Best and Worst Bottles for lable removal.

[sak1134]

The Mrs. is doing some custom etched beer bottles for a friend. To obtain the bottles for this project I was forced to consume 6 six packs of various makers brews. (Please contain your sympathies for my plight). Having gotten said 36 bottles empty I then removed the labels using the soak in oxyclean and hot water method and unsuprisingly discovered that some labels floated away easily and some were a pain. So I thought it might be worth sharing which was which. Please add your experiences below and I will keep an updated list if anyone thinks the info will be useful.

Easy label removal
Shock top Honey Crisp Apple Wheat (Probably true of any ST beer)
Left Hand Milk Stout
Shipyard Pumpkinhead



Difficult label removal.
Southern Tier (Multiple Varieties)


Steve

 

[dyqik]

Very Easy:
Anchor

Easy in PBW:
Sierra Nevada
Smuttynose - except one or two seasonals

 

[adamranders]

Very easy: New Glarus

 

[bossman]

Easy:
Lakefront

Difficult:
Rogue
Captain Lawrence

 

[GHBWNY]

Difficult label removal.
Southern Tier (Multiple Varieties)

Ditto Southern Tier.

 

[obie]

No problemo for PBW:
Sam Adams

 

[MaxStout]

Two Brothers Brewing. Soaking with water does nothing, as the labels are plastic (think: bumper stickers). Fill the bottle with hot tap water, wait a minute for the glass to get warm. Peel off label. If there is any adhesive left on the bottle, a bit of nail polish remover or Goof Off will take it off. Easy-peasy.

 

[JonM]

Duvel labels fall off you just look at them funny.

 

[MaxStout]

It seems like most of the Euro beers have labels that come right off. Drop the bottle in plain water for a couple hours and the label will be floating in it.

 

[jschein]

Easy - Rebel IPA, Guinness Extra Stout

Difficult - anything Southern Tier

 

[m00ps]

Umm Im not sure what everyones issues are with southern tier. I was able to get them off perfectly even before using PBW to soak bottles. The adhesive they use reacts a lot to heat. If you simply run the bottle under hot water for about 60 sec, it always comes off in one clean piece

The 22oz bombers are a different story though...

 

[GaBrewZoo]

The easiest I've found are New Belgium And Sierra Nevada.

 

[andrewf1985]

If your having issues with the glue residue not coming over, peanut butter has been my best friend. Dont mock until youve tried. It removed glue residue from a fridge label that nail polish remover and a couple of other solvents couldnt. Champagne bottle glue, no problems. Just smear it on, leave for a minute and rub off.

 

[mkyl428]

Easy:
Sierra Nevada


$%#@ing stupid hard :
Prairie Artisan Ales ( I just throw them away...)

 

[mattv21]

$%#@ing stupid hard :
Prairie Artisan Ales ( I just throw them away...)

I agree 100%. They are ridiculous.

 

[beergolf]

Easy

Victory
Bell's

 

[bruteforce]

Easy: Dogfish Head

Hard: jolly pumpkin

 

[Zekk]

Easy: Firestone Walker

 

[day_trippr]

Back when I bottled I kept to long necks exclusively, and found that Sam Adams labels were about the easiest to remove with a hot soak in soapy water with a bit of ammonia. Interestingly (to me, anyway) some of their labels were stupid fast to fall off while others took much longer.

Wachusetts, Mayflower, and Harpoon were pretty close, DFH required post-delabeling scrubbing to get the glue residue off.

The all-time hardest was Mad River (VT). The stupid efftards used a solvent-based adhesive.
I chucked the empty sixer and never bought another of their beers just on principle...

Cheers!

 

[steven_mac]

Soak just about any bottle in Oxi Clean for an hour and labels practically call off. If there are stubborn labels that don't fall off after that, I usually just toss them.

 

[QuadConPana]

Easy

Victory
Bell's

Before Bell's was a brewery, they were an HBS. I'm sure that's why their labels are so easy.

 

[indymedic]

Easy: Bells and New Galarus
Hard: Not your fathers root beer. Bought a sixer during the hype. The label backs are foil and they use good adhesive.

 

[jpb2716]

I tend to only save stubby bottles...

Easy - Sierra Nevada, Founders, Firestone Walker

Difficult - Fatheads

 

[wazzu1991]

Easy: Deschutes

Don't Bother Elysian

 

[Floored]

Odell bottles are the easiest I've tried.

 

[slym2none]

I get the feeling we have done this before... anyway, I will once again share my experiences.

DFH, Victory, Great Lakes, SamAd, Sierra Nevada, Green Flash, and even Angry Orchard & Woodchuck for ciders, all come off easy to very easy.

Brooklyn Brewery, Hi-Wire, & Wicked Weed are all immediately recycled & not worth trying to de-label. I hate those plastic sticker-labels with adhesive that nothing seems to react to (at least, not without getting into the more volatile chemicals, & I ain't gonna get out gasoline or naptha just to remove a label).

 

[Yesfan]

The easiest I've found are New Belgium And Sierra Nevada.

Totally agree. I'd also add:


Sweetwater
Dogfishhead
Bells
Schlafly
Red Hook
BBC


Two that are hard are Yazoo and Red Brick. I love their beers, but I don't even bother saving their bottles.


On another note.

I don't know if you use a wing capper or not, but I've noticed the top of the bottles (the shoulder??) can be different among brands too, so that might be something to also look for as far as easier capping bottles are concerned. I have a Red Baron wing capper (what came with my kit), and it does a good job depending on the bottles I use.

Here's a pic.

The bottle on the left is from Red Brick. The one on the right is from Abita. See how deeper the shoulder goes on the left bottle? My capper does very well with those bottles. Bottles like the one on the right, I just chuck them to the recycler. The capper doesn't have as much leverage with the smaller shoulder, so the caps (imo) don't seem to crimp as tight with them.

 

[Natdavis777]

Very Easy : 3Floyds, Bells, Dogfish, Lagunitas

 

[Grinder12000]

Very easy: New Glarus 0 and you can dump the beer and not feel bad about it - that HATE home brewers and there beer is almost macro now!

 

[Yesfan]

Very easy: New Glarus 0 and you can dump the beer and not feel bad about it - that HATE home brewers and there beer is almost macro now!

Ouch.



I remember when the (original) BrewingTV crew visited them. They seemed to be welcomed there. Maybe their attitude's changed since then? I'm guessing, because of the name, Northern Brewer's Specked Heifer is a clone or near clone of Spotted Cow?

 

[Grinder12000]

They dislike home brewers because we are so arrogant and are asking questions trying to make ourselves look smart and steal their recipes!

Many breweries in Wisconsin will almost GIVE you their recipes.

 

[jspain3]

Good to know about Red Brick. I just bought a case from Costco and was planning on using the empties. May have to recycle them instead. Il also add Jekyll Brewing to the 'Don't even bother' list. Unless they've changed their labeling system, I had more problems with they're labels than any other.

 

[shellsbells]

I've been cleaning bottles for the last hour or so, and I can say that Muskoka's new labels come off pretty easily.

 

[liljohn]

Russian river cork and cage bottles have adhesive that is tough, same with Troegs corked bottles. Avery's foil on the top is also a pain in the but

 

[slym2none]

I had a Green Man IPA last night, was nervously picking at the label, and it ended up coming off in one piece, leaving no adhesive behind. This is the first sticker-type label that didn't leave nigh-invulnerable glue behind on the bottle.