Best way to get old beer labels off

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monk420

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Trying to get my labels off my old bottles. what is the best way to go about this. Right now i have them soaking in hot water and i'm going to take a razor blade to them. Any better methods of removing them thanks
 
Soak them in a bucket of one-step for 24 hours. They will fall right off. And you won't have to rinse either.
 
Yes, and Oxyclean works wonders.

btw, BiMart sells the tubs for 7 bucks.
 
+1 on the Oxyclean. With an overnight soak the labels fall off and the glue rinses right off. I used one scoop in a 5 gallon bucket and I have been using it for a couple of weeks now.
 
The Sierra Nevada ones come off if you just soak them in regular water overnight.

Edit: Or are you talking about labels you put on them yourself?
 
SN labels are a pain in the butt. The labels slip off after soaking, but a ton of glue sticks to the bottle. I soaked in Oxyclean overnight and still had to scrub the SN bottles to get the residue off. Most other bottles don't need any scrubbing as the label and glue is gone by morning.

Too bad I like SN so much because cleaning their bottles is a chore.
 
Oxiclean will take most labels off in 30 minutes, at one hour the remaining labels came off with a rub of the thumb. Plus it cleans the inside of the bottles pretty well too.
 
i cant remember where i heard it but some one told me to soak them in TSP overnight. I haven't tried it yet. has anyone else used TSP?
 
After soaking on hot sudsy water, I use a green scrubby pad with lots of soap. After soaking, it takes about 3-4 wipes over the same area and everything is gone, turning the bottle of course.
I might try oxyclean to see if thats easier, but the pads work pretty good.
 
Oxyclean is amazingly easy. An overnight soak, and most of the glue residue is gone, too. A quick rinse in hot water is the most required to get even that off.
 
Use Oxyclean. Some lables will come right off and others will take a little work. Make sure to use hot water. Most glue will still be on there is you only soke for a couple of hours so just rub it off with you hand, very very easy. Then Rinse in hot water.
 
used oxyclean in hotwater let soak 30 min. label and most of glue came right off. What ever glue was left just went around the bottle with a sponge. quick rinse put em on the dryer nice and clean. worked great and no harder than washing dishes by hand. Although some were harder than other to get off. But even with that said it was really easy just let those ones soak a tab bit longer
 
i use goof off get just about anywhere, rip the label off put some goof off on a rag and wipe the glue right off. no soaking needed.
 
I recently used PBW (professional brewers wash, I believe) from a LHBS. It was about 2.99 for a bag. two tablespoons has removed labels from about 70 bottles and it is still going. quick rinse with hot water and then no-rinse sanitizer and the bottles are ready to go.
 
Oxiclean Free (no fragrance, no dyes, no chlorine) works a treat, and is what I've seen recommended by the vast majority as it leaves little or no residue that can affect head retention in bottles.
 
Hot oxyclean soak for a couple hours. Quick wipe with a sponge to get any residue off.


If that doesn't work, I chuck em. Its just not worth it.
 
I've found that that OxyFree works great for normal bottles / labels. However I'm trying to soak a bunch of 22oz bottles that have what appear to be plastic like stickers. Examples include Southern Tier bottles and Hop Stoopid. After 24 hours in a hot soak of OxyFree, they're a little easier to at least get the peel started, but they are by no means falling off. Any suggestions other than get my nubby fingers in there and get working? :D
 
I've found that that OxyFree works great for normal bottles / labels. However I'm trying to soak a bunch of 22oz bottles that have what appear to be plastic like stickers. Examples include Southern Tier bottles and Hop Stoopid. After 24 hours in a hot soak of OxyFree, they're a little easier to at least get the peel started, but they are by no means falling off. Any suggestions other than get my nubby fingers in there and get working? :D

i had a weyerbacher bottle there labels had like a plastic coating over it oxyclean got it loose enough to start and i peeled off the plastic layer. then just soaked the paper layer for another 30 min. Paper layer came off but then i had to use a razor blade to scrape remaining glue off they were a real pain but i got them clean in like a hr
 
ditto on the oxyclean! changed my mind from buying bottles to keeping all my micro brew empties and reusing!
 
