Best way to get a label off a bottle

[Racehunter]

I think mine was sub £20 and was definitely a good buy. No more fear of breaking bottle necks and slashed wrists

 

[Richard_H]

Bench capper works a treat if you have somewhere to install it and they do perform better but not everyone can have a dedicated area for this

 

[RichardMW]

I think mine was sub £20 and was definitely a good buy. No more fear of breaking bottle necks and slashed wrists

Ah so not one of these then?

Table Top Bottle Capper Micro Brewery Bench HEAVY DUTY Bottling Beer Crown Caps | eBay

 

[Racehunter]

This is mine

I use a cheap 'Workmate' type foldable bench to put it on for bottling and I think that only cost me a tenner and bottling is not its sole use/

 

[trummy]

Re labels - getting mine to stick and last a year in the garage is a problem - not wanting to stick them so I cannot remove them when the time comes

 

[RoomWithABrew]

On a label note if you are sticking your own labels on use milk on a brush or sponge I use semi skimmed as it's all we have in the house.
Works really well and they come off easily with a simple soak in warm water.

Not good if you are putting your bottles in a cooler full of ice and water as they will float off.

 

[moto748]

Just buy a bench capper

So do bench capper work on *all* types of bottles, including the likes of LP as mentioned upthread?

As I remarked elsewhere, clear glass bottles in particular are normally 'shallow collar' type (won't work with an 'over-centre' capper).

As I don't have a bench, a bench capper isn't much use to me. I can still use the old-fashioned hand tool and mallet for the odd few bottles in a batch; if it only two or three of them, it's no great hardship.

 

[Richard_H]

So do bench capper work on *all* types of bottles, including the likes of LP as mentioned upthread?

As I remarked elsewhere, clear glass bottles in particular are normally 'shallow collar' type (won't work with an 'over-centre' capper).

As I don't have a bench, a bench capper isn't much use to me. I can still use the old-fashioned hand tool and mallet for the odd few bottles in a batch; if it only two or three of them, it's no great hardship.

They do every time in one swift pull down with a perfectly capped bottle, so mine comes out for the more awkward bottles or badly made caps.

Overall I prefer my hand capper though as it's far quieter and needs less effort as my kitchen worktops seem to be a little too high for my bench capper.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

You will need a different bell on your capper bench or other if you are using champagne type bottles as the caps are bigger.

 

[dodgyclanger]

Threads Merged C_T

Just started brewing again. Once upon a time, you could just soak the labels off beer bottles …but no longer!
Has anyone got any tips on the easiest way of doing this?

 

[Polcho]

I’ve found Astonish Oxi Active Plus to be helpful.

 

[dodgyclanger]

I’ve found Astonish Oxi Active Plus to be helpful.

Thanks.

 

[Cwrw666]

Most bottles these days use plastic labels. I fill the bottles , carefully!, With boiling water, let them stand for a minute and the labels can be peeled off. This leaves varying amounts of glue behind on the bottle. A solvent such as white spirit fetches it off
I collect beer labels so I've done rather a lot of this though I'm aiming to get the label off in one piece.

 

[dodgyclanger]

Thanks.

I have just found a previous posting on this. I see I’m not the only one finding it hard work to recycle used bottles!
Consider this post now closed …and thanks.

 

[dodgyclanger]

Most bottles these days use plastic labels. I fill the bottles , carefully!, With boiling water, let them stand for a minute and the labels can be peeled off. This leaves varying amounts of glue behind on the bottle. A solvent such as white spirit fetches it off
I collect beer labels so I've done rather a lot of this though I'm aiming to get the label off in one piece

Most bottles these days use plastic labels. I fill the bottles , carefully!, With boiling water, let them stand for a minute and the labels can be peeled off. This leaves varying amounts of glue behind on the bottle. A solvent such as white spirit fetches it off
I collect beer labels so I've done rather a lot of this though I'm aiming to get the label off in one piece.

Most bottles these days use plastic labels. I fill the bottles , carefully!, With boiling water, let them stand for a minute and the labels can be peeled off. This leaves varying amounts of glue behind on the bottle. A solvent such as white spirit fetches it off
I collect beer labels so I've done rather a lot of this though I'm aiming to get the label off in one piece.

Thanks, I have white spirit in my garage so will give this a try.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Don’t put white spirit anywhere near your bottles. Metal scourer plus washing up liquid removes glue.

 

[hop-a-long]

My initial reaction was, if you don't want to wash off the label, then don't label your bottles!!

Reading on I realized that you were talking about commercial swingtop bottles. In that case you might be best of using Grolsch swingtops. They only have a small paper label around the neck.

 

[user 41945]

Threads Merged C_T

Just started brewing again. Once upon a time, you could just soak the labels off beer bottles …but no longer!
Has anyone got any tips on the easiest way of doing this?

Some bottles you still can, Banks' for instance. Usually need to use a plastic scourer to get the last of the adhesive off.
Otherwise very hot water in bottle and carefully peel it off, as above.
To remove adhesive I use the sticky label remover that you can buy, it's smelly but the the smell fades quickly. I might give white spirit a go next time, not tried it. Alcohol (the non-drinking variety) doesn't work.
Wash the bottles in soapy water afterwards, sometimes a bit of Cif (or Jif, for us old buggers) or the like helps clear off the bits I missed.
Once the label and sticky are off, if there's any spare room in the dishwasher, brings them up lovely. But not allowed to put them in to remove label to avoid blocking the filter.

 

[Shirley Bassett]

Kopperberg and Rekordilig labels float off the bottles in a couple of minutes, when soaked in hot water.

 

[Wrastler]

I fill up my 5gal fv with hot soapy water and leave them to stand until I remember, then use a metal scourer to get rid of anything left over... As someone else mentioned above.

I did think recently, that you know when you're a homebrew (bottler) when you only buy outside beer when the label looks like it'll come off easily