Bottle Washing tips and tricks

[Donny70]

I'm going to be doing that with my next batch

 

[wino2012]

Hot water and steraliser, leave for an hour. Then peel and use a metal scourer for the annoying bits. Alternatively us one bottle, drink it all, wash it out and fill up daily from the Demi :drunk:

(Also fools SWMBO that I havent been drinking that much :thumb:)

 

[Michaeldonk]

I'm news to homebrew and I also run a restaurant so have bottles a plenty, I find the easiest way is to get the other half to do it lol.

Other than that mangers and bulmers bottles I've just done about 60 of them and all they took were 10 minutes in the sink and a green scourer for the foil and residue glue, job done.

 

[oldjiver]

Cooking oil brushed on melts the gunk. But I have an inexhaustable supply of Magners now so I dont have a problem.
(I give the barman a Magners bottle of beer and he gives me a bag of Magners empties,)

 

[simmo3801]

A friend at work drinkd Erdinger, a German wheat beer, nice slender brown bottles and the labels glide off in about 30 mins!

 

[hyperlink]

Stubborn bottles and generally baked on stains i use vanish oxyclean on a 24 hour soak in hot water but recently found a big problem.
If left over night in the bath it puts white almost limescale deposit both inside and outside of the bottles and was driving me nuts on how to get rid of it. Washing in soapy water didnt help nor did rinsing in fresh.

I had some very dirty demijohns which I left in Oxi and has the same issue. A quick swill with some Starsan removed the residue.

 

[LeithR]

What I don't understand is WHY do these breweries insist on using this - what must be - an expensive method of attaching labels, to bottles which are generally thrown away by the bottled beer/cider buying public.
Are they just doing it to annoy us homebrewers??? I also find that difficult to believe too.

Has anybody approached one of the breweries to ask the the question?

 

[Aleman]

Are they just doing it to annoy us homebrewers??? I also find that difficult to believe too.

Has anybody approached one of the breweries to ask the the question?

In Germany where they must recycle bottles the glue is deliberately water soluble . . . . This also goes for beers to be sold in Germany as well.

In the UK, as they are applied by machine then it doesn't really cost that much more to have a hot melt glue vinyl label applied as it does to apply a water soluble one. It's not a case of annoying home brewers as they don't really think about us reusing their bottles, the vast vast majority of which are disposed of ground up and used with aggregate for fixing roads.

Until it is a law (as in Germany) requiring them to reuse the bottles they will continue to do this

 

[supersteve]

If we introduce a similar solution as the Germans have then Home brewers will have to start buying empty bottles! iirc when I was in Germany the bottle only cost about 8 cents for every beer.

 

[Rowley]

All the soaking in various substances holds good, but when left with realy stubborn glue I reach for my can of lawnmower petrol in the garage.

Pour a drop into a small container and dip into it with a rag (occasionally a green scouring pad). This acts as a blilliant solvent and quickly softens most glue. Follow up with a good wash in hot soapy water to remove the final smearing (and odour of unleaded).

Usual H&S advice applies: Use in well ventilated area ...... avoid breathing fumes ... blah blah blah. We're all sensible adults here aren't we?

Favourite bottles - Kopparberg. Because life's too short for too much manual labour. Labels virtually float off after an hour or two in soapy water. No glue residue.

 

[Roddy]

I'm new to this game but found that Grolsch (swing top) labels are dead easy to get off and hardly leave any residue

£1.66 in asda compared with £1.50 for an empty one from a brew shop.. and you get free beer in it too ☺

 

[MikeK117]

I've given up on peeling labels off, far too laborious. I've just bottled my latest brew wit labels still on, just make a note on the bottle cap!

 

[phitt]

Deuchars IPA 500ml amber bottles. 45 minutes in cold water and the labels peel off without leaving a mark. If left longer then the labels fall off themselves. I had a load of Bulmers and Magners bottles which I recycled immediately after finding out how easily the Deuchars labels fell off. The Deuchars 80 shilling bottles are different adhesive and difficult to remove.

 

[Jonathan]

I've been buying the San Miguel 660ml bottles, the labels come off easier than any others I've tried - couple of minutes in warm water dies it!

I was struggling to find a glass I could fit one of these in, and then - Ikea, 630ml wheat beer glass, £1 :-)

 

[mtnmanca]

Sticky labels? Use some tecnu. Put a bit where it's sticky and gently rub. It'll come right off

 

[dave0w]

660ml stella and 560ml stella cider, one min in warm water and the label just falls off.
Grolsch(swing top) are very easy too.

i keep the labels on for the first brew so i can but notes on them.

 

[Joeyriles]

Fuller's bottles have been my failsafe. The labels slip off easy as anything and they're sturdy as anything.

I have learned to avoid: St. Austell Tribute and anything from Thornbridge (which is annoying because they are lovely bottles.)

 

[Cwrw666]

St Peters cream stout bottles are lovely things - heavy glass and with the brewery logo cast into their shoulders. Unfortunately they use plastic labels - scrape up a corner and you can peel them off. I've been using white spirits to soften the glue, scrape it off with a knife, then more white spirit to get the last remnants off. Pain in the backside, but I do like the bottles! :lol:

 

[Aerosam]

Personally I soak them in warm soapy water for half an hour to loosen the paper and then use a cloth dampened with acetone and every glue so far just wipes off. Clean water rinse and all done. If you can't get acetone, most nail varnish removers are acetone based so you could try that. If you try this make sure you use neoprene gloves or marigolds as acetone is no good for your skin.

My favourite bottle at the moment is Bavaria, nice Dutch lager from Aldi. At 91p a 500ml bottle it's almost as cheap as buying empy ones!

 

[Chillistarr]

Methylated spirit is another good anti-gunk solvent, evaporates quicker than white spirit, isn't (in my opinion) as harsh on the skin as white spirit, and smells better than acetone/nail varnish remover!