I’m sure everyone has their own techniques for this and I’d love to hear them!
However, when I first started out turning my commercial beer bottles into newly acquired homebrew bottles I had some questions about cleaning them and getting the labels off so that they were ready for sanitation and brewing. I compiled a how to that I’ve found very effective on my brewing blog that I’d like to share with people new to brewing while still getting feedback from you pro’s!
Let me know your thoughts, I’d love to hear what you do!
I toss them in an Oxyclean bath. After a good soak the labels peel right off mostly. If they don’t they go in the recycling. Give them a good rinse and they’re ready to get filled back up again. I’ve got a big box of empties downstairs right now waiting for the treatment.
hot pbw is pretty good at getting off most labels. the rest i hit with a brillo pad [basically steel wool with some sort of degreaser in it]. not really much elbow grease needed.
Getting the labels off depends very much on the brewer and the glue they used. I find that most German bottel labels come right off when soaked in water. For others adding baking soda to the water helps a lot. You may get the same effect with an alkaline cleanser like PBW. And then there are the really stubborn ones which I
generally recycle unless I really need them.
+1 on not removing labels. I love seeing the faces of my buddies when they pop open a Heineken only to find a super-hoppy IPA at 95 IBUs and an intense aroma of Amarillo, Cascade, Centennial, Columbus, and Simcoe.
It may sound funny, but try some ammonia. Most craft breweries (using bottles suitable for homebrewing) use an ammonia soluble glue. And one thing is for sure - ammonia is a cheap alternative to PBW for the purposes of removing labels!
German beer AND wine producers use a water soluble glue and the labels slip right off.
I find many Belgian producers also use this glue.
Italian winemakers use some sort of two part epoxy that permanently bonds the label to the bottle, French wines are hit or miss as are US producers.
We tried the water soluble glue (tape actually) for something here at work and while it was easy to remove it didnt work, same held true for some golf clubs I re-gripped.
Of course with labels we arent talking about machinery or a golf club handle
German brewers wash and reuse bottles. This means the label has to come off easily. I also don’t remember keeping beer in tubs with ice water which is done a lot in the US. That practice requires a stronger glue if you don’t want your label to come off.
+1 We need to get this word to Weyerbacher in PA and Blue Mountain in VA. They seem to use the same labels and it takes a small thermonuclear device to get them off.
