Bottle Cleaning/De-labeling Results

[HerotBrewer]

So I went through my basement and garage and collected all the old pry-off bottles.

Some of these were sitting for at least 6 months.

Pre-cleaned using my Fermtech bottle blaster faucet attachment. Then soaked in a solution of bleach and oxyclean.

Ranked in order of easiest de-labeling to hardest.

Hoegarden and Julius Echter: labels fell off without any manual scrubbing
closely followed by Michelob: Hop Hound and Porter styles, both labels came off with a simple sweep of a green scrubbie. Grolsch bottles came off just as easily and I'm using those bottles for yeast starters from my washed yeast.

The hardest labels belonged to Pete's Wicked Ale and a few bottles of Smutty Nose that I had lying around. They are a bastard to remove labels and they're still soaking.

 

[Germelli1]

wait until you try a samual smith's or modello bottle...or anything with foil. They are a pain in the ass!

 

[shroomzofdoom]

Hmm...I read that mixing chlorine bleach and oxygen bleaches is not advised as they essentially precipitate out into a salt. Though I am not a chem expert, so I am sure someone will correct me on this.

I don't think it's the feared mass release of Cl from ammonia+bleach, just an inefficiency thing.

Did you try it without the chlorine bleach? I've had very good luck with almost all labels with this method. 48 hours seems to be the most effective.

 

[Germelli1]

I don't think it's the feared mass release of Cl from ammonia+bleach, just an inefficiency thing.

Did you try it without the chlorine bleach? I've had very good luck with almost all labels with this method. 48 hours seems to be the most effective.

+1

I don't know if there is a hazard with mixing them...but my boss used to call mixing cleaning chemicals that you don't know how they will react "pissing on the wheels of progress" haha.

However you can boost the sanatizing capabilities of bleach to no-rinse levels with a little vinegar MIXED INTO BLEACH ALREADY DILUTED WITH WATER.

Now that is a chlorine gas warning.

But I soak any new bottles in oxy clean, then without rinsing (but I delabel any that havnt fallen off) I soak them in .5 tbs bleach dilluted by 5 gallons of water then .5 tbs of vinegar added. I just let them pickle in a covered bucket until bottling time, then pull them out, drain and fill!

 

[HerotBrewer]

I've tried it with just the oxyclean and just the bleach. The combination definitely worked faster. I do know acids (vinegar) and chlorines is a no no. At my place of work we have a guy come in from our chemical company about once a month. I will ask him about Oxyclean and bleach and report back.