# taking off wine bottle lables



## Ben Brewcat (Oct 27, 2004)

An overnight soak in dilute bleach solution (2-4 oz in 5 gallons) will loosen the labels so they slide right off; you may need to give a quick fingernail to slip off the gum residue but very easy. Metallic labels can be murder, and some places use a glue that NASA must have made for the shuttle, but usually it's pretty easy.

Bleach has the added benefit of removing deposits inside the bottle too, so you can, with one visit to a restaurant's recycling bin, clean and de-label as many bottles as you'll ever use. It'll loosen any mold, slime, ciggy-butts or whatever.

Good news is once done, you can reuse them until they break!

[ December 27, 2005, 02:00 PM: Message edited by: Ben Brewcat ]


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## Anthony (Jul 7, 2005)

You can also soak them over night in BLC (beer line cleaner), which will also loosen the label & remove any solids which have dried in or on the bottle.

Anthony


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## Gregory_Naff (Jun 28, 2005)

I use Red Devil lye for the soak. Available in the grocery store in the drain cleaner aisle. It works real well to remove labels and any nasty organics left behind in the bottle. About 1 tablespoon for 5 gallons of water works well. Wear gloves when dealing with the liquid though. Sodium Hydroxide is really good at eating organics such as skin...


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## JohnBeeMan (Feb 24, 2004)

I have started drinking Black Swan wines. They are fairly good and their label peels off in one piece by just finger nail.


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## Aspera (Aug 1, 2005)

The best label remover on earth is ammonia. Use about 2 cups in 5 gal of water, and soak the bottles overnight. The labels will simply fall off on there own, and the glue residue comes off with quick sponge wipe. DO NOT MIX BLEACH WITH AMMONIA if you value you lungs.


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## chemistbert (Mar 4, 2004)

Most any alkali will saponify the label glue to an extent but some wineries use non-water based gluee. For those I find a razor blade to be about right most of the time. I also make folks that like my wine do the work for me. A few nice clean empty bottles net them on filled with homemade. No real work on my part as I would have given them the wine anyhow.


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## nursebee (Sep 29, 2003)

From my wife: 

Plain water works for glue labels. Just soak and peel.

For adhesive lables, try a razor blade under the edge to pull them off. No soaking first. If that does not work, put warm water in the bottle for about 5 minutes and that should get things started.

Any residual goo-gone or adhesive remover to get adhesive residual off.

And the best suggestion, get enough bottles in your supply to just skip ones that are difficult.

The ones with easy to remove glue (soak and peel method) can be identified by looking through the back of the bottle and see horizontal rows of glue on the label.

Allow plenty of time.


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## sugar bandit #2 (Oct 4, 2003)

Thank you for the ideas. 
I get many of the bottles from a local Italian resturaunt they'll save upon request. I'll let you know what label removal ideas seem to work the best.


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