I hate bottling because...

[kacanepa]

There are many reasons why I find bottling abhorrent but the one that really stands out has to do with getting rid of the labels. Spending several hours cleaning 52 bottles was just the tiniest bit excessive.

My question is this: How does one get label glue off beer bottles? Particularly the glue off of the plastic labels? Those labels peeled off easily - leaving a glue more closely related to cement in its tenacity.

I tried PBW solution; I tried citrus cleaner; I tried alcohol solvent. I would have tried white spirit if I'd had any. The only thing that mostly worked was using a knife to scrape it off. And then scrubbing the residue off with a steel scrubber. Darn you to heck St Austells [shaking fist in the air]!

Yes, I could have left the labels on but if you're giving your homebrew away as a gift, someone else's label is a bit misleading. They also start to look pretty bad after multiple washings.

Any suggestions would be appreciated including which beers have the easiest labels to remove. Thanks in advance!

 

[Steamedbeech]

You want to drift eastwards along the coast to Ringwood , quick soak in hot water and the labels all but float off ....Batemans are nice and easy too :thumb:

 

[BrotherMalice]

So far from my experience Brains bottles have the easiest to remove labels, with the added bonus that the bottles themselves have no branding on them :)

I have just finished bottling 2 batches of beer and its official, I HATE bottling!

 

[kacanepa]

Thanks, Colin! It's nice to know I'm not the only one who hates bottling! I think I'd rather have dental work with no pain medication...

Bottling commences tomorrow...hopefully, I'll be able to enlist some help...

 

[BrotherMalice]

My wife helped with the 1st batch :

Going to buy polypins in the near future & will hopefully never have to bottle more that a few pints per brew again!!

 

[Springer]

Go steady K,
Bottles are easy to come by, just soak em,if the label float off you have a free bottle, if they don't throw them away, or just use them, if you don't have enough for your purpose then go and get some more.
S

 

[Ceejay]

I just don't bother these days. Life's too short and it doesn't make the beer taste any better :grin:

 

[prolix]

I use cider bottles from the pub and the labels slip off after a days soaking, even the tin foil bits.

Obviously poly pins, kegs and cornies mean you never have to bottle massively ( just the odd few for purpose)

Bigger 2l pop bottle work well as long as you drink 4 pints in a sitting and leave them in the dark.

Brewing for me is fun, I cut out the misserable bits if I can

 

[rpt]

For any residue that's left that won't come off with a quick scrub in hot soapy water, then try applying vegetable oil with a pastry brush. Leave it for a while and then you may be able to wipe the resulting gel off before giving them a wash. Unfortunately this doesn't work for all bottles. Brupaks Barrel and Bottle cleaner does work for these but it involves a long soak and a good scrub. It's probably not worth the bother once you have enough bottles.

I now mostly buy Timmy Taylor's Landlord, various Black Sheep and Wells Bombardier because the labels are easy to remove. The Landlord ones just float off and the others come off with an easy scrub in the sink.

Perhaps we should start a sticky thread with a list of easy to remove labels.

 

[DirtyCaner]

I'm sure I can help with something that was mentioned in this thread...

Brewdog bottles are fantastic, the labels peel off with noe soaking at all!

For the stubborn labels, I just leave em on. sterilise and fill with beer. These are the ones I tend to give to friends or cover with my on pseudo labels.

Bottling is OK when its a 2 man job and you set it up right, a bit slow unless theres beer to drink and some good chat, those 2l pop bottles are slow though...

DirtyC

 

[oggy_chomper]

Hobgoblin bottles all the way for me, soak over night in cold water and labels float off.

 

[keith1664]

Hobgoblin bottles all the way for me, soak over night in cold water and labels float off.

Agreed.... you just need a bench capper to cap them!

 

[rich27500]

I have given over 160 bottles as Xmas presents. It was a chore at times but when I sat back and looked at my work all that effort really was worth it. There were 9 brews in my Xmas boxes:

Jizzwit - wheat beer
Fireman Pat - pilsner
********* - mint choc stout
Plonker - gold hooky clone
Big daves beardy brew - old hooky clone
Odd shaped balls - 49er clone
Great Tackle - my own pale ale recipe
Spotted **** - OSH clone
Smoking the big fella - old smoke clone

These were all 23litre brew lengths so averaged 40 bottles a batch. Yes that's 360 bottles. Quality control has not been a chore :

 

[PD]

Nice one Rich....where's mine....

