What are the easiest and hardest commercial beer bottles to re-use for homebrew? [closed]

Question

One of the great perks of homebrewing is the ability to reuse, rather than just recycle the bottles that come into your house. You just soak off the labels and re-use!

All bottles are not created equal, and neither are all labels. Some are easy to soak off, but leave residue. Painted bottles mean you forever have to brand your beer as someone else's.

What commercial beers do you like because the bottles are easy to re-use?

(There used to be an extra credit question, but most people like One Step for soaking off, and I totally concur. Star San will apparently eat the silk screened paint off the painted bottles.)

Answer 1

If you don't have enough reputation to edit this list, leave your addition as a comment, and someone will add it.

Easy to re-use

USA

West

_{(AK, HI, CA, OR, WA, ID, NV, AZ)}

• Anchor Brewing- They look good and the labels come off easily.
• Alaskan Brewing Company Come of easily with water but do require a much longer than expected soak (possibly over night)
• Deschutes labels fall right off.
• Elysian The non-paper labels are not paper and peel cleanly off.
• Redhook labels come off easily while drinking them, even easier once they touch OxyClean
• Trader Joe's house beer labels come off easily, and the bottles are easy to clean. They're also a good standard size.
• Old Redwood Brewing Co. labels are sticky, but the bottles are 22oz swing-tops.
• Drake's Brewing labels usually come off very easily.

Rockies

_{(UT, MT, WY, CO, NM)}

• Fort Collins
• Great Divide
• Odell's Fall right off after a mild soak
• New Belgium
• Marble plastic over paper, takes a long soaking, but eventually paper can be rubbed off with no residue, currently local to NM

Central

_{(ND, SD, NE, KS, OK, TX, MN, IA, MO, AR, LA, WI, IL, MS, MI, IN, KY, TN, AL, OH, WV)}

• Bell's
• Founders
• Furthermore
• Great Lakes
• Lucky Bucket (only available in NE)
• New Glarus (only available in WI)
• Schell's
• Sierra Nevada Labels soak off. Glue yields to minimal scrubbing with a coarse sponge [Editor's note: I (JackSmith) found these labels to tear and shred after quite a soak.]
• Summit: They changed their glue, and labels will peel right off with standard oxy/PBW soak.

East

_{(ME, NH, VT, CT, RI, MA, NY, NJ, DE, MD, DC, PA, WV, VA, NC, SC, GA, FL)}

• Brewery Ommegang require a bit of a longer soak, but then the labels come off easily
• Dogfish Head
• The Duck Rabbit
• Heavy Seas
• Highland Brewing from Asheville, NC. Labels are like a vinyl sticker that come off in a single sheet every time.
• Long Trail labels come off well and don't leave much residue
• Sam Adams require a longer soak and labels peel a bit, but not too difficult overall
• Saranac
• Terrapin
• Tröegs
• Victory
• Wyerbacher require a bit of a longer soak, but then the labels come off easily

---

Canada

• Sleeman The tiny label comes off easily with a bit of soaking. And though the bottles are clear, the boxes they come in provide protection from skunking. They are twist-offs, and they cap very well.

---

UK

---

• Fuller's - Labels come off easily with a hot water / OxyClean soak. The 16.9oz / 500mL bottles pour a perfect pint and appear to be made of thicker glass than most other bottles this size.
• Samuel Smith labels generally come off well and the bottles look good. The foil around the neck takes a bit of work, but doesn't put up much of a fight.
• Marston's labels come off after a 5-min soak and you get them in brown and clear. 586ml volume.
• Wychwood - Nice Shape with a raised pattern of witch on broomstick, labels slide off with little soak, strong brown bottles.

Europe

---

• Das Helles Swing Top Brown Strong Bottle
• Belgium. I've been able to easily remove the labels from every Belgian bottle I've tried, with just a soak in water. This applies to all the Trappist beers, abbey ales including Leffe, and all the small breweries. Not sure about Stella and Hoegaarden.
• Augustijn
• Brouwerij Van Steenberge N.V. (Gulden Draak) - plastic shrink wrap, comes off easily
• Duvel
• Krusovice Pilsener - sometimes a little difficulty with the foil neck ring, but it's well worth the effort. Labels slip off in hot water with One-Step, little residue, and the bottles are 16 oz high-quality Euro bottles that retail for a buck fifty a piece!
• Palm, a Belgian beer, labels and foil neck ring slipped off after a night in cold water. No residue. A mild concern that the glass seems a bit thin
• Paulaner - similar to Krusovice
• Spaten Munchen Dunkel is a dream. The labels slip off in hot water, leaving almost no residue. One downside is that they're green bottles

Australia / New Zealand

---

• Coopers - Labels fall right off after a quick (30s) soak, although newer bottles have the Coopers logo embossed in the glass. Some residue left.
• Rekorderlig cider bottles (500mL) come right off, no residue.
• VB - Labels fall right off with a quick soak & some slight residue left.
• Little Creatures - pale ale (330mL) - Labels fall right off after a quick soak. No residue & caps easily. Bottle has LC angel logo embossed on neck.

