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Label removal

C

Cosh

OK brew-folken...I understand the highlights and selling points to kegging.  I look forward to the discussions about that, HOWEVER...

It is infinitely easier to trade, exchange, air-mail, etc. beer in a bottle, so...when collecting bottles that were originally used by some commercial brewery, I will eventually want to take the labels off and replace them with my own.

Who knows the fastest way to do this?

How about the easiest (if it's different from the fastest)?

Is there some miracle chemical or process that will help me through this arduous chore?  (is that the right word?)

Thanks for the help
Mike
 
I use a LOT of bottles and have tried VERY HOT water washes and many othe types of removal methods, including chemicals.

Due to the different types of adhesives, I have found the flat razor blade scraper works faster than anything yet.  Let the bottles soak in VERY HOT water until warm enough to place your hands into it.   :)
 
 
 I've found that soaking the bottles overnight in a tub with some ammonia makes it a breeze to remove the labels.

 Wear gloves when removing them though!

Cheers!

Brad
 
Here I have some experience (about 800...) 8). All breweries use different glue to glue the label on, I suspect some brewery to use different glue on different beers!
I usually just put bleach (so no bugs are growing during soaking)and water in a big rubermaid box and let soak (outside in the summer, as I got ~12 bottles breaking last week due to freezing...).

I figured that labels on Fat Tire and new Belgium brewery in general are EZ to remove by just pulling after 48h (do not leave too long and it is a mess). The labels on Big Sky Brewery beers (for the Rockies' people...) go off by (almost) themself after a week but they are a pain before that.
Then I just srub the glue off with a kitchen scrubber.
I tried a lot of various techniques and i do not mess around anymore with razor blades or knife to remove the labels.
I tried all the brands I could find, but I only recycle the New Belgium Brewery one, they are the easiest, trust me!!!

Yes bottling is a pain but it is so great to give away some or bring them to camp, exchange or have one of each in the fridge (I do not have room for 12 kegs, but for 12 bottles)
 
Thanks for all the responses.  To date, the ammonia works great!  Saranac are the real bears for me, but almost everything else slides right off.

In addition to gloves, if you're using hot water, you might want to run a fan, the ammonia can getcha.

Mike
 
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