What do you use to remove labels?

[Brad78]

Hello...first time posting, new brewer in Moncton NB.

What does everyone use to remove labels? I have a bunch of Picaroons/Gahan bottles that I want labels removed from.

I searched the forums and didn't find much. A mention or two of Oxiclean...are there any other methods that people have had success with? Maybe some less "chemically" type solutions?

I'll use Oxiclean if that's what is commonly used. But thought I would see if there are alternatives.

Great forums btw.

Cheers
Brad

[mr x]

I keg, so I'm not much help....

[jacinthebox]

Really hot water and pink cleaner in the set-tub for a few hours...they fall right off the Stella bottles

[Brad78]

Cool, I do have the pink chlorine cleaner...so hot tap water and let soak for a few hours...then rinse and sanitize I assume. I'll give it a try!

And tks for the welcome mr x!

[jacinthebox]

You got it...take the labels off while the water is still hot (softens glue).

welcome

[LiverDance]

Picaroons are really on there, not like normal bottles so they may require some extra elbow grease.

[LeafMan66_67]

I use Oxyclean, or PBW, or the pink stuff all with hot water ... however, If I recall the PIcarroons labels are hell to get off and it took Goo Gone to get rid of all of the glue residue.

[jacinthebox]

that's why I like Stella...the labels just fall off on there own...no fuss no muss

[adams81]

I've got some Picaroons that have been through Oxyclean a few times now and still have a lot of glue residue. Typically most fall right off. Have yet to try Goo-gone, but not surprised that it takes that much. Great bottles though!

Sent from my GT-I9000

[Brad78]

Hm, if Picaroons are that stubborn I might pick up some Goo Gone and use it after the soak in the pink stuff. Will share my results.

[jason.loxton]

Give up on Picaroons. Not worth the effort. That glue is there for life. (I think it comes out space.) There are other nice 500 mls that drop right off with water. Try a few to experiment and then ask the bottle depot to set them aside for you. The ones that do come off come off so clean and easily that it is not worth f-ing around with the ones that don't. (In my opinion.)

[dean2k]

Hm, if Picaroons are that stubborn I might pick up some Goo Gone and use it after the soak in the pink stuff. Will share my results.

Here's my experience: Picaroon labels have this plastic film on top of the label. You need to give them a soak in either really hot water or oxyclean/pink sani to remove that film. AND THEN you still need to use Goo-Gone to remove the label. It's all really, really messy as compared to normal 330ml bottles.

[pet lion]

Yep. Picaroons bottles are all pitched to the recycling bag. Propeller are my fave for ease of label removing though Garrison aren't bad either. As far as NB beer goes Pumphouse bottles are no problem either.

[Brad78]

Ouf. And I have ton of Picaroons bottles too. I'll give it a whirl...but if they become too problematic, I may just turf them. Thanks for the heads up everyone.

[gm-]

Picaroons bottles are all I use, as they are easy to get here in NB, are great size (500 ml) and the right colour (amber).

The glue they use is troublesome though. Here is what I do: 1. Soak the bottles in hot water. 2. Use a sharp knife and scrape all the labels off, a lot of glue will be left behind, but that is fine. 3. I use the glue to attach my labels (see below), even after 10 rounds through the dishwasher, the glue still works fine.

There is a way to remove the glue, but it is expensive and time consuming. Soaking the glued area in vegetable oil for 20 minutes or so and then wiping it off with a cloth works, way better than goo gone or similar products. WD-40 works as well, but I don't want that stuff near my beer.

Few examples of the labels, I usually print them so that there are 3 labels per letter sized page, that way it covers the entire glue area.

[Brad78]

Love the labels gm! Did you print them yourself? Regular paper? I like the idea of the veggie oil will try that before GooGone.

[amartin]

I soak them in cold water and bleach to sanitize them before filling, and if any labels start peeling off on their own I'll remove them. Otherwise, they stay. They're not hurting anything.

[Brad78]

My findings...

Picaroons and Gahan have similar super glue. Picaroons has that plastic film ontop; Gahan doesn't or doesn't seem to anyway (I only had 1 bottle on hand).

So what I did...

1. Manually peeled the plastic label off the Picaroons bottles. Took ~30-45 seconds and it was a bit annoying.
2. Soaked the bottles in very hot tap water for ~1 hour.
3. Used a butter knife to scratch the mushy remainder of the label off. Took ~30seconds.
4. Using gm's idea... I then dipped the bottle back into the water briefly and then used veggie oil with an abrasive cloth and the glue dissolved with a little effort! Took ~30seconds.
5. Quickly rinsed and dried the bottle with a towel. ~15 seconds.

So ~2 mins total of manual effort per bottle.

I used melted Coconut Oil since I had a huge tub of it from Costco on hand.

So definitely some of effort involved but +1 to gm for the very non-toxic way of getting that pesky label and glue off!

Now do I want to do that for 50+ bottles......um, unknown at this time.

[akr71]

...
So ~2 mins total of manual effort per bottle...

I'll take the nickel (return to the depot) over 2+ minutes of frustration.

[gm-]

Love the labels gm! Did you print them yourself? Regular paper? I like the idea of the veggie oil will try that before GooGone.

Yeah I print them with a laser printer at work on regular office paper.

My findings...

Picaroons and Gahan have similar super glue. Picaroons has that plastic film ontop; Gahan doesn't or doesn't seem to anyway (I only had 1 bottle on hand).

So what I did...

1. Manually peeled the plastic label off the Picaroons bottles. Took ~30-45 seconds and it was a bit annoying.
2. Soaked the bottles in very hot tap water for ~1 hour.
3. Used a butter knife to scratch the mushy remainder of the label off. Took ~30seconds.
4. Using gm's idea... I then dipped the bottle back into the water briefly and then used veggie oil with an abrasive cloth and the glue dissolved with a little effort! Took ~30seconds.
5. Quickly rinsed and dried the bottle with a towel. ~15 seconds.

So ~2 mins total of manual effort per bottle.

I used melted Coconut Oil since I had a huge tub of it from Costco on hand.

So definitely some of effort involved but +1 to gm for the very non-toxic way of getting that pesky label and glue off!

Now do I want to do that for 50+ bottles......um, unknown at this time.

Hah, very good. I have around 300 picaroons bottles now, all with the label off. Took 2 of us around 4 hours to get the labels off (we kept the glue for our own labels).

[Brad78]

...
So ~2 mins total of manual effort per bottle...

I'll take the nickel (return to the depot) over 2+ minutes of frustration.

haha, I don't blame ya.

[dean2k]

I'll need to try that veggie oil trick. I'd prefer not scrapping at all, but that's just because I'm lazy.

[S-04]

I just tried random solvents until I found one that would remove the picaroons glue. Believe it or not, the winner seems to be Varsol, which worked pretty well.

So, does anyone know how to remove Varsol?

[dean2k]

All this talk of label removal inspired me to use up some of my regular old 330ml bottles last night. Yup, you know good old fashioned, regular 330ml twist-off bottles ... wait for it ..... FUCK. Queue the emergency sanitizing of the 500ml Picaroons. Hope I didn't poison or oxidize this batch. And I broke my hydrometer by dropping it on the floor. What a clusterfuck evening.

[akr71]

What was wrong with the 330's?

Yep, I've broken a hydrometer or 3...