Bottled, but now need label gone.

[VTBrewer]

Would soaking bottled brews in hot water/oxy clean be a bad thing? I have some goof-off, but I'm already bottled and don't want that crap on my brew.

Want to enter a competition with what i have.

 

[Revvy]

Well I would think that since beer bottles are thick glass, and that it is contents under pressure...and since people for decades have chilled glass bottles in buckets of icewater and sometimes even salt in the bath, that either goo gone or soaking in oxyclean would be OK...

I would probably go with the soaking and rinsing the bottle...not becasue I would be afraid of the goo gone having contact with the beer, but it leaving an oily residue with a noticieable odor, which could possibly get tranfered from the bottle to the glass by the steward pouring the bottles, and that would possible be picked up as an off aroma by the judge...

Just make sure you seriously rinse the oxy off the bottle, so no white scale is left on it...You could after rinsing also dunk it into a weak acid like starsan to neurtilize and scale on the bottle.

 

[wh4tig0t]

Just soak them in oxyclean. After a day or two the labels should be ready to come off.

 

[BrothersBrewing]

i sometimes use powdered dishwasher soap....that plus hot water works for me let em soak for a bit even over night..use a cooler so you dont tie up your sink.

 

[jtrainer]

Depending on brewery/label I've found hot tap water soak, finger nail followed by a SS scrubbie removes it all.

I've been replenishing my comp bottles this way for years.

 

[Redbeard5289]

How soon is the competition?

I find that if I let the bottles soak in a room temperature bleach/water solution (1/4 cup per gallon) for a few days that I can easily remove the label with my fingernail. Some brewer labels are a bit more difficult and I resort to using a putty knife to scrap the labels off then resume soaking in bleach/water solution for another day or two to loosen up the glue so I can scrap it off with my fingernail or putty knife.
If you're fingernails are short and you don't have a putty knife, I find that one of those scouring sponges (yellow sponge on one side and green scouring pad on the other) really does the trick for removing glue residue on bottles.
Hot Bleach/water can speed up this label removing process but if I am cleaning labels off already bottled beer I would be afraid that the high water temperature would affect the taste of my beer.
Just my two cents...

Redbeard5289

 

[VTBrewer]

turn in is a month away. my question was more on temps. i'm pretty sure i'll be fine with a day soaking at room temp in oxy or bleach. thanks for the replies, especially they dip in starsan after. great idea.

 

[Code]

I've soaked overnite in room temp solution of PBW and water. Worked fine.

 

[Baldy_Beer_Brewery]

Did the labels not come off on their own during the cleaning and sanitizing before you bottled the beer?

 

[VTBrewer]

They did not...hence the beer being bottled with labels on.

Sometimes instead of soaking i'll set up "revvy dishwasher" style and bottle 55 bottles of oxyclean. wait and hour. bottle 55 bottles of starsan. wait an hour. bottle beer. It goes quick with Sportscenter on and a homebrew next to me.