---

China

---

• Tsing Tao - only 600mL, but perfect neck and top for recapping.

Japan

---

• Kirin & Asahi

---

Other

---

Hard to re-use

USA

West

_{(AK, HI, CA, OR, WA, ID, NV, AZ)}

• Sierra Nevada labels come off just fine, but leave a non-water-soluble goo [Editor's note: Goo yields to minimal scrubbing with a coarse sponge.]
• Stone Painted on labels.
• Ninkasi even after long soaks, and much scrubbing and scrapping these persisted.

Rockies

_{(UT, MT, WY, CO, NM)}

• Avery

Central

_{(ND, SD, NE, KS, OK, TX, MN, IA, MO, AR, LA, WI, IL, MS, MI, IN, KY, TN, AL, OH, WV)}

• Abita (LA): labels slide right off, but the crown seems to be just a tad wider than normal; capping is tough and resulted in 2-3 shattered necks (and probably additional fractures).
• Atwater
• Badger Hill (MN)
• Celis labels have a plastic film that prohibits water from penetrating the paper. Once the film is removed, the paper tears and shreds. Once you get that off, the glue is an insoluble rubber cement.
• Goose Island has twist-off caps! Did not expect that. Don't know about the labels, but twist-offs are a disqualifier for re-use.
• Lift Bridge (MN)
• Sweet Magnolia (AL): same as Celis.

East

_{(ME, NH, VT, CT, RI, MA, NY, NJ, DE, MD, DC, PA, WV, VA, NC, SC, GA, FL)}

• Blue Point Toasted Lager immediate disqualification on account of twist-top
• Erie no amount of heat will melt this glue, and no amount of scrubbing will remove the lables
• Harpoon
• Magic Hat labels shred but with a bit of patience and a scrubby, they come clean
• Smuttynose
• Schmaltz Brewing / HE BREW
• Southampton Publick House the paper shreds, the glue doesn't scrub off
• Southern Tier labels shred but with a bit of patience and a scrubby, they come clean

---

Canada

---

UK

• Thwaites Tavern Porter - the labels will not come off with heat and/or scrubbing.
• Brothers Cider - Plastic labels never come off, thin glass.
• Hooch - Green Bottle, weak glass.
• Crabbies - The neck of the bottle is tapered and awkward for capping

---

Europe

---

• Bass - the labels come off fine, but the lip is a non-standard shape with no ridge for the hand-capper to grab on to. The result is a semi-seated cap with no indentation on it. A proper seal is not achieved.
• Corsendonk (8 oz Christmas) the foil around the neck is really glued on. The paper labels come off OK, but the glue residue won't come off even with a scotch brite.
• Heineken - their new plastic labels are a non-starter
• Smithwicks eventually soak off, but even then the labels tear while being removed, leaving pulp (and therefore a vehicle for contamination) in the soak water
• Konig Pilsner - slightly odd-sized top.
• Kopparberg - The neck of the bottle is tapered and awkward for capping

Australia / New Zealand

---

• Tooheys - screw-top

Other

---

Unique/Interesting Bottle Styles

---

• Belhaven similar to Samuel Smith
• Boulevard short and stout (twist-offs)
• Chimay short, stout, curved, tapered neck
• Duvel short and bulbous
• Founders short and stout
• Green Flash 12 oz's have raised star/flash logo in the glass and labels come off easy
• Grolsch large, thick green glass with a swing-top, just make sure the rubber seal is in good condition
• New Belgium unique tapered 12 oz. bottle, with raised ring and brewery logo
• Samuel Smith tall, slender, nearly no taper to neck
• Summit short and stout, with raised brewery/hops logo

Answer 2

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Grolsch... if you're gonna drink a beer to re-use it's bottle, why not get a cap you can re-use too?

Answer 3

Bottles

---

EDIT: Place your winners and duds (and notes if you like) in PJ's global breakdown.

Soaking

---

An investment of $6 on some heavy-duty rubber gloves, and $2 on some light cotton gloves, which I wear inside them, has made a huge difference. The ability to work with hotter water means less elbow grease.

