Oh god.

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RosettaSt0ned

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Screw everything about cleaning bottles/peeling labels. OxiClean made it easier, but never again. Never. I will gladly pay for new bottles at my LHBS for each new batch. Never again. Never.

I'm sorry, but after 2 hours and barely 40 bottles to show for it, I had to get that off my chest.

Never.
 
Meh, I just leave the labels on.

They'd been sitting for quite a while in anticipation of my first brew (which I neglected to do for a long time, another regret) and hadn't been rinsed after use, so I had to soak them to clean them. I thought to myself "might as well peel the labels while I'm doing this!"

If I had a time machine, I'd use it to go back in time and bitchslap myself for having that thought.
 
spittingglass said:
They'd been sitting for quite a while in anticipation of my first brew (which I neglected to do for a long time, another regret) and hadn't been rinsed after use, so I had to soak them to clean them. I thought to myself "might as well peel the labels while I'm doing this!"

If I had a time machine, I'd use it to go back in time and bitchslap myself for having that thought.

Ah. I also rinse bottles with hot water immediately after pouring, so a shot of sanitizer immediately before filling is all I really have to worry about.
 
How long did you soak them. I have cleaned and de-labeled over 200 bottles. I put the bottles in a bucket with Oxyclean for a day or two. The labels almost fall off. A little scrubbing with a nylon scrubby to get the glue off. I usually do just a few at a time. For me free and a little cleaning far outweighs the price of buying new bottles. I did but enough for my first batch and half of the second batch. I didn't allow time for collecting empties.
 
40 bottles in two hours? You are doing something wrong. I de-label and clean up probably 15 at a time in about 10 minutes. The key is to soak them for a day to loosen the labels. Works very well with minimal work. Trying to rush it defeats the purpose of soaking in oxiclean.
 
I soak mine in water with baking soda overnight.

Then I line them up like a firing squad against my fence, secured with bungees at top and bottom. And let the business end of my pressure washer have it's way with them. I can clean 48 bottles front and back in about 5-15 minutes depending.

I use an old cheap tarp to collect the labels and move on.
 
Come to the dark side. Once you keg you will never go back.

actually I do have a stash of flip-top bottles for when I bottle. They are awesome. I just run them thru the dishwasher.
 
AMonkey said:
40 bottles in two hours? You are doing something wrong. I de-label and clean up probably 15 at a time in about 10 minutes. The key is to soak them for a day to loosen the labels. Works very well with minimal work. Trying to rush it defeats the purpose of soaking in oxiclean.

Well, there's the problem. I soaked them for about an hour, I was scared of getting the dreaded OxiClean residue and had read an hour was sufficient.

Some labels (specifically Bell's Two Hearted Ale, Magic Hat, Flying Dog) came off smooth like butter, but the Loose Cannon/Rogue labels clung as if they were attached by the personally preferred adhesive of The Lord Almighty Himself.
 
40 bottles in two hours? You are doing something wrong. I de-label and clean up probably 15 at a time in about 10 minutes. The key is to soak them for a day to loosen the labels. Works very well with minimal work. Trying to rush it defeats the purpose of soaking in oxiclean.

This. I've used bleach and oxyclean. I prefer oxy. But I let them go for a couple days. Then rinse and peel labels. after that amount of time most of the labels are already off laying in the water. The rest come right off no problem and a blue scrubby under running water gets the glue off really easy. At this point, if any labels are still stuck on good they meet the trash can.
 
Well, there's the problem. I soaked them for about an hour, I was scared of getting the dreaded OxiClean residue and had read an hour was sufficient.

Even if you have really hard water which results in the deposits from a long soak time, a quick rinse with anything slightly acidic will take it right off. If you use star-san to sanitize, that'll do the trick.
 
I bought myself a big plastic tub from wal-mart for $5, a healthy amount of oxy, the tub can fit about 60 bottles, let them soak 24-48, possibly 96 hours (depends on how lazy I am) very rarely will I have any residual glue. A rinse from a bottle rinser, hang on the tree to dry. Less then an hour of total work for enough bottles for a 5 gallon batch of beer.
 
I use a two bucket system for cleaning bottles. oxyclean, and they can just stay in there for as long as they need to, at least overnight. From there I pull them out, usually the labels and most of the glue just falls right off, and I rinse the bottle once real quick just to get as much residue as possible off. Then they go into bucket #2 which is filled with a vinegar and water solution. Star San works, but I use vinegar because I think it might be cheaper. (I could be wrong about this).

Once the oxy bucket is empty and the acid bucket is full, I put dirty bottles back into it, and empty and rinse the bottles in the acid bucket. When it's time to bottle, I squirt star san into each bucket, and right in with the beer.

I reuse the oxy repeatedly, it gets kind of nasty, but I don't care.

When the acid bucket starts to get slimy from the oxy residue, I either add more vinegar or completely replace the solution. From what I can tell, it's the ph that breaks down the oxy residue. That's why I try to rinse at least a little bit of oxy off before they go into the acid bucket.
 
skiingimpy said:
I use a two bucket system for cleaning bottles. oxyclean, and they can just stay in there for as long as they need to, at least overnight. From there I pull them out, usually the labels and most of the glue just falls right off, and I rinse the bottle once real quick just to get as much residue as possible off. Then they go into bucket #2 which is filled with a vinegar and water solution. Star San works, but I use vinegar because I think it might be cheaper. (I could be wrong about this).