Well I bottle exclusively. Each brew around 36-40 bottles a brew. I've reached the stage where I have plenty of bottles in use and in reserve that I don't need to collect any more or remove labels. All my bottles are without labels now and I use a chalk pen for identifying the brews. After use they are always well washed and placed in a box ready for reuse. Bottling I do on my own sitting on a chair in front of the fermenter which is on worktop in garage. Bottling wand attached 2 plastic mushroom boxes with in total 40 cleaned and sterilised bottles on floor to my right empty crates to my left and off we go. Get bottle fill place in empty tray,repeat. 20 mins later cap all bottles. job done. No hassle and quite relaxing except when the temps were 0C like the other day.
Washing and sanitising the bottles is different, that's not a chore I like but it has to be done. all bottles dunked carefully in bath with sanitiser. soaked for half hour then rinsed and carried back to garage on bottle tree, WHICH IS ALSO SANITISED.
Part of the hobby for me.

 

[Sandimas]

I was just like you guys until my wife went into Lakeland and got me this:
http://www.lakeland.co.uk/8976/Sticky-Stuff-Remover

I can now re-use pretty much every bottle, even the stubborn ones. Wash and soak as normal, if the label won't come off give em a quick scrub to remove the top of the label, dry, then squirt a small amount of Sticky Stuff Remover onto some kitchen paper and wipe over the label, letting it soak in a bit. Leave for 10 mins and do it again, it should all come off, with a bit of elbow grease.

Just did a load last night, which were the result of using pattern labels off eBay rather than proper Avery labels, the latter float off easily.

 

[BrewDan]

I keep getting given empty crates of butty bach, no more horrible labels, I simply fill with hot water, leave them for a minute, and the label comes off in one piece along with the glue.

Most other bottles are a pain, I tried all sorts on those ones, but in the end stuck with hot water , washing up liquid and a metal scrubber

 

[Baz Chaz]

...... Well I bottle exclusively.....

Yup +1

Removing lables only needs doing once, plastic are the hardest to remove, but fill the bottle with very hot water (don't immerse) couple of minutes and peel label off, the rest just soak in hot soapy water. Build up a stock of bottles and any you don't have success with, into the recycle bin, doesn't take very long to build up a stock of decent bottles.

.....Part of the hobby for me.

I'm quite happy bottling, with no rinse sanitiser and being better organised now, have got the bottling session (from deciding to bottle to finished everything put away etc) taking little over an hour :!:

Brewing is a waiting game anyway and you can't rush your ale, so why the rush to save an odd hour in the final process

Bottling may be for the more patient brewer, but each to their own I'm out at friends tonight for a meal and have already taken round a dozen bottles, not that easy with a keg/corny etc :

 

[robsan77]

I've just bought 2 x 10l polypins from murphys.
A. Because I don't like bottling.
B. Because they fit a little bottler and you don't have to bottle a whole batch in one go.
They are also great for bottling from as you dont have a large bucket that you have to tip at the end while waiting ages for the last bottles to slowly fill.

You can squeeze the polypins and you can really keep oxygen contact down.

 

[jonewer]

I keg and bottle.

23 liters so 19 in the corny and the remainder normally fills about a half dozen bottles.

I like it this way. 6 bottles is not too onerous and once the corny is finished I have the bottles in a stash for later. I'm slowly building up the stash..... aim is to leave them for a couple of years and then drink when really properly matured :

 

[PD]

quote Robsan

They are also great for bottling from as you dont have a large bucket that you have to tip at the end while waiting ages for the last bottles to slowly fill.

The night before bottling I place a piece of 2" x 2" wood under the back of the fermenter, this tilts it forward. Any sediment has the night to again settle.
With this I get nearly all the brew out of my vessel without disturbing it or tipping it more