Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

[timgman]

I was awake until 2:00 de-labeling and one-stepping 100 bottles so i could bottle my pils 5gal and honey-brown 5 gal.. one onehundred freaking bottles,,,
I planned to cover the top of the bottles with plastic wrap and bottle 7:00 AM when the wife set off for work..
Then!! the wife fell ill with the stomach flu... if your unaware of this illness, do yourself a favor and remain unaware.... it's perhaps the closest thing to death that is readily available here on earth...
Anyway, not bottling for another who knows how many days, and I'll prob have to re-sanitize 100 freaking bottles as all i had time to do was place plastic bags over the 4 cases...
Obviously the wife is more important.. but man, I have 2 kids that were sick with the virus last weekend. and i only get to bottle/brew once a month...if that...
.........And the fermenters are PLASTIC pails...
My brew is perhaps degrading because of this... geesh.. I tell ya..
My brother-in-law (C.Dante on here) and I brewed these batches on new-years.. I hope i can get them out soon....

 

[timgman]

And to top it off, say I wanted to pull an all evening bottle fest later today... I may have the virus in me and contaminate some precious brew.!!!!!!!!!!!

ARGH (charlie brown style)

 

[lil' league]

Well as long as you don't have a ton of yeast in your fermenter it should be just fine till you have the time to bottle!

 

[timgman]

yeah I just don't like to leave it in a plastic fermenter for a month....

 

[Nurmey]

Firstly, your brews are only 25 days old so they are fine where they're at for several weeks more. Instead of degrading, they are bulk aging which will make them taste much better and be much clearer.

Next, your brew cannot catch any virus from you.

As for the bottles get some Star San, a vinator bottle rinser, and a large bottle tree. It takes only a few minutes to sanitize 50 bottles with the above mentioned equipment.

Hope your wife feels better soon and you don't catch it!

 

[timgman]

yeah, I'm a walking bleach bottle right now. I only had that illness once and I never want it again. I will perhaps bottle monday evening depending on how everyone is feeling around here.
timg

 

[tom777]

As for the bottles get some Star San, a vinator bottle rinser, and a large bottle tree. It takes only a few minutes to sanitize 50 bottles with the above mentioned equipment.

+1 to this... you can make quick work of 100 bottles with this. A vinator is one of those "must-have" items for those of us who bottle.

 

[telemaster]

timgman
Sorry to hear about the unexpected delays in your bottling process. I'm sure everything will turn out fine.

I can relate to cleaning mass quantities of bottles as I washed ~190 today, and all are still waiting to have the labels removed and be rinsed one more time before storage.

Hang in there and good luck

 

[timgman]

Thanks.. I'm just waiting for the evil illness at this point.. I have 120 more bottles to de-label. if I don't fall ill I'll do that this week. I may start kegging as I've seen starter kit' son ebay for 100 ish...less the fridge...

 

[telemaster]

Tingman,
What's your trick for getting the labels off? I am trying a soak in Oxyclean as that is what I have read on this forum.

As far as getting all that nasty glue off I scrub them with lacquer thinner and a scouring pad. Maybe I'm being a bit anal, but I think it's worth it in the long run.

Cheers

 

[SCARYLARRY]

I had some 00 steel wool sitting around and it takes the glue off in seconds.

 

[RedIrocZ-28]

The easiest way to de-label is to buy Budweiser American Ale, drink it, and then soak the bottles in HOT tap water for 10 minutes. The labels slide right off.

Either way, to the OP, hope the wife and kids feel better soon. I got hit with that stomach flu and it knocked me on my ass for 2 days solid. I couldn't even think about going to work. Thats the first time I was sick enough to not be able to get out of bed since 2001! I know the feeling of Death now.

 

[telemaster]

SCARYLARRY
This is genius and then I don't have to mess with the nasty solvent and smell it for hours. The bleach was bad enough yesterday! yuck

I even have steel wool laying around the basement.

HBT and its members strike again. THANKS

 

[IrregularPulse]

OxiClean is the easiest way to remove labels IMO. fill cooler with oxiclean water, toss in bottles, check back in a couple hours, pull labeless bottles out of cooler, pull label out of cooler, dump and wash cooler. Sam Adams label are great to removing. Sierra Nevada not so much, but they have the coolest bottles.

 

[SCARYLARRY]

Telemaster

Yeah I soak them for about 5 min slide label off hit with the steel wool rinse and I'm done.

SO easy a even caveman could do it!

 

[0202]

If you let them sit longer it will eat the glue too and you will only
have to rinse with water.

 

[telemaster]

If you let them sit longer it will eat the glue too and you will only
have to rinse with water.

Effortless you say? Only need to rinse you say? Intrigued, I am, yessss. Thanks

Now, I've gone and stole enough of this thread. Timgman I hope all are making a miraculous recovery and your beer will soon be in those bottles you just spent all that time cleaning. As a good friend of mine used to say, "You can't rush a good thing."

 

[david_42]

Neither of those beers will be hurt by more time.

Children: Nature's mobile disease incubators.