[MrNate]

It may sound funny, but try some ammonia. Most craft breweries (using bottles suitable for homebrewing) use an ammonia soluble  glue. And one thing is for sure - ammonia is a cheap alternative to PBW for the purposes of removing labels!

You know, I had heard this, I bought a bottle of ammonia, but I haven't tried it yet. Old habits and all.

[babalu87]

The link you posted doesn't work for me.

Getting the labels off depends very much on the brewer and the glue they used. I find that most German bottel labels come right off when soaked in water. For others adding baking soda to the water helps a lot. You may get the same effect with an alkaline cleanser like PBW. And then there are the really stubborn ones which I
generally recycle unless I really need them.

Kai

German beer AND wine producers use a water soluble glue and the labels slip right off.
I find many Belgian producers also use this glue.

Italian winemakers use some sort of two part epoxy that permanently bonds the label to the bottle, French wines are hit or miss as are US producers.

We tried the water soluble glue (tape actually) for something here at work and while it was easy to remove it didnt work, same held true for some golf clubs I re-gripped.

Of course with labels we arent talking about machinery or a golf club handle

Lets get the word out
USE THE CRAPPY GLUE 

[Kaiser]

German brewers wash and reuse bottles. This means the label has to come off easily. I also don’t remember keeping beer in tubs with ice water which is done a lot in the US. That practice requires a stronger glue if you don’t want your label to come off.

Kai

[Hokerer]

Lets get the word out
USE THE CRAPPY GLUE 

+1 We need to get this word to Weyerbacher in PA and Blue Mountain in VA.  They seem to use the same labels and it takes a small thermonuclear device to get them off.

[bluesman]

Lets get the word out
USE THE CRAPPY GLUE  

+1 We need to get this word to Weyerbacher in PA and Blue Mountain in VA.  They seem to use the same labels and it takes a small thermonuclear device to get them off.

+1

There are certain American breweries that are attempting to permanantly fuse their labels to the glass...and it makes our job damn near impossible.

[Kaiser]

or even worse: print the label onto the glass.

Kai

[realbeerguy]

It may sound funny, but try some ammonia. Most craft breweries (using bottles suitable for homebrewing) use an ammonia soluble  glue. And one thing is for sure - ammonia is a cheap alternative to PBW for the purposes of removing labels!

You know, I had heard this, I bought a bottle of ammonia, but I haven't tried it yet. Old habits and all.

A little amonia in warm water.  Soak overnight.  Labels off.  Been doing this for years.

2 oz amonia/ 5 gal

[mikebiewer]

Or they could be like some of the rogue bottles and paint them.

Its cool, but it will forever say Rogue on it. May or may not be a bad thing depending on your tastes!

[lostralph]

I've been using a mix of B-Brite, similar to PBW, and Oxiclean to clean my bottles and like all of you that generally gets the labels off.  I've noticed that breweries who use the plastic coated labels go for the more difficult adhesives.  A $1 dollar paint scraper gets those off before I wash them.  Any left over adhesives you can clean off using an industrial degreaser/cleaner.

[enso]

Or they could be like some of the rogue bottles and paint them.

Its cool, but it will forever say Rogue on it. May or may not be a bad thing depending on your tastes!

Not if you soak it in star san for a week or so.  Shorter if you use a stronger than recomended solution.  Takes those printed labels off most any bottle.  Sometimes needs a little scrub with a green scrubbie pad.  Other times it wipes right off.

Give it a try.  Personally though, I just recycle those.  I have too many bottles anyway despite kegging.

[mr_jeffers]

I've given up on removing labels.  Seems like more work than it's worth.  Plus, in Maine there's a five cent refund on each bottle (15 on wine and liquor).  If I'm passing out bottles, I tend to pass out the ones with labels, figuring that if I don't get the bottle back, they'll at least return it instead of throwing it in the trash.  Plus the labels might open someone up to a beer they didn't know existed.

[kborden195]

I have had excellent results with soaking the bottles in a warm Oxiclean solution. I fill a large kitchen pot and soak about eight at a time. Many labels will fall off within a hour or so. Most others require minimal effort.

[steveo]

Hot water and oxi clean work wonders like said above. 1 hour or less and lables are floating in the water.

[Podo]

I have tried all manner of cleaning bottles.  For removing labels and most crud, hot or warm water with oxyclean works better than anything else I've tried.  Labels usually come off in minutes.  I like to run mine through the dishwasher before bottling, and have never had a bottle infection in 10 years of doing this.

[mikebiewer]

I'm an idiot...

I just found my "anti-bacterial" and "extra hot" drying cycles on my dishwasher...

I shouldn't need to make the mess of dipping in sanitizer on bottling day anymore if I just do that.

Again, I feel like an idiot, but I'm glad I found it!