Recycled wine bottle labels

I use Goof-Off, a commercially produced solvent.

Jack Keller discusses label removal in his June 20th WineBlog entry at

Greg

Dick, I usually soak in hot soapy water, scrape off what will come off, and soak some more (and repeat). If that doesn't work, I use Goo Gone on what's left. I have been known to toss a few in the recycling bin because it is just too hard to get what's left off. I guess it sort of depends on how much time you have and how bad you want that particular bottle (there are some lovely blue bottles which I really like and would've spent a lot of time on those labels off). Then, I heard via someone on this site for reeally tough labels - break the bottles and take the label off from the inside ;o). Darlene

I only remove labels for the bottle. But my technique is to fill the bottle with boiling water (be careful) and leave it for a few minutes. If the heat loosens the glue a bit, I put the oven on to about 150 degrees C and place the bottles in. After 20 minutes or so, I take a bottle out and peel off the labels. Then use a scrunched up piece of newspaper to clean the remaining glue off the bottle.

If heat doesn't work,I resort to soak> Anybody have any neat tricks for getting the new stick-on labels

I soak most labels off in dishwashing detergent overnight, but had a problem with a NZ Sauv Blanc (Whitehaven) label. I tried scrubbing the paper off down to just the glue, then used WD40 to get the glue off. Waaay too much trouble, so I thought I'd try to use a single edge razor and scrape it off. If you lift a corner with the razor you can just peel it off whole and it leaves no residue except right under where you used the razor. Then take the label glue side down and pressed it back on that spot and it lifts it right off. For Whitehaven, I peeled a two cases of bottles front and back in around 15 minutes. I'm not sure if the Whitehaven label is typical of the new labels, but give this technique a try and let me know if it works.

Regards,

Rick

Are you trying to recycle the labels or just get them off the bottle?

To get the old labels off the bottles I just soak them in hot soapy water for about 5 minutes and then scrape them off with a razor blade in one of those scraper thingys. You can get them at any hardware store for about $2.00.

a craft blade works fantastic even on a bone dry label with a touch of elbow grease.

Richard Heckman wrote:

Hi. My neighbor makes beer, and he said last night he uses ammonia to soak off the labels. I tried four bottles today and wow! I mixed 3 ounces of industrial strength ammonia to a tub that holds two bottles, and in a couple hours, the labels were floating off the first two bottles, the 2nd two bottles I had to use a razor, but they came off easier. Now, I don't know if these were the old glue or the new glue, but I'll keep trying, I have two cases to remove.

h> Anybody have any neat tricks for getting the new stick-on labels off. The

I use a couple techniques.

Unless I know the bottle has the "tough glue", I just soak in plain warm water, some take longer than others, some float right off. If it takes some work, I use the razor scraper that others have mentioned.

If I know it is going to be one of those sticky film type bottle labels, I peel the outer skin off and then use a product called D-Solve-IT. Someone here on the board recommended it and I love it, much less toxic smelling and acting than goo gone or goof off.

My girlfriend has recently discovered that by putting these tough bottles into VERY hot water, the outer skin AND most of the glue comes off easily. Then it takes less elbow grease with the d-solve it.

hope that helps a bit....

Greg

Sorry that this is long after the fact but my email lost this thread and I spent too much time looking for it. Thanks for all the tips.

Dick