QUICK label removal

[HollisBrewCo]

My brother and i have come up with a quick and easy albeit messy way to remove labels from bottles.What you see is a brass wire wheel on a bench grinder, it tears off labels in no time and does no damage to bottles, all we did was soak the bottles in plain tap water for a half hour and took off the labels with the grinder. we managed to tear through about 250 bottles in an hour with one of us on either side of the grinder !

 

[HollisBrewCo]

sorry for the sideways image, couldn't figure out how to rotate it

 

[JewBrew]

that is either a really bright idea or a really stupid one. (Im hoping really bright as i have to process some bottles this next week) I pick up bottles from the deposit depot i find that sam adam bottles have the easiest labels to remove by soaking. i use a fresh razor for the remaining glue.

 

[HollisBrewCo]

one ALWAYS has to be careful with the bench grinder. So long as you take caution and keep a tight grip it seems to go fine. we literally did over 200 bottles tonight without incident

 

[devilishprune]

If you soak in oxy clean for an hour (or less sometimes) the labels fall off. Then you can just rub the remaining glue off with your hands.

Plus, it doesn't involve the potential for maiming yourself or others!

 

[beerthirty]

That does seem like a quick way, but next time wear gloves. The first bottle that shatters can turn quick into recovery time.
When I bottled I used the soak method and collected many different whole labels to cover the kegerator with.

 

[jgilbreth]

Maybe I'm the oddball here, but about a 5 minute soak in hot water has always let me peel the labels right off. The glue residue comes off with a blue scotchbrite non-metallic scrubber. This works fine for me on beer bottles, only wine bottles take more time.

 

[TUCK]

GREAT IDEA!!!!

Thanks for posting.

I keg and bottle and I cleaned 4 cases a few weeks ago and the labels (on my bottles, all bottles/labels are different) were a pain in the a$$. It took me around 1.5 hours.


Some people claim it is so easy the way they do it. But until you are doing 100+ bottles and not just 53 (amount in a 5 gallon boil) then this would seem to be a great idea. Especially with my micro brews. They use some serious glue!

I could see where you would have to be gentle and not get in a hurry or it might cost you a hospital visit. That would suck to have glass removed from your hand that has been grind-ed in your skin