by far the easiest label removal I've had yet.
 
I usually just fill the sink with bottles and fill it with hot water from the tap and let them soak for an hour. Works pretty well.

I've tried all sorts of stuff too. Dish soap, Simple Green, Meyers. Hot water, a little time and green scrubby really does work just fine.

i used to soak the labels off then i stopped, beer tastes the same.

But then I get confused. :drunk:
 
i used to soak the labels off then i stopped, beer tastes the same.

Sure, but some of us don't want the label on. I like to do the flood my bottle with starsan pre filing method, and prefer not to dunk bottles with a label on them to keep as much debris out as possible. Different strokes etc.
 
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