labels??

So does anyone go so far as to label their beer? The second end of this would be that I don't buy empty bottles so they already have other peoples labels on them. Does anyone know a good way to get those off?

Until recently I would have told you to soak them in oxyclean ..HOWEVER I am having fits with the film it leaves behind in the bottles so I am just using hot soapy water and then a scotch brite pad...works about as well with no residue. As for YOUR labels, I just mark the caps with what is in it and bottling date.

I heard TSP also works, but have never tried any.. Most of my beer is from New Glarus and a hot water soak got the labels off. The rest I didn't worry about.

As for labeling.. I go through it too fast to justify the cost/time!!! I do label the bottle caps with an abbreviation. IPA, POR (porter), etc

I soak in a small amount of OxyClean Free to remove the labels. It rinses pretty cleanly, but yeah, you do need to rinse it.

I do label my beers. I design 3.5 inch square labels in Photoshop, layout a "6-up" page (6 labels on a standard 8.5x11 page), print out one copy and take that to Staples to make color copies. The color copies won't run when they get damp the way my ink jet ink does. It comes out to somewhere around $6 for 48 labels. I glue the labels on the bottles with glu-stic which holds well enough, but comes off easily with water.

I just soak my bottles in hot water. For the most part, the labels come right off. For the stuff that doesn't, I soak it longer then scrub with a scouring pad (the copper kind, not brillo pads or something too fine). After that, I wash and serilize them.

Putting on my own, I only do that if I'm shipping beers out of my friends or for special occasions. Like Captain Damage, I use photoshop as well. My main body labels are 4x3 inches and for the neck, they are 1 1/2x4 with a slight angle cut on the edges. They don't fit the necks perfectly, but they do okay. I just use plain old Elmer's glue to put the labels on, but I like the idea of going to Staples. Probably much better quality than the home printer style.

I use a laser printer to print my labels and I use milk instead of glue. To get commercial labels off, I just soak my bottles into hot water + sanitizer (in my case it is Oxysan).

I use oxiclean, but I always rinse them with water and then run them through the dishwasher so I've never had the film from oxiclean to worry about.

I also hate removing labels so I label all my brews with these: http://www.staples.com/Avery-Round-...-Coding-Labels-Assorted-Colors/product_297705

Fits just right on the bottle cap so every time I crack one open, the label comes off and goes into the garbage with the cap

I like the multi-color ones because each brew I use a different color which makes it easier to identify which is which.

oh, and you can find the word templates on Avery.com for printing them if needed too

I just got done with 2 cases of bottles. I used sun oxygen cleaner. It is an oxy clean free knock off. Labels floated right off. Had a good mix. SN , bells, Michigan brewery, and a couple others. Only one I had an issue with was a Smithwicks. They use those metal like labels. Once I soaked it a bit I peeled off the top layer dropped it back in the bucket and like the rest they fell off and the glue was completely dissolved.

Soak in a bucket of Oyxclean over night and the labels just fall off, and a quick wipe with my hand removes the residue. I bought some 3/4" round Avery labels that I run through my printer (24 per page) and then I stick them on the bottle cap. I just put the date and beer type on them.

I label my beer with the 3/4" round "rummage sale" labels. These come in sheets of 24 and are easy to run through a printer.

I also soak the labels off with the "Sun" Oxyclean knock-off. I print my own labels on my color laser printer and put them on with milk. It is amazing how well the milk works.