Another good use for Starsan

[EdWort]

I was sanitizing some 22 oz. Corona Bottles, when I forgot about them and left them in a bucket of Starsan for about 2 weeks. I never got around to propagating some yeast, so I pulled them out this morning, emptied them, and rinsed them off. I set them on the counter and made some coffee.

Within a few minutes, most of the painted on Corona label had fallen off the bottle. WOW! I rinsed most of the rest off and the stubborn stuff came off with a scotch pad. I now have clear 22 oz. neckid bottles.

I imagine this method will do the same to all the 22 oz. Rogue & Stone painted bottles too. Good old acid based StarSan!

 

[FireBrewer]

I imagine this method will do the same to all the 22 oz. Rogue & Stone painted bottles too. Good old acid based StarSan!

Excellent!! Thanks for posting that! :rockin:

 

[DraconianHand]

Sweet. Thanks for the tip. Poor timing though...I just got rid of some 22 oz.'ers from Rogue.

 

[rdwj]

Good to know - thanks for the tip!

 

[FlyGuy]

Actually, that's kinda weird. So you soaked them in StarSan, then rinsed it all off, and THEN the labels melted away?

Or would they have rubbed right off right away when you took them out of the bucket of Star San?

Alternatively, did you rinse them off with acetone? (Ha ha)

 

[Dude]

Awesome.....

 

[EdWort]

Actually, that's kinda weird. So you soaked them in StarSan, then rinsed it all off, and THEN the labels melted away?

Or would they have rubbed right off right away when you took them out of the bucket of Star San?

Alternatively, did you rinse them off with acetone? (Ha ha)

Well, you know StarSan can feel kinda slippery, so I rinsed the outside of the bottles and set them on the counter. A few minutes later, I come back and the paint had flaked off as they dried and left a small pile of paint flakes in a circle around the bottle. Freaky, I know, but then I took the scrubber to them and they came away spotless. No more paint.

 

[FlyGuy]

Neat trick! I'll have to try that. Thanks.

 

[Speranza]

WoW nice! My Oxyclean won't touch the paint... maybe I just havn't tried long enough but I'll give them a shot with some Starsan next!

 

[FlyingHorse]

Removing painted labels -- thanks for the tip, Ed! I just used it to "unpaint" 3 Stone bottles ...after three days soaking in StarSan, most of the paint would just wipe off with my finger. A couple spots needed some very minor scrubbing with a ScothBrite. Less than a minute to clean all three. Great tip!

EDIT 7/4: also works on painted Rolling Rock bottles. No surprise, I guess...how many different bottle-painting technologies can there be? The RR bottles do take a longer soak, though.

 

[talleymonster]

Would that work the same way if I left them in bleach for likr three days? I don't have starsan, and I'm not ready to brew for a week or two, but I do need to prep some bottles. I got like 5 boxes of misc bottles for free the other day off of CraigsList. There were 22oz Rogue and Stone bottles, a couple of 40 oz bottles, and a bunch of various regular brown bottles. There were even about a dozen Grolsch flip tops!

 

[EdWort]

Would that work the same way if I left them in bleach for likr three days? I don't have starsan, and I'm not ready to brew for a week or two, but I do need to prep some bottles. I got like 5 boxes of misc bottles for free the other day off of CraigsList. There were 22oz Rogue and Stone bottles, a couple of 40 oz bottles, and a bunch of various regular brown bottles. There were even about a dozen Grolsch flip tops!

I don't think chlorine would do the same to the paint like the acid based Starsan does.

 

[traderearl]

Sweet find!!!!, I had given up on all of my bottles with print on them, I even asked two local home brew supply stores and they did not know this. Thank you, I just put a bunch of bottles in my starsan and can't wait to see the label melt away.

 

[kvh]

Sweet deal. Now, if I can just manage to choke down some red stripe, I'll have those stubby bottles I've been pining for.

kvh

 

[FlyGuy]

kvh -- I was wondering if you spotted this thread yet!

Why don't you tell your friends to choke it down, and you can swap them the stubby bottles for some regular bottles filled with homebrew. Sounds cheaper and safer in the long run.

 

[mattyg]

Are the Red Stripe bottles twist off or non?

