Commercial beer bottle label removal difficulty

This is nothing more than a collection of commercial breweries and a description of how easy or hard their labels are to remove for the purposes of reusing for homebrew. I am merely starting the the list, so I hope others chime in with their label removal experiences. I'll try to keep the first post updated based on replies to this thread. BTW, the difficulties are all based on soaking in warm OxyClean solution for approximately 30 minutes. Here is what I have so far:

Difficulty Legend:
1: Falls off the bottle, little to no adhesive residue
2: Extremely easy, very light rubbing required for excess adhesive
3: Pretty easy, scrub pad needed for excess adhesive
4: Requires extended soaking (updated difficulty after extended soak in parentheses)
5: No loosening of the adhesive at all

Samuel Adams - 3
Sierra Nevada - 1
Harpoon - 3
Brooklyn - 4 (3)
Lagunitas - 1
Founders - 1
Belhaven - 5
Laughing Dog - 1
Weyerbacher - 1
Magic Hat - 3
New Belgium - 2.5
Summitt - 4
Great Divide - 4 or 5
Back Forty - 5
Marble Brewing - 5
Bells - 1
Shorts - 5
Dogfish Head - 0.5
Troegs - 4.5
Newcastle - 1
Tommyknocker - 5
Odell's - 2
Amstel - 5
Michelob - 2
Goose Island - 1
Kirkland Signature - 2
New Glarus - 1
Mendocino - 3.5
North Coast - 1.5
Abita - 1
Victory - 0.5
Fegley's - 5
Southern Tier Bombers - 5
Southern Tier 12 oz - 4
Otter Creek - 2
Long Trail - 2
Clown Shoes - 1.5
Fat Tire - 1
Lazy Magnolia - 4
Breckenridge - 4

Thanks to everyone who has provided additional beers so far. As was mentioned by microbusbrewery and 69Bronc have pointed out, the difficulty can vary from batch to batch if the brewery in question changes adhesive or some other factor. The difficulties indicated are based on the experience of the brewer providing the input. YMMV.

-AJ

Good info especially for people looking to collect bottles. I have a lot of bottles from Epic Brewing here in Utah (everything comes in bombers). Using your scale, some 2's and some are 5's...not sure why there'd be such a difference from the same brewery. I'm sure it's been mentioned but that Goof Off stuff works well on adhesive.

I'd put Sam Adams and New Belgium both at 2.5 on your list.

I'd put Summitt bottles at a 4

Great Divide - 4 or 5
Back Forty - 5

I really think that it depends on the batch from the brewery or something. I have had some bottles from Odell's that just had the labels fall off. Then, I have had some that would rate a 4 on your list. I also don't have the same experience with you concerning Sierra Nevada. The label comes off easy enough, but I always have to scrub the bottle to get the remaining residue off.

That said, I will add another one to avoid:

Marble Brewing - 5. These guys make great beer, but removing their labels is a major pain.

Bells - 1
Shorts - 5

Oh and sometimes Dogfish Head falls off just sitting in my beer fridge, so I'd give them a 0.5

Nice. I haven't had Dogfish Head in so long. I might pick up some this weekend. The 60 min IPA was my very first ever craft beer.

I do PBW for 1 hr and so far everything I've tried is a 1 or a 2 : Sierra, New Belgium, Bear Republic, Ballast Point, Green flash, Port brewing, Russian River, Widmer, Mad River, Ninkasi, Grand Teton - I think there's others but those I know for sure. I thought Oxyclean and PBW were equivalent but maybe not?

Troegs 4.5
I find that the potato peeler works pretty well for taking Troegs labels off after a long soak but still requires some elbow grease.

Newcastle 1

Tommyknocker 5

Odell's 2
Amstel Light 5
Michelob 2
Goose island 1

Dark Horse (MI) 5

Kirkland Signature (eastern U.S., contract brewed by Saranac) - 2

For the midwest people - New Glarus - 1. Tasty beer and labels that float off - it's a win-win!

