I clean off the labels, and it is tedious. Think everybody would agree. Stumbled onto the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser tonight by accident. Soaked in hot water and Oxyclean, peeled off the labels and the Magic Eraser thing wiped the glue off with minimal effort. Except one Smutty bottle that had more glue than the rest of the bottles combined! Only grabbed the thing because I reached for the sponge scrubby pad without looking, and Magic Eraser landed in my hand.
Would this work any better than steel wool? I don't deal with stubborn bottles. They get recycled. I buy Sam Adams and Hoegaarden when I'm low on supply. They've got that chalky glue that we love so much.
I soak in oxyclean for a coulple of days and most of the labels fall off by the time I get back to them. Besides Two Brothers.
Agree that the stubborn ones go back for the nickel! No more Smuttynose bottles for sure. The labels fell off fine in a couple hours, but the glue crud was what Mr. Clean removed. Seemed to be much faster than ScotchBrite. The glue gummed up SB, but rinsed right off the Magic Eraser. Have not tried steel wool, so can't say. Bottling day is on the way!
Yep same here. There are some brands that require some glue clean-up after the soaking (and a few I don't bother with anymore) #1 or #2 steel wool works for me for roxyclean soaked, glued-on labels without getting too gummed up.
Soak in warm/hot water with vinegar.....S.O.S. pads do the rest in seconds. Sam Adams and SN bottles be the best for this. For bombers I use Hoppin' Frog bottles, plastic labels just peel right off....
Exactly. I fill a cooler with hot water and Oxyclean. Throw in the bottles and the next day half the labels are floating. Two Brothers.... The problem is they are not paper labels. they are a vinyl. Recycle!!
On the list, but I will admit to using the dishwasher. I run a couple cycles with no soap on sanitize with heat dry and use the racks as my bottle rack. I did run one batch of bottles through sanitize, but seemed a little redundant after soaking them in sanitizer in the first place. I know have two coolers, primary and secondary fermenter, the bucket to fill from, wort chiller, empties and filled bottles all over...if I take over much more of the kitchen I will be sleeping in my truck!
I'm with inchrisin (see post 2). I'm all about easy-off labels, otherwise they're in the recycle bin. I only bottle bombers, and for me Three Floyds are probably the easiest. On the other end of the spectrum Revolution is pain, so they get pitched.
I use oxyclean as well, and in my experience, under an hour in a solution of oxyclean and warm/hot water and most labels should peel right off. All that's left to do is to clean off some of the glue residue from the bottles, which should come off pretty easily. I usually throw the bottles in the dish washer or wash them a bit with dish soap afterward because the oxyclean leaves a bit of a residue sometimes.
I use steel wool, distilled white vinegar, and water. Combine water and vinegar in large cooler, add bottles, let sit over night, clean and rinse in a.m. . Great divide, GI sofie, and Odell's labels are my favorites.
I like your vinegar idea. I'll give it a try in the future. Vinegar's a dynamite window cleaner the leaves no residue, so I suspect it leaves the bottle nice and shiny, too.
It does a good job for bottles and also for cleaning wort chillers. I soak my immersion chiller in distilled vinegar the night before I brew. You just have to make sure you use distilled, don't want to risk bugs in your bottles.
I can't remember the last time I de-labeled a bottle. Too much work! I pick up all the de-labelled bottles I need at the end of homebrew competitions. You don't need to be a judge to participate. Stewarding will also get you in the door. If you're adventurous, you can bring home cases of full bottles - even most of the losers are pretty damn good. And you get to spend the day drinking beer! Is this a great country or what!