SN labels are a pain in the butt. The labels slip off after soaking, but a ton of glue sticks to the bottle. I soaked in Oxyclean overnight and still had to scrub the SN bottles to get the residue off. Most other bottles don't need any scrubbing as the label and glue is gone by morning.

Too bad I like SN so much because cleaning their bottles is a chore.

Yes, thank you! I thought I was the only one who dislikes the glue residue from SN!

Hot, hot but not boiling water and any one of the percarbonate cleaners will do the trick! After I soak mine for about 2 hours I pull the label off then scrub with a 3M pad/scrub pad under the hot faucet and get all but the SN bottles perfectly cleaned on the outside!
 
Soak in Ammonia and Water mix.

I usually use 1/2 gal of ammonia to 3 gal of very hot water in a 5 gallon bucket, hold the bottle under the solution with rubber gloves on, until they fill up and sink, let it soak for a few minutes and most fall or peel right off. Repeat process using the same bucket until all of your bottles are label free.

I've also filled a 30 gal trash can up with bottles, then added hot water and ammonia and removed the labels from a hundred+ at a time. Works like a charm.

I've also found that the stronger the solution the faster the laebls come off, tried a gal of ammonia and a gal of water, they game off as soon as the labels got wet.

Cheap too, ammonia is usually only a dollar or two for a gallon.
 
Goose Island bottles are a sonofagun to get off, for some reason oxyclean doesn't touch their glue.
 
For labels held on with polymerized whale snot or similarly impossible to remove glue, I try in this order:
  1. hot water
  2. with soap
  3. straight simple green
  4. cooking oil

Yep, salad oil. If stuff is not soluble in a water mixture, it may be soluble in oil. I end up with a tough plastic scrub pad and veggie oil, then wash off the residue with soap and water.

It recently worked with Rogue labels.
 
I soak in hot water mixed with oxyclean. In about 20 min or so labels peel right off and 10 min more use a green scrubby and glue comes right off. Easy peazy.
 
Baking soda, 1 cup in 5 gallon bucket of hot water, labels float off with little work... Except earlier mentioned crazy insane glued labels. But MOST LABELS just float off or easily wipe away in baking soda after like 15 minutes.
 
Try a large amount of baking soda in your overnight soak...I mean a lot. You can get whole boxes from the Dollar Store, real cheep probably just a dollar!
 
Here's what I do which is something like mufflerbearing said.
1-put about 3.5 gallons of cold water in a 5 gallon bucket w/measured amt of OxyClean.
2-collect bottles as you drink and when you get 12 put them in the bucket.
3-begin collecting emptys again and when you have 12 swap what's in the bucket. By then the labels should be off.

Easy Squeezy no need gloves or hot water. Of course only works if you keep your "bottle line" progressing....
 
+1 for Oxiclean.

I fill an ice chest with a heaping scoop, soak for 12-24 hours and most of the labels have already come off the bottles when I go to empty the ice chest. This last batch of bottles I did I took a green scotch bright pad to each bottle and it got the rest of the glue residue off with a couple of wipes.

I've found Firestone labels are the easiest labels to get off.
 
Ammonia is the cheapest way. I used to use a couple cups in a five gallon bucket of hot water, and the labels would just fall right off.

Nowadays I use various oxygen cleaners, and they work just as well - but they are more expensive. I use these cleaners just because they work so well on cleaning gunk from the inside of bottles, also.

As far as labels go - ammonia is the cheapest way to do it.
 
Ammonia is the cheapest way. I used to use a couple cups in a five gallon bucket of hot water, and the labels would just fall right off.

Nowadays I use various oxygen cleaners, and they work just as well - but they are more expensive. I use these cleaners just because they work so well on cleaning gunk from the inside of bottles, also.

As far as labels go - ammonia is the cheapest way to do it.

Really? I can get a tub of no name brand type oxygen cleaner for pretty cheap.

Painted lables. OK, haven;t tried this but we used to use bug spray, lysol and a few other products to get logos off plastic when shooting video.
 
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