Removing old Bottle labels

Im a rather cheap lad and don't buy empty bottles from my brew supplier. Mostly on principle, 11.95 for 24 empty bottles!!!???? So I raid my bar owning buddy's trash on magic hat bottle night. It is a pain in the ass to remove the labels and the adhesive. Any tips?

Put them in a bucket of oxyclean for a day and they come right off.

I soak them in warm water then use a stainless steel scrubby to remove glue and labels works great!!!

Hopstep said:

I soak them in warm water then use a stainless steel scrubby to remove glue and labels works great!!!

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Add oxyclean to that and no need at all for the scrubbing. Labels float off entirely.

+1 on Oxyclean. Best stuff in the world. Some labels may require a little scrubbing, but most will just peel right off with no trouble...and it will get the gunk out if you didn't rinse them out well!

+1 on Oxyclean, but you may have to scrub. Will also take painted lables off.

I recently used oxyclean for the first time... worked like a charm.. left in for day/two and didn't require any scrubbing.

just make sure that the oxiclean has no dies or scents and it works great

i can do 2 cases of bottles at a time in the sink in my basement

I just run over the label with a razor blade knife, and remove most of the paper. I then use a green scotchbrite pad to remove the rest including the glue.

LibertyBrewer said:

I just run over the label with a razor blade knife, and remove most of the paper. I then use a green scotchbrite pad to remove the rest including the glue.

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Thats way too much work

Offereing the opposing opinion:

I use powdered brewery wash. Sometimes I cycle bottles through once an hour. Really quick & easy.

DtownRiot said:

Im a rather cheap lad and don't buy empty bottles from my brew supplier. Mostly on principle, 11.95 for 24 empty bottles!!!???? So I raid my bar owning buddy's trash on magic hat bottle night. It is a pain in the ass to remove the labels and the adhesive. Any tips?

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wish my Grolsch bottles were that cheep.... I usually get them for $1-1.25 each bottle

+1 to Oxyclean. Works like a charm...just be sure to rinse the bottles really well. Then, rinse 'em again.

-Tripod

What is a powdered brewery wash? thanks to all who responded. Overwhelming majority said oxi so i'm gonna go for that.

+1 on oxy! I use to soak them in hot water for days and scrub the bottles like an idiot to get the remaining label off now a nice hot oxy bath and they fall right off.

I'm really surprised at all the comments about Oxyclean (btw, someone should tell that guy who makes it to go to a professional to get his hair dyed....His dye job is horribly obvious! Sorry...I'm a son of a hairdresser....) and that the labels come off in a day's worth of soaking....A DAY?!?!?! A WHOLE DAY?!?!?! I just fill up my basement sink (huge thing) with water and the Step 3 Detergent/Sanatizer(or 3 Step, can't remember which it is) and the labels usually come off with ease after a 30 minute soaking.

I just have to take a spounge and wipe off a little bit of glue and then dry them.

I use oxyclean let them soak for a few hours and the labels come off eaiser.

I use Oxiclean, and when I use it in hot water I've had them fall off in minutes...but I usually leave them in the olution for hours or days just because I'm lazy as hell.

i use hot water and a gree nscratchy pad and am done with all of them in 20-30 min... you should not be afraid of a little elbow grease guys cmon!!!

You've been brainwashed. Work is a 4 letter word!

I if they are bottles I opened I soak them in water overnight and use a scotchpad to push the labels off. No biggie.

If they are gimmes/found I soak them in a tub with water+bleach overnight and do the same. German .5L and the new Bud Ale bottles are particularly easy to delabel.

Gonefishing said:

I use Oxiclean, and when I use it in hot water I've had them fall off in minutes...but I usually leave them in the olution for hours or days just because I'm lazy as hell.

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+1 I bet it would be fine in a 1/2 hr but that is too much work in too short of a time.

I baked two cases worth of bottles with the labels still on. I'm not too sure I'd do it again, it smelled kinda funny. All the beer and cider tastes good to me, so I don't think any weird chemicals got into the brew when I bottled, but I sure was glad I picked a day my roommate wasn't home once I got the oven up above 200 degrees.

All the labels survived just fine, too. It's funny to hand somebody a bottle of homebrew with some random label on it...

Do you mean Oxaclean like I would buy at the grocery store for laundry?

batchbrew said:

Do you mean Oxaclean like I would buy at the grocery store for laundry?

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I get mine at Wally-World (read "Wal-Mart").

Use water as hot as you can get it and the labels slide off in no time. Some are fully clean in about an hour but I usually fill the sink and then soak about 12-18 bottles overnight just to be thorough. In the morning, I can literally just wipe off any remaining glue...

-Tripod

Here once again, I stand on my lone island at my approach to brewing.

I'm ok with that. I'll mix up a bacth of Powdered Brewery wash & go at it. Search at austin or northern brewer, I'm sure they have it.

I have never met a label I can't remove in less than 4 hours w/ a batch of PBW sitting beside the woodstove!


Lone Island Brewery. That has a nice ring to it.

I really like the shrink-wrapped labels like Guinness Draught and Drake's Brewing stuff comes in. A quick swipe down the side with a razor knife and off you go.

I use Washing Soda from arm & hammer, 30 min to 1hr soak, and the labels peel right off, then the glue wipes off with a cloth (and its dirt cheap).

Just soak them and use a spatula to scrape them off. If you are really so desperate then buy the "Straight A" cleanser which is made to help labels come off, and works.

-soak bottles in favorite solution
-drink 3 - 4 beers
-crank up ipod - insert ear buds - cue up some rock or blues
-open another beer and use a plastic kitchen scraper
-keep breakage to a minimum