Old label removal?

OK. My friends have asked me why I don't take the old labels off the bottles and put my own on. This seems like an easy question, but the answer is difficult. How in the heck do you get the old labels off?! Darn commercial brewers must be using guerrilla glue to stick them on! Tried soaking, but it just turns out messy.

Here's the best trick ever: Buy some steel scrubbies, not steel wool but the thick kind of steel scrubbies. Wet the label, scrub it for a few seconds with the scrubbie, let sit for about thirty seconds and then hit it with the scrubbie again and the labels come right off no prob. Also, as you drink the beers, take the labels off. Don't just set them aside until you take the labels of 60 in one sitting. This also makes it easier.

OXYCLEAN! All the way FTW!

Get a tub/box of the unscented stuff, put a few cups of it in a bathtub with HOT water, fill the bottles with water and let em soak for 24-48 hours. The labels will fall off! Well, except for a few brewers labels.

I fill my sink with hot water and oxyclean. Fill it with bottles (let the bottles fill with water so they sink) and let them soak for 20-30 minutes. The labels and glue that don't fall off come off easily with a scotch-brite type pad.

tetrylone said:

Here's the best trick ever: Buy some steel scrubbies, not steel wool but the thick kind of steel scrubbies. Wet the label, scrub it for a few seconds with the scrubbie, let sit for about thirty seconds and then hit it with the scrubbie again and the labels come right off no prob. Also, as you drink the beers, take the labels off. Don't just set them aside until you take the labels of 60 in one sitting. This also makes it easier.

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SOS pads or whatever they are called, work wonders. I do some sanitization right off the bat too. If have people over or am drinking some beers I will either fill my sink or a five gallon pail with water mixed with a little bleach. I throw the bottles in after I drink them and clean them all at the end of the night.

Soaking the bottles really loosens the labels, peel off as much as you can and then get some very hot water running over the bottle to loosen the glue, keep the bottle wet and scrub with soapy steel pad like explained above.

I did over 150 bottles in the last two weeks this way. You get to drink beer and you get to keep the bottles!

JOHN51277 said:

OXYCLEAN! All the way FTW!

Get a tub/box of the unscented stuff, put a few cups of it in a bathtub with HOT water, fill the bottles with water and let em soak for 24-48 hours. The labels will fall off! Well, except for a few brewers labels.

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+1. Amazingly effective.

I just soak the bottles in hot water for a few minutes, the labels then peel off fairly easily. I then use a steel wool type scrubber that is usually used for cleaning grills to remove the remaining glue and paper.

Thanks guys! That's great stuff! I never would have thought of using Oxyclean.

And after all of this work getting labels off is exactly the reason that I don't put my own labels on! I use standard mailing labels to make up labels for the caps, so I know whats in there and when it was bottled.

Riever said:

How in the heck do you get the old labels off?! Darn commercial brewers must be using guerrilla glue to stick them on!

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Drink European beers. They use a different type of glue and if you let it soak for even just a few minutes in water the labels come right off, no scrubbing at all. I just spin the bottle around in the water and it comes right off.

I save the lables for my brewing book. I keep all of the recepies/notes in a binder. The last couple pages have the labels glued to them with notes about the beer.

Lots of good advice here but if you are looking for a quick and dirty fix (little effort, not time saving) is to soak the bottles overnight in an ammonia solution.

Household ammonia is very cheap and mixed at about 1/2 cup per 5 gallons of water should be enough to dissolve most of the glue. Any part of the label that remains is easily rubbed off.

When I do this I usually find most of the labels just floating on top of the water the next morning.

Riever said:

OK. My friends have asked me why I don't take the old labels off the bottles and put my own on. This seems like an easy question, but the answer is difficult. How in the heck do you get the old labels off?! Darn commercial brewers must be using guerrilla glue to stick them on! Tried soaking, but it just turns out messy.

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I put my bottles in hot water with PBW and the labels just fall right off. I don't know why more people don't do this. Works like a charm AND your bottles are nice and clean; no scrubbing.

This is probably going to make me sound very ignorant, but I have no idea what PBW is.

Drink Sam Adams. Soak the empties in hot water overnight. Scrub off with no problem the next day.

Riever said:

This is probably going to make me sound very ignorant, but I have no idea what PBW is.

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It's a cleaning agent. Stands for Powdered Brewery Wash. Any homebrew supply should have it.

When I buy beer, I reach for Highland Brewing Company beers for this very reason. Their labels peel off cleanly and in one piece without soaking. Plus, they make some tasty brews such as St. Teresa's Pale Ale, Black Mocha Stout, and Gaelic Ale.

I just recently removed about 100 labels from bottles that friends have donated this summer and my index finger is still raw from using steel scrub pads.

A soak in hot water and baking soda for 30 minutes always worked for me. Except for Great Divide bottles for some reason..

Baking soda? See? That's the kind of thing I'm looking for. I've never been too enthused about using chemicals -- even bleach turns me off.

A few sccops of Oxy Clean in a cooler can soak 50 bottles at a time (if I use my big cooler)
Soak at least 24hrs. all but the real sticky adheasives will come loose, or those real plasticy labels. what ever doesn't come loose gets disposed of. I just don't have time to scrub bottles.

After "Label Soak" rinse, and transfer to a bleach solution, soak for a few hours cap with aluminum foil and store until ready to use. I rinse bottles before bottling, others don't. if bleach is used at recommended .5 oz per gallon drip dry is fine

I fill an old cooler with hot water and powdered dish washing soap then leave it sit over night, the labels just fall off themselves. The cooler helps to keep the water hot longer.

Just washed a couple Kirkland Signature Handcrafted beer bottles, Just filled my sink with hot water, waited 3 min (maybe) labels peeled right off leaving behind some minimal residue. Hit that with a blue scrubbie, and enough said. 3 clean bottles. Almost no work.