{"id":1782,"date":"2019-02-26T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brewtogether.com\/?p=1782"},"modified":"2022-02-09T13:05:54","modified_gmt":"2022-02-09T18:05:54","slug":"removing-bottle-labels-for-homebrew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brewtogether.com\/2019\/02\/26\/removing-bottle-labels-for-homebrew\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Remove Beer Bottle Labels for Homebrew"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Are you one of those crazy people who pays for new bottles to fill with homebrew<\/a>? Sure, they\u2019re not expensive and they\u2019re convenient, but wouldn\u2019t you rather your bottles come full of beer? Luckily, they do! But there\u2019s a catch – they come with an annoying label that leaves a sticky residue on the bottle when you try to remove it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, it\u2019s not always easy to remove those pesky beer bottle labels when you\u2019re done drinking the delicious craft beer, and it\u2019s no fun serving someone a bottle of your best homebrew with someone else\u2019s dirty faded label on the bottle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are different labels and the best way to remove them depends on what type of label you\u2019re dealing with. Plastic labels often leave more glue residue, while paper labels often fall apart and make a mess while cleaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what is the easiest way to remove labels from glass bottles to reuse for homebrew? Here\u2019s the best method for easily removing the labels from commercial bottles for homebrew! This process works great for even the most stubborn labels, and only requires some simple equipment and a little elbow grease. If you\u2019re a home winemaker, this label removal method works great for wine labels as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Choosing Bottles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One quick note about reusing beer bottles for homebrew. Only use bottles with pry-off caps. Luckily, most craft beer bottles use pry-off caps, but there are a few that use the twist-off style caps that a lot of domestic beers use. Those don\u2019t seal well when bottling homebrew, and we don\u2019t recommend trying to use them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Try using different shaped bottles, too. I personally always liked the shorter, wider bottles that Sierra Nevada uses for my homebrew, but a lot of my friends use the standard 12-oz bottles that are thinner and taller. As long as the bottles have a pry-off cap, any of these are fair game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step One: Drink a Beer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Like every other activity related to homebrewing, I recommend your first step to be pouring yourself a cold, delicious beer. While we almost always recommend drinking a homebrew, this is one of the few instances in which drinking a commercial beer is preferable, only because now you have one more bottle to remove the label from and fill with homebrew! While this step is obviously optional, let\u2019s face it, the reason we homebrew is because we\u2019re beer enthusiasts, and the hobby is a lot more fun with a little beer involved!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step Two: Soak Empty Bottles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I soak my empty bottles in hot water (there is no need to boil water – hot tap water is sufficient here) with a small amount of PBW<\/a> mixed in. Many homebrewers use a scoop of OxiClean Free<\/a> instead, but I recommend sticking with PBW<\/a> because I\u2019m hesitant to introduce anything to my beer that I don\u2019t need to, and you can buy PBW<\/a> cheaply and keep it on hand. You don\u2019t usually need to soak the bottles for more than a couple of hours or so, but an overnight soak doesn\u2019t hurt either. Depending on how many bottles you need to soak, you\u2019ll need anywhere from a couple of gallons of water to a whole bucket or kitchen sink full.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I generally do not recommend using any type of dish soap on the bottles. In fact, I recommend to never use soap for any of your brewing equipment. The film never really rinses all of the way off and it can impact the quality of your beer. The last thing we want is a damaged final product! If you absolutely MUST use dish soap, only allow it to touch the outside of the bottles and don\u2019t let it get into the inside of the bottle.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step Three: Peel Off as Much of the Label as Possible<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You probably won\u2019t get all of it off at once, but peel off as much of the beer labels as possible. For extra sticky labels, you\u2019ll usually still have some stubborn paper and glue residue left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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