Tips for removing labels and that sticky glue?

[jmendez29]

Another "PBW" reference. This noob brewer has no idea what that is.

PBW:

General Products | Five Star Chemicals & Supplies, Inc.

Sold at any Home Brew Supply store

If I remember correctly, Oxyclean is very similar to PBW, but more readily available and a lot cheaper. In my experiences, PBW is more effective at everything it does, but because it costs more, I'll use less frequently.

All my beer bottles don't have labels any more, but I still de-label wine bottles. I use a 15 gallon rubbermaid storage container, dump in about two and a half scoops of oxyclean, and around 12 gallons of hot water. Then I'll put in as many bottles as can remain covered by the water and leave it sit overnight. The next day, about half of the bottles will just drop the label, the other will require varying degrees of effort to remove them. For the ones that don't simply wipe off, I have a razor scraper to remove the label and a small piece of an old green scrubby that takes off any glue residue. If I have more bottles, I'll reuse the solution. Doesn't HAVE to be hot, just seems to work better when it is.

 

[DeNomad]

Oxyclean overnight then I deal with labels depending on level of difficulty to deal with:
Easy to remove labels: Will have fallen right off. Awesome.
Medium to remove labels: Use a bit of scotchbrite (green scrubby thing).
Difficult labels: Scrape with utility knife and soak some more. Then hit it with the scotchbrite again.

 

[I-Pee-Ale]

I just did my first batch of 60 bottles. I used dawn with bleach alternative in a tub full of hot water. In an hour the labels were falling right off and i just went through with a .99 cent fingernail brush. Was real easy and took about an hour and a half all together.

 

[Accidic]

I tried a couple different ways. Bleach didn't work hardly at all for me. Ammonia worked for me but wasn't exactly cheap in the quantity I was using. Baking Soda was mediocre at best and left residue which may be a problem unless you're running the bottles through the dishwasher. Any old oil (vegetable, canola, etc) will work to get the adhesive off if you're willing to scrub the paper off first but that's more work than I'm willing to invest. I've not bought Oxyclean in ages but Wal-Mart has a generic one that's about $1.50 a pound although the name escapes me at the moment and it works pretty well (can't tell any difference between it and Oxyclean). Recently I've been using "LAs Totally Awesome Power Oxygen Base Cleaner" of the Chlorine free variety and I can't tell the difference between it and the above Oxy clone performance-wise and I get it in 2 pound containers at the local Dollar Tree for only $1.

 

[TheGrouch]

Mop sink full of super hot water + scoop of Oxiclean = 90% label removal by morning. The other 10% get a putty knife. All get a quick scrub with a blue scouring pad, followed by a rinse inside and out. Then onto the bottle tree.

Sidenote: The process of submerging the bottles was painful due to the hot water, until I bought a pair of Blichman brewers gloves.

 

[webos1]

I concur that most bottles will give up the label with just a good soaking in hot water, followed by a little elbow grease(EG) for the residual glue. I also collect bottles from a hot wing joint that gets some 24 ounce bottles from the local brewpub. Those labels are a PITA, they have the plastic over them. I have read that there is two kinds of glue, water based, and rubber based. The labels that come off easy are water based, the PITA ones rubber based. For the PITA labels I have found that if I first peel of the plastic, then soak them in hot water for a few minutes to get the paper part of the label off, then put some cheap vegetable oil on a piece of steel wool, with a little bit of EG the glue come right off.

 

[Accidic]

I use a razor scraper while hot for those with little problem. Not the safest method but even works on stubborn belgians.