I read a recommendation to use StarSan for soaking. It made no difference. I used One-Step and it seems to make a big difference, especially in the scrubbing step.

Answer 4

Belhaven and Samuel Smith bottles look awesome, so they get re-used. I love the long, untapered neck. I also think it's funny to hand somebody a label-less beer in an old Duvel bottle; It looks like I'm handing them something I bought at a store with lots of neon in the windows located in the seedy section of town.

IIRC, Leffe labels come off very easily. But I think they're 11.2 ounce bottles, not that it really matters.

Answer 5

Anchor Brewing- They look good and the labels come off easily.

Answer 6

Easy- Highland Brewing from Asheville, NC. Labels are like a vinyl sticker that come off in a single sheet every time.

Hard- I 2nd the vote for magic hat. I can still tell by the residue which bottles came from them.

Answer 7

MGD are a bloody chore to get the label off of. Soaking doesn't do it, you need to soak, then peel off what you can, then use a scouring pad to remove the excess. Not worth the effort!

p.s. this is coming from experience with cases purchased in Ontario (Canada)

Answer 8

Florida

Cigar City labels are pretty much impossible to get off with the heavy laminated labels. Kinda sucks cause the beer is pretty good. I've soaked them for like 2 weeks in OxyClean without anything permeating the label.

Answer 9

The labels on the Trader Joe's house beers come off easily, and the bottles are easy to clean. They're also a good standard size.

Answer 10

Great Lakes and Victory are the two I always keep for easy label removal.

Brooklyn, no way their laminated labels and glue is evil. Straight to the recycler they go.

Answer 11

Europe

Easy: 50cl Paulaner Weissbier Kristall (and similar bottles from same brewery). Soak in water and just remove some "glue lines" with a dish brush. Very easy, actually came off while cooling in the ocean.

Hard: 33cl Heineken with transparent plastic label (might be Sweden only). The label and glue are a nightmare to remove.

Answer 12

Guinness draft labels are easiest to use. They are made of heat-shrink plastic that doesn't use glue. Good luck getting the widget out.

Guinness bottle http://www.rodneypiper.tv/images/beer_photo_draught_bottle.jpg

Answer 13

I spray the bottles with some Purple Power industrial degreaser then just run them in the dishwasher. Gets the labels off every time, just remember to remove the labels from the drain of the dishwasher.

Answer 14

For the Southeastern U.S., you can add "Olde Towne" from Huntsville, AL. They're -very- local to this area, and have only been in business for a few years. But if you're lucky enough to be near here, GO FIND SOME. No neck label and the plastic main label peels straight off. They're the BEST for re-usable bottles!

Answer 15

For the painted & silkscreened bottles, just soak them in a starsan solution and the "label" will come right off with a paper towel. After I started doing that, everything is easy. This also works for those laminated labels that don't come off in an oxyclean/onestep solution.

Answer 16

In BC most people seem to use Howe Sound brewing one liter pop top bottles. They use water proof labels though.

Answer 17

Rahr & Sons (TX only) is super easy. They recently switched to a pre-pasted label type sticker. They come off in one piece leaving behind little or no adhesive with just a little heat. I use a sink full of hot water for 5 or 10 minutes.

Answer 18

For me, the best one is Grosch-style swing top caps:

Answer 19

Europe

Bombardier 50cl, so easy.

Answer 20

UK belhaven bottles are now clear rather than brown, so I've stopped using them. Duchars IPA bottles are good - labels come off easily and capping is also easy.
Breakspear - good bottles labels fairly easy to remove
Williams Bros bottles - my staple but more because I like the beer! Cap easily, however labels on some of them (Fraoch!) can be impossible to remove (I keep them on - makes life easier)

Answer 21

Go to the local Dollar Store and pick up some of the Oxy-Clean knock-off which I believe is called L.A.'s Awesome Oxygen Cleanser or something. It's cheap enough....grab a few. And while you're there go to the house cleaning section and get a stiff handbrush.

Soak the bottles in hot water with the fake Oxy-Clean. Most of the labels will peel off after thirty minutes. After that grab the handbrush and use some water and scrubbing to get the remaining glue off.

Answer 22

As far as removing labels and the residue left behind by Sierra Nevada bottles, it helps to soak the bottles in very warm water with baking soda. Then scrub lightly with steel wool, it comes right off.

Answer 23

Schneider Weisse Aventinus - Labels are readily removed with warm tap water.

Answer 24

All the Sam Adams bottles clean very easily. Soak in hot water with some Oxyclean and they just float off. Duval bottles are thicker then most US bottles and handle a higher volume of CO2, but are about 11oz. vs 12 for most others.