bottle label removal

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brewster13

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I am working at emptying bottles (store bought) so I can use them to bottle my home brew and was wondering what is the easiest way to remove the labels? Some guys from work told me that the necks on store bought bottles may not work well for reuse as the mouth of the bottle may break. Anyone heard of this?
 
Soak them in a Rubbermaid container full of HOT Oxy-Clean solution.

Are you talking about twist-offs vs pry offs?
 
i just soak in water, label removal of some brands is easier than others. Chimay labels fall off in a few minutes. Bud American Ale labels also come off easily. For the labels that don't want to come off, i scrap them off with my finger nails and then use steel wool to scrap of the remaining label and residue. A little soap on the outside of the bottle helps to remove residue but don't put soap in the inside of the bottle or the water you soak the bottles in. I have never had a problem with breaking bottles using my wing capper. I have come across a few bottles, chinese beer i think, that didn't have enough of neck for the capper to grip.
 
Oxy-Clean is awesome at removing labels.

The one brewery that I've found that has labels somehow invincible to oxy-clean is the Highland Brewery in Charlotte, NC. They have these plasticy labels that don't absorb the solution, so the glue doesn't get dissolved. The warm water loosens the glue a bit, and you can peel it off (difficultly), but overall those labels are the biggest PITA I've found.

Most labels you don't even have to touch after a 15-20 minute soak. When you pull the bottle out of the soak, the label stays behind.

Oxy-clean is friggin' awesome.
 
Yep, hot OxyClean soak overnight will take those puppies right off of most beers. It's usually 12-24 hours before I can get back to them, and by then any labels off of Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada, Red Hook, New Belgium, Hoegaarden, or Rogue are either floating or able to be wiped off by a rag, no scrubbing.

There are very few that are tenacious to resist this treatment... some do, though. Honestly, if you run into a brand or batch that are stubborn, just recycle them the old fashioned way and wait, easy bottles are so cheap it's REALLY not worth your time.
 
Another +1 to the hot water oxyclean solution. Let them soak overnight, and in the morning you will have clean bottles and a bunch of floating labels. Zero labor.
 
Is Oxyclean Versatile okay for this or do I need "regular" Oxyclean?
 
OxiClean Versatile is fine, but it comes in two varieties: Regular and Free (scent and dye-free) -- I feel that "Free" is a better choice.
 
Thanks! I bought the regular because my purpose was floor cleaning, not beer drinking. But it's cheap enough to buy the free for more important things, like brewing.
 
Thanks! I bought the regular because my purpose was floor cleaning, not beer drinking. But it's cheap enough to buy the free for more important things, like brewing.

Yeah, I had been using it in the laundry with whites for a while. Tried it out on beer labels after I saw some suggestions, and immediately went out and bought the biggest tub of it I could find JUST for beer bottles.

It's also amazing at cleaning your primary fermenters when they get that ring of crud near the top that doesn't come off too easily. I fill my primary with an oxy-clean solution and give it 20 minutes. After that, 99% of the crud is no longer caked on the side, and what remains comes off very easily.

It's very versatile stuff.
 
One thing that works really well for me on the more difficult to remove labels is vegetable oil. Worked really well for some old Hamm's returnables that had been sitting in a garage for 10+ years.
 
Green lid Oxy-Clean and hot water! Some bottle labels come off easier than others. I have found that Sierra Nevada labels leave a lot of glue behind after the soak. Therefore, I am boycotting Sierra Nevada these next few weeks while I stock up on bottles for my new batch.
 
I keep an old Ale Pail full of oxyclean solution by the kitchen (5 gallons of water with 3 oz. of oxyclean). Whenever I drink a bottle, I give it a quick rinse and dunk the bottle in the bucket. Once or twice a week, when the bucket is full, all the labels will have fallen off and I give them a quick rinse and put them away. Come bottling day, all I need to do is sanitize and fill.
 
Soak them in a Rubbermaid container full of HOT Oxy-Clean solution.
That's what I do, and it works a treat. I just use our sink (cleans the sink at the same time!), fill it halfway with HOT water, and add a generous scoop of Oxy. Fill each bottle with hot water, then lay it in the Oxy bath (the fact that they're full of water means they'll sink right away, and you want them to be full of hot so as not to cool the bath down).

60-90 minutes later, come back and the labels that haven't already come off on their own, should slide right off without an issue.
 
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