Bottle Label Removing

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KDM

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I got the Basic Brewing DVD, and on it they suggest soaking bottles in warm water for a while, then peeling the labels off as best you can, then using a stainless steel scouring pad to take off the rest of the gunk. I tried it, and it works as advertised. I used a large ice chest in leiu of a large sink, and found the water gunked up terribly - which means I had to change it out between bottle batches, and had to dump it out in the yard for fear I'd clog my drains inside. The scouring pad also gunked up 'til it was unusable.

Next time around, I had seen here on HBT where an overnight soak in warm to hot water spiked with OxyClean will cause the labels to remove themselves. So I gave it a shot, and it also worked as advertised. The labels literally floated off all by themselves, and I was left with nice neat waste water. Also involved no scouring pad whatever. A distinct improvement!

On de-label session no. 3 -- each of these sessions invloved about two cases worth of bottles -- I used too-tepid water and/or not enough OxyClean, evidently, as I was back to a lot of what I describe in the first paragraph, and that's a lotta work...

On session no. 4, I made sure the water was plenty hot, nearly too much to stand sticking an arm in, but not enough to cause scalding, and added half a scoop of OxyClean, and was back to second paragraph results. De-labeling is as painless as it's ever gonna get using this method. The ice chest keeps the water nice and hot for a couple days, too.

I also can't praise my Fermtech double bottle rinser enough . . . I love that dude!! :D
Fermtech Bottle Washers, Avvinator Bottle Rinser/Sanitizer and Bottle Drainers - Wine Making Superstore!

Just thought I'd share... :)
 
Nice write up. I just got done cleaning up a dozen bottles or so, and I found that the labels on the Bell's bottles were the hardest to get off. Anyone know why?
 
some just are more adhesive than others I guess.
I just cleaned a batch of various brands; Sam Adams, Konig Ludwig, Dos Equis, Corona and Smithwick's.

Put about 60 in a large tub filled with warm water and oxyclean. Let it sit over night. The Sam Adam's fell off the easiest. I basically just pulled the bottles out and the labels were sitting in the water. Corona obviously are the hardest since I think they paint theirs on. I think I read a post from Revvy about how he let them sit in water for about a week or more and found they started to come off.

Dos Equis caused me some problems at first. After 24 hours of soaking they peeled off partially but left a lot of their backing to the bottle still. I found if I just removed the front part after a 24 hour soak...returned them to the water for another 24 hours, then scrubbed them with a bottle brush, the residue came right off.
 
I soaked the bottles in hot water overnight, the next day peeled off main label some were cleaner than others then I placed bottles back in water for another day and then took paper towels and sprayed windex on them and it seems to eat the rest of the sticky right off and you have a clean bottle.
 
How much oxyclean do you guys use to get the labels off?

I did my first batch (60 bottles) in a large container with approximately 12.5 gallons of hot water and I think I used way too much oxyclean (4 whole scoops). After a couple laps in the dishwasher to clean out the bottles I sill think that I can taste some off flavor from the the oxyclean (slight burning?).
 
Yes some are worse than others. Also, I just use hot water and let them soak and they nearly all come off after an hour. Just a bit of scrubbing with green pads to remove residue. Have not tried oxy-clean yet.

Guinness bottles have a peelable plastic label and the shape is sexy, so you can use those and not have to peel labels either. The widget that is inside comes out with needlenose pliers easy enough too.
 
Ok, I think the main reason I was having trouble is that it's actually Oxiclean, not Oxyclean. I searched for both on Walmart.com and didn't get any hits. Would it be near the laundry detergents?
 
I've used the oxi clean method too, but find only an hour or two and they're good to go. I use about 1/2 - 1 scoop for about 5 gallons worth of water, I guess. Depends on how many bottles I'm doing. I have a big rubbermaid container I soak the bottles in, and then have a smaller one that just has clean water in it. When I'm doing the label removal, I'll pull the label off and wipe off any paper/glue residue with a sponge, and then spin the bottle in the clean water a couple times to rinse it off, then let the bottles dry.

Also, I find that the oxi clean dries the crap out of my hands, noticeable for a couple days after the fact, so I use dish gloves whenever I de-label now.

Oh, and you can get oxi clean in the laundry detergent section of a grocery store or dept. store.
 
Ok, I think the main reason I was having trouble is that it's actually Oxiclean, not Oxyclean. I searched for both on Walmart.com and didn't get any hits. Would it be near the laundry detergents?

yes.
look at your grocery store too...I just pick up the off-brand, it works fine too.

I'll oxi-clean all my bottles a few days in advance...to get all the gunk out and get the labels off. Then rinse them and place them in the sanitizing solution on bottling day or the day before. Then run them through the dishwasher on the rinse/dry cycle only. That way the outsides get rinsed and the heat sanitizes every thing else...and their dry!
 
carona bottles can only be taken off with industrial grade acid from a science shop.

I have tried soaking them in everything for 2 weeks = nothing.
boiling them = nothing. even after I boil to the point where they crack the label stays on.
sand gun worked but scratched the hell out of the bottle.

The only way I found to get this crap off is to fill each bottle with water. place them head up in a glass container and pour acid in to the ( GLASS ) container and wait a while until the label melts off. the take the bottle out and put the next one in. make sure to have a tub full of cold water to put the acid bottle in so that it dilutes. after acid bathing 20 of these bottles pull the plug in the bath tub wearing a rubber glove and rinse everything out nicely with zero chemicals.

if anyone has a easier way though please feel free to share ;)
 
carona bottles can only be taken off with industrial grade acid from a science shop.

Soak in a concentrated batch of starsan over night... wipe off the label the next day... if it's stubborn use some steel wool. Easy as pie.

I used an old coffee can (quart size) and put 1/4oz of starsan in it; filled the can with water; filled the bottle with water too so it would stay submerged; viola! Done.

:mug:
 
I think that someone should be mentioning that clear bottles are not ideal for bottling homebrew. They allow light to penetrate into the beer which causes skunking. Rather than spending all the time and energy into removing the labels, I would focus on collecting brown/amber bottles.

I will also testify to the efficiency of oxyclean. I have even used the generic version from the Dollar Store. After an hour or two, most of the labels were laying in the bottom of the sink. And for the next batch of bottles I didn't even change the water, just added the bottles and got the same result.
 
I think that someone should be mentioning that clear bottles are not ideal for bottling homebrew. They allow light to penetrate into the beer which causes skunking. Rather than spending all the time and energy into removing the labels, I would focus on collecting brown/amber bottles.

I for one store all my bottles in the basement...so light really isn't a problem for long periods at a time.
 
How much oxyclean do you guys use to get the labels off?

I did my first batch (60 bottles) in a large container with approximately 12.5 gallons of hot water and I think I used way too much oxyclean (4 whole scoops). After a couple laps in the dishwasher to clean out the bottles I sill think that I can taste some off flavor from the the oxyclean (slight burning?).
After you soak the bottles in oxiclean, give them a brief bath (a minute or two will do) in a vinegar/water solution. I fill my sink up about 2/3 with lukewarm water and add 3 capfulls (soda sized caps) of distilled white wine vinegar. After a minute or two, take the bottles out of the bath, briefly rinse out the inside with a bottle washer (or strait from the tap if you don't have a bottle washer) and you'll never have a problem with oxiclean residue. The key to preventing residue and off-flavors is to neutralize the base (oxiclean) with an acid (vinegar). In sum, it adds maybe 5 minutes to my bottle cleaning process.
 

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