My label removing soap box...

Did you make that pretty pink beer?! How did it taste? Was it good?

 

Yeah it was a raspberry berliner, came out awesome. Learned how to make it on this site.

 

Just cut through about 60 bombers & 16.9's this weekend that ive been saving for a few months. I filled up a couple of HD buckets with warm water, a charge of OxiClean and then submerged the bottles 8-12 of them per bucket and let them sit for a few hours, came back and started the removal process.

The highlights: Lawsons and Noble Ale Works bottles are the easiest to get off, pretty much with a stout pull from the corner. And they leave no glue residue on the bottle

The Lowlight: Pipeworks and whatever company that they buy their glue and labels from can all go climb a wall of dicks and then help themselves to a **** buffet and bag of dicks dessert as a reward for getting to the top.

I used a stiff paint scraper and a wire brush after soaking them for 6 hours and still have glue and paper wads stuck in the glue that I cant get off of the bottle. I don't care though because I love that bottle style and im going to soak them again before I bottle in 2 weeks.

 

Give yourself a break -- after you get most of the label removed from the tough ones use some Goo Gone or Goof Off (?) to get rid of the rest of the crud. It will still take a bit of rubbing, but it works.

 

Here in Iowa I love using the Red Stripe style bottles a local brewery Peace Tree brewing uses. The labels peel right off so I almost use their bottles exclusively now and they are unique which is a plus. I avoid using Summit Brewing bottles I love their beers but those labels are set for life and not ment to be removed LOL.

 

The easiest that I have found are from Costco. The cheap kirkland brand is like $18 for a 24pk of brown glass bottles. The beer is nothing special, but I keep them around for guests. The labels come right off in Oxyclean and warm water. Then you have a box to store them in.

 

When you guys remove labels with the oxyclean method, do the labels stay in tact? This is obviously not 100% on topic but I'm moving and want to preserve my "look at all these whales I've slayed" collection while not having to move that many bottles. Figured I'd turn them into a poster board or something instead. Does the oxyclean method work for this purpose?

 

It doesn't work for all labels to have them float off or easily peel off. Depending on how careful you are when pulling or scraping with a razor will determine how intact the label will be. But not all labels will respond to Oxyclean.

 

Exactly, I had some Crooked Stave bottles and Trinity Brewing bottles where let's say half of the labels came off with 0 work, and could've been saved, and some where it took 5 minutes to get the label off in 1mm size chunks. I mention those bottles because it seems to be the way a lot of breweries are going with the thicker labels glued on with Gorilla glue. 3Floyds labels simply fall off, and I have saved some for a buddy who donated the bottles. All done with either Oxyclean or StarSan soaks.

 

FOOTHILLS!! No soak necessary, just peel away. They're applied more like a sticker than a glued on label. Little to no residue either.

 

For some, yes. I've decorated my bags boards with some of my favorites and then covered with clear polyurethane for a (kind of) nice look. Also made some really nice http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/members/sixpoint.7531/ "badges" using cut out squares from their cans that I tacked on my boards.

 

I rarely bother taking the labels off.
If they come off themselves, great. If not, so be it, unless I get really bored and start picking them off.

 

Normal 12 oz. Sierra Nevadas are fine, but the big 24 oz. guys have always required a lot of scrubbing for me for some reason. I love O'Dells' bottles. Easy to delabel and unique with their non-branded hop embossing. Unfortunately, they are occasionally not perfectly cylindrical...

 

I just soak my bottles in hot water with a little PBW for 30-60 minutes and then come back and peel off the lables that will easily come off and take steel wool to them to clean up any residue. If a label doesn't want to play nice and peel off then I just take the steel wool straight to the label and it does the trick everytime! Makes a mess, but thats why I do it in the sink with a garbage disposal.

 

Yuenglings are awesome and the labels come right off with a little condensation

 

I totally feel the OP's pain. There are some breweries that I have boycotted just because their labels never come off.