Running Low

[Wade E]

Since I had the day off i called both my transfer station and the next towns transfer station(dump/recycle center) and asked them to hold any wine bottles till the end of the day for me. When I got to each place there were 3 boxes at each place for me. I filled the bathtub 3 times already and here is 1 of the pics. I usually dont do it this way anymore as I have been well supplied with bottles until recently since I bottled most of what I had bulk aging. I have 2-6 gallon batches left to bottle and only 26 of 1 kind and a whole lot of random bottles after that. I have to do some serious restocking for awhile. Heres 1 bathtub full with Oxyclean in there.

Edited by: wade

 

[NorthernWinos]

So, Wade....where are the kids going to bathe tonight?????

 

[Wade E]

Ill just hose them off with cold water outside!

 

[Waldo]

How long do they have to soak before those labels begin to just fall off. Do you do another step of cleaning after this or are they done when they come out of the tub and rinsed.

 

[Wade E]

They start falling off after 1 1/2 hours and after that I rinse out very well and then store them and sanitize before use. The Straight A cleanser does a good job of most labels and killing anything in there then on the bottle tree they hang to dry then into the box or the bottle rack if I have room.

 

[univity]

I like using straight A but one time I let bottles soak in it overnight. After rinsing the bottles a number of them had a nasty film inside and outside - now i fill the bottles with water first and sit them all upright then fill the tub with hot water and straight A - havent had the yucky film since i started doing that. Also - Ecco Domani (sp?) and Wolf Blass bottles - dont even try de-labeling, way more work than they are worth!


Love the pic tho - and good idea - have a big garden tub in master bath that I rarely use - that may be a good use for it!!!

 

[Jeff H]

Wade, I use Oxyclean too! Works great...nice haul. Jeff

 

[Wade E]

I had some Straight A cleanser and it works better then the Oxyclean but I ran out on the last batch so had to steal the wifes Oxy. It works almost as good as the Straight A and as good as the C-Brite or B-Brite in my opinion.

 

[Jeff H]

Interesting Wade....I have a short winemaking history, I have only used Oxyclean and Easy Clean http://www.finevinewines.com/ProdDetA.asp?PartNumber=6019A. Care to elaborate on the merits of each of the cleansers?






http://www.finevinewines.com/cleaning.htm
http://www.finevinewines.com/Cleaning-versus-Sanitizing.htm

 

[Wade E]

Jeff H, what I am doing here is mainly delabeling recycled wine bottles. They are in no way, shape, or form ready to bottle at this stage. I use NA-Meta, Star San, or Iodophor for sanitizing them prior to using them. I have used C-Brite and B-Brite previous to this and must say that Straight A is by far the stronger of them all. Oxyclean and all its off brands to me seem to do the same job as cleaners in my opinion. I do not use any of those as sanitizers though. I have never used Easy Clean though so can not compare that product.

Edited by: wade

 

[Jeff H]

Wade...there are so many different cleansers it's hard to know which to use.Thanks for your response.My Starter kit contained Easy Clean so I've stayed the course with it for wine and santizing with K-meta. For bottles I use Oxyclean, I got one of those mega sized containers at Sam's, so I'm in for the long haul

.

 

[Wade E]

The Oxy and its off brands are good enough but if doing lots in a tub the Straight A is will lift the labels easier and get more of them off.

 

[Wade E]

Last Saturday I called the transfer station again and retrieved 148 bottles not counting the 2 1/2 cases that I had o throw back due to them being twist offs. Those twist offs are becoming more and more common. I gonna do them bottles in a couple different loads in the bath tub.

 

[corn field]

all those bottles to clean and remove labels makes my bach hure wade

 

[Wade E]

Mine too corn field but paying for all those bottles makes my wallet hurt!

 

[corn field]

I hear that Wade

 

[termini]

I agree with univity, I also am starting to learn which brands are not worth the elbow grease to try and get the lables off. Especially when you are able to get volumes of bottles from a recycler. What ever does not float off, or come off really easily, I just toss it in my own recycling and move on---I have so much other stuff to be doing-- like preparing for fall hunting!!

 

[Wade E]

Very few bottles make it to my recycle bin as Im not afraid to dig in with some elbow grease and some goo-b-gone!

 

[Wayne1]

I bought a big plastic tub at Lowes and put my bottles in it on the back porch where they are out of the way with water and simple dish detergent and am just leaving them - I"m finding that the longer I let them sit, moreand morelabels either are falling of or can be scraped off with a thumbnail

 

[Wade E]

I just fill up my bathtub with hot water and Oxyclean(usually a Walmart brand) and put as many bottles in there as i can fit that will still be completely submerged, close the shower door, and let it sit for about 6 hours.