Removing plastic bottle labels and glue the easy way.

[Katman]

Hi everyone over the last couple of weeks I have been looking for a easy way to remove the labels and glue from bottles that have those plastic labels on them. Most of the beer I buy has plastic labels that peel off very easily but leave a lot of sticky glue on the bottle. I finally found a simple way to deal with them.
First I peel off the labels, they usually come off clean and in one piece. Next I pop used caps on them to seal up the inside (just press them on with your hand). Then on a old glass top table I spray the bottles with Turtle Wax label and sticker remover (available at the local auto parts store). After about five minutes I wipe off the glue with a coarse rag. After wiping I wash them off with Dawn dish washing detergent to the clean the last of the label remover off the bottles and pop the caps off. Presto de-labeled bottles ready to prep and fill.

 

[Alex4mula]

Honestly I don’t see anything easy on that compared to other methods. Lots of cleaning. After I tried some the best I found was just to buy a case of 24 new bottles. At least to me for $13 they are well worth versus the effort of cleaning 24 ones. Specially since I reuse.

 

[mongoose33]

Some labels come off clean, some leave a glue residue. What I do is soak those in PBW, and then use a paper towel to wipe off the glue, then a scrubbie to remove any remaining remnants.

 

[Saunassa]

I bottle in Summit, Sam Adams and Schells bottles and luckily they use paper labels.

 

[Jag75]

I've had same issue . I've started to leave in hot water and pbw over night. The labels practically fall off next morning. Now your left with the glue. I've tried scotch pads , sponges and have found that dish soap gets it right off . Just put some on it use a butter knife or scotch pad and it comes right off.

 

[ba-brewer]

I soaked and peeled them with not the best results, the glue just seemed to stick better when wet. Last time I used a razor blade to scrape the plastic label off and it took off a good amount of the glue with it. Then a spritz with Goo gone to get the rest of the glue with a soap wash to remove the citrus oil. Glad I don't use that many bottles.

 

[smata67]

I don't usually buy bottles with those types of labels. Stone comes to mind as a brewer that uses them often, though. So I don't have a great deal of experience with them, but I recall pulling them off with pliers and soaking in Oxyclean for much longer than for paper labels, like 3 or 4 days. Then going at them with non-scratch scoring pads. May have used a razor blade for some stubborn spots. To be honest, best approach is just to avoid dealing with these bottles altogether, they take too much effort. Do the American thing and just toss them when you are going at high speed.

 

[Jag75]

How many points for hitting speed limit signs lol^^^^^^^^. Takes me back thinking of all the stupid stuff I did

 

[Mumathomebrew]

Fursty Ferret labels just fall off in a ten min soak. In fact beer producers lose sales from us if their labels don't just fall off in soapy hot water. I don't intentionally ever buy their beer again.

 

[Katman]

Fursty Ferret labels just fall off in a ten min soak. In fact beer producers lose sales from us if their labels don't just fall off in soapy hot water. I don't intentionally ever buy their beer again.

The beer selection around here is pretty limited. The local grocery store does carry beer from three N.C. breweries that I like. They all use the same bottles and the same plastic labels. I have not found anything that would soak them off (maybe I was not letting them soak long enough). The method I posted above has been the simplest way I have found to deal with them. I usually only do a six pack at a time when I have a few minutes to kill between service calls and it doesn't feel like much work to me.