Once the oxy bucket is empty and the acid bucket is full, I put dirty bottles back into it, and empty and rinse the bottles in the acid bucket. When it's time to bottle, I squirt star san into each bucket, and right in with the beer.

I reuse the oxy repeatedly, it gets kind of nasty, but I don't care.

When the acid bucket starts to get slimy from the oxy residue, I either add more vinegar or completely replace the solution. From what I can tell, it's the ph that breaks down the oxy residue. That's why I try to rinse at least a little bit of oxy off before they go into the acid bucket.

I think I may adopt a system like this if I don't just buy new bottles every time. I'm not as pissed as I was last night, so I can think about it rationally now and this makes sense. I will definitely let the bottles soak for a longer period of time should I go the bottle cleaning route again.

Girlfriend's on her way over right now to help me bottle, and soon I will be drinking My Precious.
 
On the plus side once you get the labels off you'll never have to worry about getting them off again. Unless you decide to label your own beer in which case some masking tape and a sharpie works great for that. The sanitizing is the easy part.
 
bwirthlin said:
On the plus side once you get the labels off you'll never have to worry about getting them off again. Unless you decide to label your own beer in which case some masking tape and a sharpie works great for that. The sanitizing is the easy part.

I'm not going to label this batch, but I will have to with the next (that I'm going to brew today). I'm going to split the batch into two fermenters and pitch a different yeast in each, so labeling that batch will be necessary to differentiate between the two yeast strands.
 
I use the bathtub and oxyclean. Fill it up and add a bunch of oxyclean, dump all bottles in, submerge them all, leave for 2 hours or more. Just do it before you go to work or take a nap or something. Drain, labels will fall off. It takes about 5 seconds to scrub the remaining glue off.

Some labels will not come off with oxyclean. The plasticy ones will need to be peeled off and will leave near impossible to remove glue on the bottles. It's not hard. You're either not using enough oxyclean or not soaking long enough.
 
I will definitely let the bottles soak for a longer period of time should I go the bottle cleaning route again.Some labels (specifically Bell's Two Hearted Ale, Magic Hat, Flying Dog) came off smooth like butter, but the Loose Cannon/Rogue labels clung as if they were attached by the personally preferred adhesive of The Lord Almighty Himself.
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Spittin you were closer to the answer in your first post. Anyone who has labels fall right off have never dealt with pressure applied labels. Yes the cold glued bottle labels will come right off. The pressure applied will not except with a lot of effort, and the glue, after you finally get the label off, will still require using an oil or something. Best thing is to avoid the pressure applied labels. More soaking is not the answer. Look at the thread #10 in the above posts. Add to the list when you come across something difficult. The basic history of bottle labels is that before the no deposit bottles everyone used cold glued labels because it was easy to wash off the labels and reuse the bottles. Now they don't reuse bottles so some bottlers switched to pressure sensitive because of cost and ease of use.
 
emjay said:
Ah. I also rinse bottles with hot water immediately after pouring, so a shot of sanitizer immediately before filling is all I really have to worry about.

I've been doing that as well, but I am not always the one rinsing, and I have a fair number of my bottles that now have a slight ring around the bottom on the inside where the sediment was. If I had to compare it to something, it would be more like a light film like soap residue in the shower, rather than the gunk you find around the top of a carboy. I notice it, but not everyone can even see it (I think they need glasses or are just not as attentive as I am). I have used them in this condition, but I fear it is not good practice.

I am thinking about mixing up a batch of PBW and filling a couple oz in each bottle, and that seems easier than a trashcan full of mix and bottles, but it still seems like it will be quite a PITA...

Anyone got any better (read easier, quicker, more effective) methods???

I do want to keep clean bottles, but I am generally lazy and at least try to find the easiest way to do something.
 
Look, I hate to be that guy, but well, I am that guy. Consistently.

Kegging will change your life.

(Bottling dudes- get off my back. If dude was SO UPSET at this aspect of bottling home brewed beer that he needed to create a novel post on the forum about it, then that dude could just have easily saved parts of the three paychecks he's had since the first post and gotten started on a real kegging system, and been much happier for it. To each his own, and I suspect OP here will be happier with kegs).
 
emjay said:
Meh, I just leave the labels on.

Me too. Why mess with them. Just rinse out your bottles after you pour them and there is never any problem.
 
Look, I hate to be that guy, but well, I am that guy. Consistently.

Kegging will change your life.

(Bottling dudes- get off my back. If dude was SO UPSET at this aspect of bottling home brewed beer that he needed to create a novel post on the forum about it, then that dude could just have easily saved parts of the three paychecks he's had since the first post and gotten started on a real kegging system, and been much happier for it. To each his own, and I suspect OP here will be happier with kegs).

I bottled at first. Went as long as I could bottling before shifting over to kegging. There's nothing quite like being able to pull a pint, or a 12oz glass (for those that are lighter-weights) or even filling a 22-23oz glass with home brew. No worrying about any sediment in the bottle getting into the brew, different carbonation levels between bottles, bottle bombs, over/under carbonation, and the list goes on. Plus, you can still bottle off of kegs/tap if you want to (not difficult at all).

HAD I known about how kegging would be, I would have made the switch sooner.
 
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