Bottles with easily removable labels

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

knappster

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2009
Messages
166
Reaction score
2
Location
Peoria, IL
I thought I would start a post based on my findings of different breweries beer bottles which had labels which were easy to remove. This is my first time brewing and I just cleaned labels off of 50+ bottles a couple nights ago by just soaking them in hot water. I know there are easier methods out there, but I didn't have any oxyclean and didn't want to be filling the bottles I will be drinking out of with bleach. I welcome others to post their experiences with which bottles have easily removable labels so that we can think about it next time we're at the liquor store.

Easy
Schlafly
HoeGaarden
Bass

Moderate
Michelob
Boulder

PIA!!!
Flying Dog
Great Lakes

I didn't even bother trying he Samuel Smith's or Modelo Negro bottles, due to the foil near the lip. I will be emptying some Samuel Adams shortly and I should be able to update my findings.
 
Sam Adams is hit or miss... I think their seasonal beers are harder than their "main" ones...

Red Hook are the easiest I've found, the labels are usually off the bottles after soaking for an hour in water and oxiclean.
 
Ditto on Sam Adams, some will float off with just a water soak, some will need to be scraped off after a 3 day oxy bath. Most of the local breweries bottles in my area are very easy to remove.
 
I had assumed that the micro brewers like flying dog, boulder, and great lakes would be easy as pie. I was way wrong.

It's Sam Adams Boston Lager btw. I just assumed the breweries would use the same adhesive on everything... Silly me.

I'm not a big fan of Bass, but as easily as the label came off, it was almost worth drinking. I was just going to throw away some of the difficult ones, but maybe I'll give Billy Mays a call and get some Oxiclean.

Where is Red Hook brewed?
 
Weird... I drink Great Lakes religiously and reuse all of those bottles. A simple overnight soak in Oxyclean and warm water and the labels are floating around in the morning.
 
Weird... I drink Great Lakes religiously and reuse all of those bottles. A simple overnight soak in Oxyclean and warm water and the labels are floating around in the morning.

I don't have any oxiclean (yet), I was just using a soak in hot water. Like I mentioned, I might pick some up so that I can be that much closer to being ready to start the 2nd batch. It's going to be a while before I can reuse the ones I am about to fill.
 
Soaked some Bell's Oberon bottles last night and they were mildly a pita. I soak them as I empty them, rather than making a large chore later.

Hacker Pschorr SternWeis were a breeze and a nice flip top 500ml bottle. $3.59 a bottle locally with nice hefe inside to boot. Oops add 10¢ for the MI deposit. :D
 
I keep a cooler full of water/oxyclean solution in my garage. As i drink one, I dump it in to soak. Usually just forget about them, and they end up taking a week or so of a bath. Even dump belgian 750's in there for when I do a strong ale, or barleywine or something strong to bottle in them. They seem to be floating w/in a week as well. Have never had anything not floating in a week, and any residual comes off w/ a quick wipe using one of the floating labels.
 
Beyond easy: Guinness. No soaking, no scrubing, just a quick score with a blade, and it comes off in a second.

PITA: Samuel Smith. The labels come off easily enough, but that damned foil isn't going anywhere. Black Dog is equally frustrating, as it tends to stay in place even after an overnight Oxiclean soak. Corona, or any other bottles with painted on labels. Good luck with those.

Easy: Big Sky Brewing Co. (Moose Drool), Odell's, Erdinger, Smithwick's, Killians, Guinness Extra Stout, Breckenridge.
 
Easy:
New Belgium (Fat Tire)
Land Shark (Got a free sampler)
Guinness Draught
Guinness Extra Stout (Easy-Moderate, labels soak off fairly easy, glue needs a light scrub)
Odell
Bass

Moderate:
Sam Adams
Wicked

PITA:
Heineken (varies, if you get the label off with glue, np. If the glue doesn't come with the label, get out the steel wool and isolate the bottles from others or the glue will transfer bottles) (Makes nice Apfelwein bottles)




As a side note, I'm currently cleaning and de-labeling almost 200 bottles I got off CL. That's Mold and almost 200 labels to clean off.
 
Ninkasi labels come off super easy, they'll fall off during a dishwasher sanitizing session. Easy to consume beer, too. :)
 
i've found ANYTHING german and most european beers for that matter have labels that come off within about 10 minutes of soaking in warm water. i love kostrizer, warsteiner, ayinger, erdinger, etc. and those all come off way easy.

the biggest pain i've encountered are redhook bottles, i damn near threw away about 20 of them but pushed through and finally had to scrape them off with a kitchen scraper. good tool for moderately tough ones as well.
 
Rushian River Brewing Bottle labels come off but the glue does not...not with oxyclean, alcohol, or acetone...
 
the biggest pain i've encountered are redhook bottles, i damn near threw away about 20 of them but pushed through and finally had to scrape them off with a kitchen scraper. good tool for moderately tough ones as well.

Redhook + Oxiclean soak = easy removal. I've never had a problem with them, and I have probably 5 cases of the bottles delabled.
 
I caved and got some oxiclean at wally world yesterday. That Billy Mays is a genius, lol. I found that the sam adams boston lager labels ocme off pretty easily with a soak in water + oxiclean. I was even able to get the foil labels off of the negra modelo and samuel smith bottles with an overnight soak in it (I wouldn't say it was exactly easy, though).
 
i've heard oxyclean can leave a film on the bottles after they dry, is a thorough rinse required to prevent this?
 
Yes. Another reason why every brewer should own a jet bottle washer. :D

I haven't bottled any of the oxicleaned ones yet. A co-worker brought a jet bottle washer for me to borrow, but I haven't bothered because of the threaded adapter. I suppose I could connect it to an outside faucet, but none of my indoor faucets have threads. He said you can buy an adapter for it, but it just seems like a hassle. How do you typically connect yours?
 
Weird... I drink Great Lakes religiously and reuse all of those bottles. A simple overnight soak in Oxyclean and warm water and the labels are floating around in the morning.

+1 Great Lakes bottles are great and the labels slide right off in oxyclean.

I haven't bottled any of the oxicleaned ones yet. A co-worker brought a jet bottle washer for me to borrow, but I haven't bothered because of the threaded adapter. I suppose I could connect it to an outside faucet, but none of my indoor faucets have threads. He said you can buy an adapter for it, but it just seems like a hassle. How do you typically connect yours?

$5 at a Big Box Hardware store and it just threads on to whatever faucet you pick. I hook a garden hose up to the faucet to run to the garage when brewing in the winter. Super easy and no hassle at all.
 
Heineken light bottles rock. Soak in water overnight and the plastic labels peel right off. Regular Heineken are a bit tougher.
 
I've found that most any label comes off easy with a couple-day-soak in oxiclean. Sam Adams, Magic Hat, Widmer, Red Hook, Kona Fire Rock, Sierra Nevada, Doggfish Head, Flying Dog...I don't seem to have a problem with any. Some leave more residue than others, but each one I take out of the oxiclean I use a green kitchen scrubby pad which gets even the toughest glue off very easily.
 
Amstel light's plastic labels come off real easy. If they are warm, the glue comes right off too.
 
Back
Top