"Tom and Shelley" wrote in news:zcI6b.4636$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net:
I have not tried wine bottles, but with my beer bottles and the stubborn labels I use a little bit of a cleaner called Goo-Be-Gone. I just soak the label, wait a few minutes, and the label seems to slide/peel off like magic.
We like to reuse wine bottles that we bring back from wine festivials for our own wine. Is there something we can use to make it easier to remove the labels? We have tried soaking them and using baking soda. Any other ideas? Also, we would like to put our own labels on our bottles. Is there a label we can use that will be easy to remove? Thanks in advance. Tom G.
Yep some require a steam roller and a jackhammer to remove, I soak them in hot water and scrape the remaining followed by goo gone then a washing to remove the goo gone residue.
If you can find a local winery that doesn't recycle the bottles your in great shape although I've noticed some use glue that dissolves with about 10 minutes of soaking and others use the real nasty stuff.
I've found that soaking in either a dilute solution of bleach or a dilute solution of ammonia cleaner works well. (Insert standard warnings against mixing the two.) Some glues respond better to one, some to the other.
My mail address is jsachs177 at earthlink dot net.
Ugh --- Life is short. Any wine bottle where the label does not float off after soaking in water goes right into my recycling bin. I find that most European wine labels usually come right off --- French and Italian especially. Contact your local italian restauruant or bar and ask if they will hold those bottles for you to pick up. For California wine bottles, I have found some correlation with more papery type labels and ease of removal.
As far as my own labels, I have tried a lot of things. The easiest and simplest is to print on regular paper (I use a color laser printer) and Elmer's glue stick for the adhesive. These come right off in water. Avery-type sticky labels will never come off.
A short soak in HOT soapy water and some easy scraping with a non-serated knife do the job. Dish gloves needed since the water needs to be straight hot. Once in awhile you get some glue residue that sticks to the bottle, but an SOS pad gets that off easy. Don't put the SOS pad into your hot soapy water, or rince off the SOS suds in your water, as the SOS will kill your soap bubbles. Once in a blue moon I came across a stubborn label. I returned those bottles to the recycler. I got my entire cellar of hundreds and hundreds of bottles this way, mostly from the recycler or a restaurant.
I use a simple text label on the neck, so I can't comment on labels.
Let the newsgroup scroll proclaim that Greg Cook scribed upon its pages in
I second that emotion........... The Elmer's, when applied in a thin, thin layer, sticks quickly and dries flat. It comes right off after a minutes in hot water, no residue that one wipe won't remove.
White Spirits and a green scotch cloth (these may also be known as sos pads or scouring pads). Label comes off in seconds. Then wash in hot soapy water to remove the residue. Sterilise as normal. Works a treat.
I was given a few sheets of Avery L7668REV labels for zip discs and these are A4 / letter size sheets of removable labels so you don't have to repeat the above. Fit most printers.
Some time ago I read on this NG the suggestion of soaking bottles in a bin for a few days. This eased me back into Winemaking a few days ago as I always dreaded the thought of cleaning bottles and removing Lables.
As it happened I only had one bottle with a label and the label just slid off. I just used a mild cleaning solution. I think this makes good use of of an empty bin or fermenter.
I now have 5 Gals on the go and enjoying being back in the hobby.
Even the colour blind can tell white from red - one is dark, the other ain't!
And a lot of salt water to ruin the wine, too ',;~}~
Wot rot! One of my pet niggles is silly rules. When I've eaten out in an establishment that seems to take itself a little too seriously, I've ordered rich complex red wines with fish dishes, and delicate lemony whites with rare steak, just for the pleasure of the reaction it gets, heheheheh - yeah hell I'm bad! >',;~}~
It reflects best how I actually look, and the last squiggle is for the little long-and-pointy beard on my chin. Horns are optional, depending on mood ',;~}~
"Why be difficult, when with a little more effort, you could be impossible?"
DrinksForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.