Scrapbooking

not a bad idea. I save bottles with vinyl/decal/painted labels when they have a great design or it was just a good beer because I know they'll last - bottles with paper labels go right into the recycling bin.

unfortunate, because I absolutely LOVE mikkeller labels.

do you have a solid method for removing the label without damaging its integrity?

 

I use the same method with Cigar City labels. Most other labels, I soak in warm/hot water in the kitchen sink, with dish soap (and sometimes a dash of Oxi Clean) for about 20 minutes. Belgian and German labels literally fall off with this approach. Many American labels come off nicely as well - Bells, Founders, Lagunitas, Sierra Nevada, etc.

 

Do some of these tend to get nasty? disintigrate? do they just float to the top?

 

If you look at a FFF label it will fall off!

On a serious note, I soak in hot hot water with a little go-gone with positive results. I peel labels off for homebrewing. I have a box of close to 200 unique bottles, I have been thinking about making the labels into some type of poster.

 

I used to soak every bottle in hot soapy water to get the labels off, and this sometimes ended up with mushy, ruined messes. Then a friend who also collects and displays labels told me to just use boiling hot water from a kettle. Pour it into said bottle and just wait a while. It'll soften the glue and the label peels away nice, sometimes with enough sticky to adhere to a piece of paper.

Doesn't work for every label, so the old soaking method still has to be used. But the kettle method has been great for getting Jester King labels.

 

Not at all. Most look like they were never used.

I can tell you the ones that don't work very well with this approach:

Unibroue - Ridiculously thin - very difficult to remove. Possible, but not easy.
Ommegang - Same as above, but very large labels that are about 1/3 the thickness of most paper labels. I get maybe 10% from them. So low, I don't bother trying any more.
Brooklyn - Same as Unibroue

These work with this approach, but can be a bit fragile: Victory, Terrapin

 

If you do a search of this forum you'll find some other threads about label removal procedures. The bottom line is that there are three basic methods to remove labels, and the type of glue that is used will determine what will work. Hot water soak; hot water soak with Oxyclean, baking soda or other additive; and the microwave method. Then there are those labels that just don't come off regardless of which method that you use.

 

Don't discount the boiling hot water in the bottle method!

I've tried hot water soak with oxyclean, and it just ended up taking colour away from the label.

 

So I just got my very own beer fridge (finally!) for my garage. I got it used, it works great, but its not the prettiest thing to look at. I decided I am going to peel off labels and essentially cover the fridge with beer labels eventually. The above information has been helpful in regards to the removal process. Anyone have any tips on which glue/adhesive to use to paste them to the fridge? I figured there are others out there in the BA community that have done the same thing.

 

a method that i have found to be EXTREMELY effective is microwave for 30 or 40 seconds, then the label peels off like a sticker on most bottles. just be careful since some breweries use metal in the label (ithaca excelsior series, for example) and is a no no in a microwave. just hit go and keep an eye on it, if it is metal you will know in 2 seconds or less.

edit - i have 8 full photo albums of labels and counting

 

Possibly what you need is a spray-on adhesive that I think is usually found in the artist supply section of a hobby store. It's been years since I used this product, so I can't say what brand name, etc. it might be, but I think it is like a spray-on rubber cement.

If you're going to plaster your fridge with labels, then try to flatten as well as you can before starting your project. Labels that come off in a water bath usually will not dry as flat as you want. I've heard of some hobbyists using the heat from an iron to get rid of wrinkles. I think you'll need to experiment with this procedure, but a key part of the process is to sandwich the warped label in between two pieces of paper and monitor the label closely so that you don't burn the paper.

 

For drying & flattening the soaked labels, I usually just dry them upside down on a bartowel, and once dry place them between 2 regular sheets of paper and just place a heavy weight on them; I use an amazingly heavy, square crystal fruit bowl. Leave them for a few days and then come our nice and flat. This also works for the labels that peel off with some glue still attached, as they like to curl once one the paper.