It's ok for the bottle tops to touch the wood?
The only reason I didn't do something similar is that I worried about the bottles touching the wood and the wood soaking up water and getting nasty over time. Being a noob I'm probably just being way too careful.
Big_Belgian said:I rent a local bio-lab facility for my label-removing process to ensure protection against infections, and store my bottles in a deep-freeze locker, with each bottle wrapped with a condom for extra protection. I always wear full haz-mat gear during the bottling process and incinerate all of my used equipment after every batch. So far I'm 100% infection-free.
Big_Belgian said:I found a very good solution to this problem about a month ago. Taking a note from Mark Twain (Tom Sawyer's whitewashing), I convinced my 6 year old son that he is the world's most awesome label remover and its become a very fun activity for him (at least until he catches on to my ruse). He pulls them out of the soaking tub and vigorously removes the labels and hands the bottle to me. I rinse and put on the drying tree, then take another drink while he works on the next one. He actually chose this activity over the Wii one night last week. I've just got to get enough bottles done before he catches on. Huge eyerolls from the wife.
Thats dumb. They are like 50 cents a bottle. Why pay for something you can get for free.
My question is... Why waste time taking the labels off? Its not like your selling them and your drinking them yourself/good friends. Its your first bottling session so its your first beer so the only thing that is important is whats inside the bottle. Honestly I have done 15 batches all bottled and I have only taken the labels off once to clean bottles and that was because of making a batch for a buddy for his wedding and I made my own labels. I use a Sharpy marker and label the cap. Its the only thing you see when you look inside of a box or a six pack holder.
There's my 2 cents
SocalNat said:I've used Stone 22 oz. bottles (Shhhh) and those labels don't even come off.
This is how I de-label mine as well. OxiClean and super hot water. Lid it up and wait a day and you can simply peel off the labels and get most gunk out of the inside of the bottle.
SocalNat said:I've used Stone 22 oz. bottles (Shhhh) and those labels don't even come off.
SocalNat said:How much is your time worth especially when that time could be spent brewing beer? You take 3 hours to do 20 bottles but you can buy 20 bottles for $10 (and you get to use those bottles over and over again). JMHO
unionrdr said:It's not a matter of being lazy at all. It's a matter of not bustin your hump if you don't have too. Don't work harder,work smarter. That's more enjoyable to me.
That's not what I am saying. That is ironically my motto. But I make beer for fun and I go out of my way to extend my brewing activities. Besides I don't know if paying 25 for a case of bottles is working "smarter".
Am I making some kind of noob mistake using ammonia to remove labels? Reading through this thread, I seem to be in the minority. I've used both Oxyclean and Ammonia, and I've found ammonia to be more effective (though a bit pungent).
Boiling? WTH? A big bin, hot water, oxyclean and overnight soak is all you need/
You could, but for me, it makes it easier to distinguish between the beer I have in my fridge. Less confusion that way. For example, if I'm in the mood for a certain type of commercial pale ale, reach into the fridge and grab one, I'd be annoyed if I pop the cap only to see that it's really a porter I had made. If it has no label on it, I know to look at the cap.
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