De-labeling Weekend

[tfries]

I spent most of Saturday removing labels and cleaning bottles. 8 cases worth

.
I have been collecting them for the last few months. I got
1 case from a local winery, 1 case from a guy at work and 5 cases from
another friend. The others were from our own consumption.
They got a hot soak in Cascade detergent to loosen the label, then a
scrub with a nylon scrubbie to remove the glue. For the most part
the gunk came off. There were a few that needed Goo Gone and
steel wool and a couple others that were too stubborn and went into the
recycle bin.




One thing I noticed is that the cheaper the wine, the easier the label came off.




I am all set to bottle my first batch next weekend!



Tom

 

[Angell Wine]

I've never try to get a label off a bottle of MD 20/20 before.

 

[Wade E]

That is true for Champagne bottles too, the cheaper the bottle, the easier the label.

 

[tfries]

I've never try to get a label off a bottle of MD 20/20 before.

Ya gotta love those screw tops

One of the boxes that my friend gave me was from Screw Kappa Napa winery. I found that an interesting name.



Tom

 

[Francie]

Tom,


I am convinced that "de-labeling" is the worst part of this hobby!! I use a wire scrubby which after a 30 minute soak works great!! I have about four cases to do. (I try to do about 15 bottles at a time).


For my personal stash (wine which I do not plan to give away), I use just a special marker (crayola) for window decorating in which I put the month/year bottled, and the wine type, of course. After drinking it, the words wipe right off and I do not need to scrub anymore!! Yea!!!


Goodluck bottling!! That is my favorite part!!


Francie

 

[PolishWineP]

This is why we've generally gone to printed paper labels and glue sticks. A little hot water and off they float!

 

[JohnnyK68]

Make up a tub of 10 Gals water and 6 tbsp. of Oxy Clean soak as many bottles as you can at a time. No more scrubbing. Labels will float in a few hours.

 

[PolishWineP]

When it's warm here we have an old "suds-saver" we keep stocked with empty bottles and water. Empty a bottle, add it to the heap. A little B-Brite or something in it and labels just float away. Then we use the hose, bottle tree and another tub for rinsing after they've been scrubbed. Another chore that can be done outside!

 

[jsmahoney]

I've taken a five gallon bucket, add a little bleach/chlorine, make sure the bottles are filled to the top with the water/bleach/chlorine and let soak over night. I can usually find the labels in the bottom of the bucket. Then a nylon scrubbie does the rest.

 

[ScubaDon]

Hey Guys,
Last weekend I spent some time cleaning the labels off of the wine bottles that I have, Thanks Job05!
I soaked the bottles over night starting with hot water and a little dawn. The next day about 24 hours later, I started removing the labels. Most of them pulled right off others ripped and needed to be scraped with the back side of a knife. To get the glue off I used a Magic Earser by Mr. Clean. This worked perfectly. No soap from an S.O.S pad to keep rinsing off and no steel wool to cut your finger tips. When using the Magic Earser you could hear and feel if the bottle was clean without looking. On the clean part of the bottle their was no resistance. When you hit a section with glue it felt sticky but cleaned off quickly with just a few rubbing passes. It took 2 Magic Earsers to clean 48 bottles but sure was worth it. Cleaning the inside of the bottles was a different story. Ittook about 3 times longer to scrub the inside and rinse than it did to remove the labels and get the glue off with the process I used.Edited by: ScubaDon

 

[jobe05]

Scuba: Glad to hear you have dish pan hands today

Most of those labels come off pretty easy like you said, a couple dont, I hate those but use about the same procedure as you did to clean them.


Inside the bottle shouldn't be to bad. I rinse all of them as soon as I get them home, and a few of them would have been sprayed to sanitize. When I get ready to use them, I fill the sink up with C-Brite, clean them with bottle brush and put them in clean hot water to rinse. I have a double sink, so as they are now soaking in the clean water, I fill the other sink up with B-Brite and clean them again. Probably don't need that step, but I will take no chances with the clorine smell from the C-Brite. Then I rinse with the bottle rinser and sanitize on the bottle tree.


Sounds complicated and time consuming but it really isn't, I'd just rather be safe than sorry now. Glad to see ya back by the way, was starting to worry.

 

[Wade E]

Never can be to careful!