Removing Clear Plastic Labels

Let me start by saying i'm ashamed. I have 44 beer bottles from my closet. Almost all of them are twist-off's, but i tested my capper and it made a nice tight seal with these bottles. All 44 of the bottles i prepped for bottling had paper labels. I need at least 15 more, and i found them.

My girlfriend drinks bug light and the bottles all have clear plastic labels which have some kind of air-tight seal holding them on. I soaked a bud light bottle in Oxy-clear/water for 4 hours and the labels were better than new. Anyone have any ideas?

Maybe i can save these poor bottles by putting some good beer in them for a change? :rockin:

I suggest soaking them in some VERY hot water for about 10 minutes and they should peel right off. Although I have never used twist off bottles I don't think I would from what I have read about the potential for your beer not carbonating due to a poor seal. Just my 2 cents however.

Use em if you must, but I guarantee you will regret it, eventually. Better to rent a couple cases of returnables or, better yet, enjoy a couple cases of some micro-brew that uses capable bottles.

For my next batch i'm going to go to a recycling center and try to buy a whole crapload of amstel bottles. They're brown and have the crown tops. My dad drinks amstel, but it would take me 6 years to get 60 of them that way.

This might be a stupid question, but can I use any bottles that don't have twist off caps? Like Fat Tire or Heineken?

Oh and about Heineken, I know the dangers about using green bottles, but I'm brewing Apfelwein, which has no hops so no worries

You can use just about any commercial non-screw off bottle. I have only ran into one type of bottle that didn't work, but I think it may have been something more on the spendier side.

AleHole said:

I suggest soaking them in some VERY hot water for about 10 minutes and they should peel right off. Although I have never used twist off bottles I don't think I would from what I have read about the potential for your beer not carbonating due to a poor seal. Just my 2 cents however.

Click to expand...

They're okay to use as long as you know upfront you may have 1 out of every 10 or so bottles that doesn't carbonate. And cap very carefully, it's easy to get the caps on just a little crooked and they don't seal at all. You can tell by looking at them.
I started with twist offs but don't use them anymore.