Removing beer labels

[Dougal]

Hi all, 

For those of us trying to build up stocks of 500ml bottles, I've come across something handy on HomeBrewTalk.

Most labels soak off easily in hot water and napisan, but for those with sticky non water-soluble glues like Epic, Harrington's, Three Boys, Twisted Hop etc, there's another solution. Give them the same soak, and roughly scrape away the paper label in the sink with a paint scraper, exposing the adhesive.

Before the glue hardens again, use a scrubber pad and some vegetable oil [edit: a few drops of eucalyptus oil and a paper towel works even better] to remove the adhesive, wipe up with a paper towel and wash well to get rid of the oil residue.

It's an improvement on the acetone based screen-printing solvent I used to use (and frankly I can get a much more pleasant headache drinking beer). Don't know if caustic soda works on these glues, but you can't really use either of those in the house.

 

Of course, other nice breweries like 8 Wired and Emerson's have labels that just peel off- as if we needed another reason to drink their beer...

[Beer_ledgend]

Another way of getting the labels of is pouring boiling water in the bottle, this melts the glue, some labels are easier to get of than others.

 

 

[John H]

Second that - boiling water in the bottle and then use a razor blade to help lift the label cleanly - and if you are quick you can stick the almost perfect label onto your beerfridge.Doesn't seem to work so well with the pommy ale labels though :(

[denimglen]

Slightly off topic as this doesn't work for the Epic etc like you mentioned but for the ones that are a bit more stubbon than easiest ones.  A bucket full of water and a good dose of cloudy ammonia plus a day or two of soaking and most labels fall off.

 

And what the hell are you printing that you need acetone for?  Even our most brutal inks wash up easier than that.

[Andrew Dixon]

I've always given bottles a good soak, and then as you say most labels come off easily.  For the ones that don't I give them a scrape to get rid of what I can and then clean off the gummy glue with a few drops of eucalypus oil.  That seems to work pretty well.

 

Andy

[Dougal]

Keen to try eucalyptus. It's got lots of volatiles so it should work even better than canola.

And what the hell are you printing that you need acetone for?  Even our most brutal inks wash up easier than that.

Hahaha. That old school knife-cut adhering film for textile printing.

[denimglen]

Haha that is old school :-P

 

Actually now that I think about it our worst solvent is probably toluol which is probably up there with acetone.

[Dougal]

Cheers for that Andy, 

I tried eucalyptus oil last night and it's more effective still. I've edited my original post to say so.