Cooking Bottles and Labels

[Shaw237]

When cooking bottles to sanitize, what is the best/simplest way to remove labels before placing them in the oven? Thank you.

 

[bmbissell]

I usually throw them in the sink for a few hours with hot water and dish soap then take a piece of steel wool and they come off like a hot knife in butter.. There are a number of cleaning products available at brew stores that assist in this also.

 

[beergolf]

Soak the bottle in hot water with Oxyclean. The labels usually just float off after a while.

Rinse well and you are good to go.

 

[duboman]

IMO cooking bottles is not necessary and also may cause breakage. The heating and cooling of bottles can weaken the glass and cause the neck to snap when capping or uncapping.

Soak the bottles in oxy and the labels will fall off, rinse thoroughly and when ready to bottle soak in star San, drip dry and bottle.

 

[Raenon]

Sanitizing bottles in the oven sounds like a holdover practice from early brewing days, like using bread yeast and believing autolysis was going to set in after a week.
Get yourself some star san and go for a soak. It'll let you wipe off the labels easily, then dunk them again just before you fill. No need to rinse further unless you got label pieces still stuck to it.

 

[eastoak]

IMO cooking bottles is not necessary and also may cause breakage. The heating and cooling of bottles can weaken the glass and cause the neck to snap when capping or uncapping.

Soak the bottles in oxy and the labels will fall off, rinse thoroughly and when ready to bottle soak in star San, drip dry and bottle.

this is not true, glass is either broken or not broken and heating bottles in the oven will not cause the necks to snap when capping. if you open a hot oven full of bottles and spray cold water on the bottles they will break but not otherwise. i have sterilized bottles i bought off of craigslist in the oven at 300 degrees, never had a bottle break at capping.

 

[duboman]

this is not true, glass is either broken or not broken and heating bottles in the oven will not cause the necks to snap when capping. if you open a hot oven full of bottles and spray cold water on the bottles they will break but not otherwise. i have sterilized bottles i bought off of craigslist in the oven at 300 degrees, never had a bottle break at capping.

I am not here to argue with you as I stated this may/can cause this to occur. The heating of glass at certain temperatures repeatedly can weaken the molecular structure of glass and some bottles are inferior to others.

I have a friend that manufactures glass for a living and this is where my information comes from so I don't do it. If you have been successful that's great, if it works for you then keep doing it and I'll keep doing what I do, but I also know people that have sliced their hands open from capping bottles that shattered or having tossed bottles that snapped when opening them. They cooked their bottles. They've since stopped.

I just throw it out there as a caution, I'd rather be safe then injured unnecessarily.

If you know something to be a fact then back it up, just because you have not experienced something occurring does not mean it won't or can't.

Cheers!

 

[dkennedy]

IMO cooking bottles is not necessary and also may cause breakage. The heating and cooling of bottles can weaken the glass and cause the neck to snap when capping or uncapping.

Soak the bottles in oxy and the labels will fall off, rinse thoroughly and when ready to bottle soak in star San, drip dry and bottle.

This is what I do, have gained an appreciation for oxy-clean. Star-San spray after a good rinse, and bottle away.

 

[kindrox]

The heating of glass at certain temperatures repeatedly can weaken the molecular structure of glass

I was told this at my local HBS.

 

[eastoak]

I am not here to argue with you as I stated this may/can cause this to occur. The heating of glass at certain temperatures repeatedly can weaken the molecular structure of glass and some bottles are inferior to others.

I have a friend that manufactures glass for a living and this is where my information comes from so I don't do it. If you have been successful that's great, if it works for you then keep doing it and I'll keep doing what I do, but I also know people that have sliced their hands open from capping bottles that shattered or having tossed bottles that snapped when opening them. They cooked their bottles. They've since stopped.

I just throw it out there as a caution, I'd rather be safe then injured unnecessarily.

If you know something to be a fact then back it up, just because you have not experienced something occurring does not mean it won't or can't.

Cheers!

wow.

 

[eastoak]

I was told this at my local HBS.

and?