Bottle Cleaning

Oxyclean works great, just make sure you get the odorless one

 

I have used both Oxyclean and odorless dish soap before. I soak the bottles longer to get the labels off and maybe use a beer clean type soap used at taprooms if the bottles are really dirty on the inside. Oxyclean really works well with getting the labels off.

I don't measure mine. Just add water to the kitchen sink about 3 gallons worth and add the Oxy. I don't think you need alot. Just my 2 cents!

 

like Freshman said just soak them in your kitchen sink in the warm/hot water oxy mixture and they'll pretty much fall off (you shouldn't even have to scrub)

 

I soak them with oxyclean and hot water in coolers for about 3-4 hours. Depending on the brewery, they will come off easily or not. Bell's and Sam Adam's come off easily.

 

I find the easier method is to leave your labels on.
Nothin like drinkin a saison out of a Rasputin bottle!

 

I've actually adopted a bit of a policy that if the label won't come off with just hot water (30 min soak), then I won't use that brand of bottle. This is for a few reasons:

1. Oxyclean does not rinse off very easily so you have to rinse more thoroughly.
2. The ones that come off in hot water only usually just take a quick scrub with a scotch brite to get the residual glue off.
3. If the glue is that stubborn and not water-soluble, then there is more of a chance some of that glue will get inside the bottle and stick somewhere. I don't want whatever that glue is made from in my beer, even in low concentrations.
4. I keg primarily, so I can afford to be picky.

These days I mostly use Deschutes and Sierra Nevada bottles.

 

Oxy clean works for me. I use a big scoop with 5 gals hot water, fill with bottles and let soak overnight. labels usely peel them self off and only a rinse and wipe down are needed. If i have more bottles i'll throw them in after. Bottles with stubborn labels go into the recycling. The bottle supply never ends at my house and I keg.

 

I thought you'd be more picky about the terrior of the glass than its label adhesion characteristics.

 

I put about 15 1Liter bottles plus some 330 ml bottles into a big garbage plastic bucket , sink them in bleach-water mixture to sanitize and to remove labels,it takes 2-3 days to labels to come off.

 

I fill my bath tub with hot water and 1-2 scoops of Oxiclean then submerge all the bottles overnight. Labels typically come off easy, and the glue wipes off with a towel. Quick rinse in the sink before a StarSan dunk and bottle.

 

From my experience, oxyclean doesn't make a big difference. Soak them in really hot water for an hour or so. Many of the labels will fall off. Then take a scrubbing pad and rub off the goo that doesn't come off easy.

If you have bottles with foil (i.e. Samuel Smith), scrape that off with a pocket knife.

 

I use a big wash tub that I let sit in the sun. 10 gallons of water from the hose and a big scoop of the unscented oxyclean got me through 2 cases of 12 oz bottles for a special batch of beer I am bottling tonight. I set it up early yesterday afternoon, let it soak while I did other things (including a visit to a friend's house for a couple of hours), and had scraped off my last label before dark.

Some labels are definitely easier to remove than others. Some have really thick glue on them, while others are just floating in the water after a couple of hours soaking. I am fortunate in that I have enough friends who like my beer who know to return my bottles, and will also throw in commercial bottles, allowing me to be more choosy about which bottles I will use and which I won't bother with. I pretty much only process standard 12 oz longnecks that will fit in a milk crate with 24 of its friends, or the 22 oz bombers that have labels that can be removed easily. I also re-use the Stone bombers because it amuses me to fill their RIS bottles with my own imperial stout.

 

A soak in soapy water does the trick for most. I have a decent surplus of bottles, so nowadays if there's too much work involved it goes into the recycle bin.

 

I've delabeled thousands of bottles over the years and the most effective method I've found is to soak for a few hours in a big tub of hot water with a bit of oxiclean or a splash of bleach, scrape any remaining labels off with the back of a butter knife, and then scrub the glue residue off with a scrubbie sponge. It's generally a huge pain in the ass.

 

I haven't used it. But the MSDS sheet makes it sound a bit nasty.

Functionally, I dunno. But it sounds like the guy in the video will "f*ckin' send you some" if you want.

Edit: just looked at the MSDS for Oxiclean Versatile Stain Remover. Looks like it also contains Sodium Carbonate.

 

First I soak the bottles in hot water to losen the labels. Then I use a copper scrubbing pad to remove all of the label and label adhesive. Then I put them in the dish washer with Oxiclean and run it on the sanitize setting a there ready to go.

 

Why mess around with taking the labels off at all? You can still clean/sanitize them just fine, I just label the caps. Saves a lot of time, apparently.