Mendocino Brewing Company - 3.5
North Coast - 1.5

Abita - 1 or less

Victory - 0.5
Dark Horse - 5
Fegley's - 5 (you need to peel off the sticker, then use goo-gone)
Southern Tier Bombers - 5 (you need to peel off the sticker, then use goo-gone)
Southern Tier 12oz - 4 (needs extended soaking and you need your nail to peel it off)

Otter Creek / Wolavers - 2
Long Trail - 2
Clown Shoes - 1.5? (Plasticky label, requires a little effort to peel off, but it leaves absolutely nothing behind and doesnt' tear)

Fat tire 1

Tangential comment - I soak bottles for about 30 minutes in OxyClean. If the label isn't reasonably easy to remove at that point (if it takes more than about 20 seconds for the label and glue combined), I generally pitch that bottle. There are so many that are easy, I don't think it's worth my time to struggle with difficult ones.

Lazy Magnolia - 4

They don't get any better after a long soak either. I normally drop my bottles into a cooler filled with oxy clean and water, and clean them off after a day or two of soaking. Most on the list at that point are just a wipe off with a wet rag for residue.

It might be helpful to also note if the bottles are twist-off - some come in packaging where you can't see the caps.

I soak my bottles in a 10 gallon Rubbermaid container with 1/2 scoop of Oxyclean overnight.

The next day after removing the bottles from the Rubbermaid container, all the labels are in the bottom.

No scrubbing needed at all.

Breckenridge 4

Carta blanca -5
They use a label that must have aluminum in it. Soaking does not do anything to it at all. You have to scape it off and then soak for a day to get the glue off.

Noticed you didn't have

Boulevard - 1
Lucky bucket - no amount of soaking will get label off, best to peal off while bottle is sweating.

Alexander Keiths - 4

Soap, water, steel pot scrubber gets 'em all. Capping is a little more difficult as they are twist tops; opening on the other hand is easy.

Port Brewing Company 1. They slide off with a little soak in water.

Just finished a batch with the bottles below

Founders - .5 - I glanced sideways at these bottles and the labels and glue fell off and they put themselves in the dishwasher. Damn good beer too.

Magners cider - Main label - 2 foil label on top - 3
Leffe - 2
Sixth Glass - 2
Two brothers - 5+
Green Flash - 2
Samuel Smiths - 2
St. Bernardus abt 12 - 5 Plastic label unfazed by soaking

Guinness Draught - 1.5

The labels are heat-shrunk on, so a light slice with a razor blade and they drop right off. No soaking, no residue, no nitro widget, and great looking bottles.

Revolution Brewing's 22oz bottles are unfriendly. A hot soak in oxyclean water took 48 hours to get the label loosened, and did nothing to get the gunk off below the label.

rtb178 said:

Dark Horse (MI) 5

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I'd give Dark Horse a 6! Label stays on completely, but the ink disolves and leaves a scum on all the other bottle, too. My wife likes the Raspberry and I'll pick up other Dark Horse brews on occasion, but the bottles go straight in the recycle bin. The fancy new Old Rasputin labels' ink disolves, too, but at least the label comes off. Brooklyn 750's are terrible, ink stays on the label at least, but the label stays on the bottle.

Bruery labels are a PITA, too. Love the capable 750s, though.

Firestone 1. I let them sit overnight in a sink full of water and they slide off with just a finger with residue that comes off with a paper towel

I'd like to add to this:

Gordon Biersch - 1
Russian River - 4

Painted labels (Stone, Rogue) I had no luck at all. Thanks for making this such a great thread!

Smithwicks-1
Ky bourbon barrel ale- 4
Woodchuck cider-3

jmrieger said:

Guinness Draught - 1.5

The labels are heat-shrunk on, so a light slice with a razor blade and they drop right off. No soaking, no residue, no nitro widget, and great looking bottles.

Click to expand...

Please do not use these bottles. They are actually not as sound as you would imagine. Many also have flaws or visible bubbles cast into the glass.