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Some labels can be a pain to remove. I've tried soaking bottles in water with a little bit of dish soap but it doesn't really do much to break down the adhesive. What methods do you have for easily removing labels?

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11 Answers

up vote 19 down vote accepted

OxyClean. The stuff works wonders. Fill a bucket with a scoop of OxyClean and hot water and let the bottles soak for about an hour. Most labels will simply slide right off; some will even float right off the bottles to the surface. The ones that don't will be easy to remove with a rag or sponge.

You also generally never want to use dish soap or detergent on anything that will come in contact with your beer. Detergents often leave behind a residue or coating that can kill head retention.

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OxyClean is also great for removing dried gunk from the inside of bottles if you forget to rinse them out right after drinking. – bengineerd Nov 9 '10 at 6:07
And if the OxyClean still leaves sticky residue, just get a sacrificial steel scrub pad from the dollar store (and yes, it will probably be unusable afterwards if you use the steel pad on a lot of bottles). – Room3 Nov 9 '10 at 21:10
Do you mean extra glue residue from the bottles? I usually use the rough side of a dish sponge or a rag to remove that. The OxyClean itself doesn't leave anything after rinsing. – Jeff L Nov 9 '10 at 21:39
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OxyClean is also known in brew stores as B-Brite. It is the same chemical sodium percarbonate. I use it for cleaning all non-steel items, works great on plastic hosing and glass. Soak it for a little while in the stuff and most labels come off pretty easily. – Mike Miller Nov 10 '10 at 1:16
I've had great luck with Oxy Clean as well. The ones that are particularly stubborn, I just let sit longer. – Ell Jan 17 '11 at 1:05
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up vote 1 down vote

Soak with bleach for 1+ hours in initially hot water. Then scrap them off with a butter-knife like whittling a log- works great.

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up vote 6 down vote

For removing your own labels that you apply to your bottles, use a label with a hot-soak water soluable adhesive. When you're ready to reuse your bottles, a soak in hot water is all that's needed to slide the labels off.

Removing labels from store-bought beverage bottles can be hit or miss because each bottler can use different label materials and different adhesives. By random sampling I've found some labels slide off in hot water, some will peel off after applying solvent, and others just never let go of the glass.

I do have a cure-all that removes every label from every bottle: 500 degrees F in a ceramic kiln for about a hour will incinerate every organic compound in the label and adhesive. Some adhesives will etch the surface of the glass so a shadow may remain, but there's no label! Don't go much higher than 500F though or the bottle may start to soften and deform.

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That's hardcore – Joe Philllips Nov 9 '10 at 22:57
I wouldn't buy a kiln just to remove bottle labels, but if you have a kiln anyway.... ;> – dthorpe Nov 10 '10 at 21:18
Wow. That's a new one. – D J Nov 18 '10 at 16:58
A trip to the kiln is also handy for getting rid of unknown bio gunk growing inside the bottle, esp the caked on stuff that the bottle brush can't quite scrub hard enough. After kiln cooldown, just rinse the ash out of the bottle! (I picked up a hoard of 22oz home brew bottles via Freecycle. They had been left outside for months and were really, really nasty. The kiln treatment burns away all sins. ;> – dthorpe Nov 19 '10 at 0:15
up vote 0 down vote

I usually find soaking them in my sterilising solution does an excellent job.

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up vote 3 down vote

I've tried a couple of solutions, but the one that works best for me is an overnight soak in a big tub of water with a half-gallon of ammonia. The labels just slide right off.

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And inexpensive as well! – Carling Nov 16 '10 at 20:15
We didn't even need to let them sit over night except for the occasional super label. – AllenSanborn Nov 19 '10 at 5:14
up vote 2 down vote

I've used a big tub of water with some baking soda in it. I just tossed rinsed bottles in there as I accumulated them. Not sure how long it really took, since I didn't try and remove the labels for a while, but they came off really easily. As far as the amount of baking soda, maybe a teaspoon per 2 or 3 gallons? Not that much.

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up vote 0 down vote

If you can afford it, its really nice to buy new glass. If not, you can get some labels off easier than others. You might have to experiment to see which ones are the easiest to remove.

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You know you're a homebrewer when how easy the labels come off is a factor in your beer selection :-) Seriously though, many of the 22oz bottles from smaller craft breweries use an adhesive that allows you to just peel the labels off, no soaking required. I think these are done on a portable bottling line. – steveax Oct 7 '11 at 4:19
up vote 2 down vote

get a pair of these gloves boil water in your brewpot and put in as many bottles as you can fit and boil them for a few minutes, put the gloves on and squeeze the bottles in one hand and spin them, the labels will come right off. You can get through 48 in no time.

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up vote 0 down vote

Just soak in hot water most come off easily. Recycle the ones that dont.

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I find myself still scraping them off – Joe Philllips Nov 17 '10 at 18:43
Yeah some do take a bit more work than others, depends in the brand and how much glue they use. I just recycled the tougher ones. I drink enough to spare those ones :P – CaveMan Nov 17 '10 at 18:46
up vote 0 down vote

For stubborn labels, try an organic solvent like acetone. It should remove most any common label and won't leave any residue. Rubbing alcohol may also work.

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up vote 0 down vote

I like De-Solv-It. You can usually find it at Ace Hardware.

Just spray to saturate label or residue, wait 10-20 min, and it should rub right off. It's made of citrus oils and other organic ingredients so it should be safe. It smells like oranges and has a slightly greasy feel but that washes off easily with soap and water.

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