Removing Commercial Beer Labels

[unionrdr]

When I had a mountain of bottles stashed all over the house,wife was gettin hacked. How many %^%@#$%$bottles do you@#$%%&@% really need? Ok,point taken. I guess I did have plenty. So I got out my homer cheapo bucket I used for fishing (soaked & scrubbed with PBW for 5 days!) & put in 12-13 bottles. Filled with PBW to about 2-3" over top of the bottles once they filled. Soak overnight,& most slid off by themselves. The rogue & Smithwick's were the most stubborn.
SN's come right off pretty easy. The Paulaner bottles were the quickest. I could do a bucket of those in an hour. All the glues used get mushy,if there's any left to start with. A dobie & a bottle brush make short work of them. Rinse in the sink,& place on a bottle tree to dry. Then store in closed boxes. Then toss in another round of bottles,& wait till the next day.
I now have enough bottles for 5 batches or so. I need to count them up some day.

 

[UncleJohnnys]

Haha..same thing my wife said. I'm up to about 30 12-packs and counting

 

[unionrdr]

I've been using whatever boxes I could scrounge up to put them in. Trying to get some 12 pack boxes at least. Great Lakes & Leinenkugel have some nice,sturdy boxes with separators. 5 batches worth,maybe six. I like the Leinenkugel boxes,as they're twisties,& all I need at this point are good boxes...

 

[Revvy]

I use milk crates which stack and each can hold one case of beers, in half the footprint of traditional beer cases.

They stack as high as you need them to.

 

[Mpavlik22]

Another alternative is a quick soak in warm water and ammonia. The labels and glue come off very quickly and easily.

+1. This is what I do. Works VERY WELL. 1 cup ammonia to 5 gallons h2o. Soak 24 hours.

 

[BrewThruYou]

Wow super old thread. For those that suggested Oxyclean, that won't work on Dark Horse bottles.

I got a few bottles of Crooked Tree IPA and no matter how long they soak in oxyclean, it's still a b**** to get off. These labels are almost like a sticker with a strong adhesive as opposed to most labels being paper with a weak glue.

 

[Paradigm]

Haha my mates and I used goo gone, sponges and a good amount of time

 

[BrewThruYou]

Haha my mates and I used goo gone, sponges and a good amount of time

I ended up tossing the Crooked Tree IPA bottles. My buddy gave me about 30 bottles and only 4 were Crooked Tree.

I had an easier time with Amstel Light bottles.

 

[crash1292]

I just leave the labels on,my Friends think they are drinking a spotted cow

 

[day_trippr]

I just leave the labels on,my Friends think they are drinking a spotted cow

Lol!

When I was still buying beer to accumulate bottles, I used ammonia and a little dishwashing liquid mixed in hot water for an overnight soak, and it was very reliable. Anything from Sammy, Wachusett, Mayflower, DFH or Sierra Nevada, no problem - the labels would be off the next morning without breaking a sweat.

But one weekend I was up near Franconia Notch working on our cabin and I bought a sixer of Mad River (Vermont brewery) IIPA (respectable brew, fwiw). When I later tried to get those labels off it was a freakin' nightmare!

I eventually discovered they were using a solvent based glue (irresponsible dumb@sses!) and at that point I wasn't about to go all Rambo on a sixer just for the bottles, so I chucked 'em into the recycling bin.

I also emailed them an exothermic missive taking them to task. Haven't bought another of their brews since, so I don't know if they're still doing stupid things...

Cheers!

 

[debbinkm]

Just tried the Oxyclean method on a bunch of different bottles including Sam Adams, Abita, Guinness, and Red Hook. Hot water and 4 scoops of Oxyclean per gallon got the labels 100% off in about 2-3 hours with no help on my part. I honestly didn't expect it to work that well!

 

[Homercidal]

Did some more bottles this weekend. Hot Oxi for a few hours then a quick scrub and a dunk in some acidic water to remove the deposits that formed on the bottles due to high alkalinity.

I've found that the mil acid will remove the painted-on labels.

 

[ajohnson153]

Not to pop open an old thread but I thought I should add that I just finished removing some labels and what I used was a Greased Lightning and hot water soak for less than an hour or so. I had Sweetwater bottles and a McSorley's bottle. The labels peeled right off and the adhesive took a very light scrub with a scotch brite pad. Just thought I would add to the discussion on label removal. Just made a deal with a pizza place that serves craft beer to get empty bottles so I will add to it if I run across a brand of label that this technique does not work for.

 

[wtowers]

Oxi clean method is by far the best, they don't have to soak long at all, glue can be simply cleaned off by a scotch brite kitchen sponge

 

[BrewThruYou]

Just tried the Oxyclean method on a bunch of different bottles including Sam Adams, Abita, Guinness, and Red Hook. Hot water and 4 scoops of Oxyclean per gallon got the labels 100% off in about 2-3 hours with no help on my part. I honestly didn't expect it to work that well!

How big are these scoops? That seems like a lot. I've found that if I use too much OxyFree and leave it for too long, I get a carbonate scale on the bottles. I've found that a little goes a long way when removing labels.

 

[ken05]

Reserecting an old thread because I found something that works very well on both the label the glue underneath and requires no hot water or scrubbing.

Purple Power. Roughly 1/2 cup per two gallons of cold water and even Bells
comes right off in an hour or so. Just put on rubber gloves and wipe it off with your hand and then rinse.

I will try it on Smithwicks soon. They were tough like Bells

 

[ken05]

Smithwicks bottle are spotless with no scrubbing after 2.5 hours in room temp water and Purple Power.

 

[WSB-MBC]

Hot water + white vinegar

 

[Peterpuck1968]

Easy way to clean bottles and remove labels is the oxyclean method
http://homebrewcanada.blogspot.ca/2015/08/washing-bottles-and-removing-labels.htmlhttp://homebrewcanada.blogspot.ca/2015/08/washing-bottles-and-removing-labels.html