Also, I found out that Star San removes paint at about the same time the OP did. I was soaking some bottles to sanitize and there were a few Arrogant Bastards and other misc Stone brewery bottles that the paint just started flaking off. It seems to leave behind a shadow of where the paint was that I couldn't remove tho - I wonder if I just need to soak them longer? Has anyone else noticed this?

 

[EdWort]

Here, we go. I am going to attempt to replicate what happened.

Here I have some nice 22 oz. bottles with painted labels.

Here they are soaking in the standard StarSan solution.

I will check on them in 1 week by pulling one out, rinsing it off, and setting it on a white piece of paper to see what flakes off as it dries.

 

[talleymonster]

Cool. I have a bunch of 22oz Stone IPA and Rogue bottles laying around. I just ordered the 32 oz star-san from AHS the other day, so I'll have to give that a shot!

 

[EdWort]

Cool. I have a bunch of 22oz Stone IPA and Rogue bottles laying around. I just ordered the 32 oz star-san from AHS the other day, so I'll have to give that a shot!

It's tough to beat StarSan. I still have about 1/3 of a 32 oz. bottle after 14 batches of beer and 16 batches of Apfelwein. When that's gone, I'll crack open the gallon bottle I bought for $26 back when my bulk buy came in.

1 Tablespoon to 2.5 gallons of water is all I use. I filled up a 3 gallon water bottle at the store today with RO water. It should last for months and I'll use that to fill my spray bottles.

StarSan rocks and is septic tank friendly.

 

[talleymonster]

I filled up a 3 gallon water bottle at the store today with RO water.

What does RO stand for?

 

[Warped04]

StarSan rocks and is septic tank friendly.

ooh...I didn't even think about that...I just moved to a septic system. Am I screwed with BTF?

 

[Reidman]

What does RO stand for?

Reverse Osmosis

 

[EdWort]

ooh...I didn't even think about that...I just moved to a septic system. Am I screwed with BTF?

You don't want to use bleach or iodophor with a septic system. You'll kill the enzymes needed for a septic. I gave away my quart bottle of iodophor to a friend who is on a city sewer and use strictly StarSan for sanitizing and Oxiclean & PBW for cleaning.

 

[Warped04]

Thanks Ed...You just saved my septic. I was going to brew tomorrow, but now I have to figure out how to sanitize.

Guess I'll order some starsan.

 

[EdWort]

Thanks Ed...You just saved my septic. I was going to brew tomorrow, but now I have to figure out how to sanitize.

Guess I'll order some starsan.

You'll be fine, just dump stuff outside. My all grain mentor would dump all his iodophor stuff on his driveway. His grass was green. Just don't dump it down your drain into your septic system.

I love it when I dump trub and a yeast cake down mine. I know I'm feeding the good enzymes with caviar.

 

[Alamo_Beer]

Hey kvn check out Full Sail's Session lager....haven't had it yet but it looks pretty good and the bottles are the stubby type and the lables are paper...plus I THINK the caps are pop offs

http://www.fullsailbrewing.com/session.cfm

 

[kvh]

Hey kvn check out Full Sail's Session lager....haven't had it yet but it looks pretty good and the bottles are the stubby type and the lables are paper...plus I THINK the caps are pop offs

http://www.fullsailbrewing.com/session.cfm

Thanks - they do appear to be pop-tops. However, I'm in Baltimore and they're in Oregon. I haven't seen them out here. We happened to get ONE bottle of Red Stripe at our party last night. I'll be trying this out very shortly. I'll keep you all updated.

KVH

 

[Alamo_Beer]

hmm I see them all over the place...Like I said though I haven't tried it. They only sell in 12packs and I've been buying lots of singles/build your own sixpacks. We're having a party this weekend so I'll pick some up and let you know how it is.

It sounds pretty good, I've been thinking of doing a Classic American Pilsner latley and didn't think there were any commercial examples

Good luck with the red stripe.....I hate that beer!

 

[EdWort]

Well, I could not wait a week, so what the heck, here's the bottle after 6 days in StarSan.

I rinsed it and waited 10 minutes and there was flaking around the bottle, so I picked it up and put in under warm water and wiped it clean with a scotch pad. It took about 4 seconds to wipe off.

The finished bottle. You can see some of the paint that flaked off while it dried and the shadow of the Stone logo.

 

[RadicalEd]

Great little experiment Edwort! Should definitely help getting nice new bottles.