plastic heineken and amstel light labels

I'm new to homebrewing (hello!) and I'm hoping to bottle my first brew tomorrow. I only have amstel light and heineken bottles, both of which have the clear plastic contact labels. (By way of explanation, i work in a martini bar, and the only non-twisty bottles we serve are those (our beer selection is sad).)

The problem is, my bottles have already been soaking for several hours in brewer's edge cleanser, and they've shown no indication of letting go of their labels. I searched previous posts for help on this, but i couldn't find any way to get the labels off that didn't require scraping/scrubbing/boiling every bottle painstakingly. I'm hoping to find something to soak them in that wouldn't require quite as much effort.

I think i may try paint thinner or some other petroleum based product (followed of course by a thorough washing/rinsing/sanitizing) but i wonder if anyone else has any thoughts on this.

P.S. i think after this i might start collecting champagne bottles, which seems easier.

benner

Do you have access to a corker? If not, you can forget about wine or champagne bottles.

i find that if i let the bottles warm up to room temp or warmer the labels peel off pretty easy. i just peels a case of amstel light bottles today in less than ten minutes and most of the stick residue came off with the labels. maybe sticking them out in the sun to warm up during the day will help even more. hope this helps you.

I put heineken bottles in the bathtub, fill above the bottles with hot water and douse on some oxyclean free. 15 minutes later, the heat has made the lable somewhat pliable enough to pick a corner with your fingernail. Then use a pair of pliers to grab the label and yank it off. Drop it back in the water. 15 minutes later you can use a pot scrubber or brillo pad (brillo is way quicker) and all the adhesive comes off as well. Rinse thoroughly and you're ready to go.

Oxyclean free also removes paper labels if left to soak in the same solution.

It's a lot easier than it sounds, trust me. I've got dozens of heineken bottles that I've done this way and it's not much more time consuming than the paper labels.

oxy-clean, clean-a, one-step, and star-san should all be able to soak those off.
or a light bleach soak. something to dissolve the gum a little.

thanks for the help everyone! a lot more specific than the previous posts i read.

as for the champagne bottles, i found plastic champagne corks and wire cages at midwest supplies. i haven't received them yet, but i'm going to try one or two with my next batch.

benner

let us know how it goes with those champagne bottles!

I always just throw them into a tub of water with the appropriate amount of bleach and leave them there for a day or two. When I come back the labels just melt right off. Then I store them in 24 pack boxes until it is time to bottle. then I sanitize. =)

Those plastic lables can be a PITA if you choose to remove them. Thats why I dont.

If you go with champagne bottles make sure that a regular beer cap will fit it. Some do, some dont.

- magno