Is there any way to remove the labels that appear to be painted on to bottles? Specific example would be the Rogue 22oz. bottles? I would like to remove these labels to get a clean bottle to put into my rotation.

PS. If this is not an appropriate question for this group I'll remove it.

  • 1
    I normally don't bother but here is an interesting observation I made once. I soaked all my bottles for a bottling run in warm PBW overnight once; there were a couple Rogue bottles in the mix. The next day one color of paint had come off. The other color did not. That doesn't help you, but I thought it was interesting. That was a while ago so I don't know if they have changed ink manufactures since then. – brewchez Mar 21 '11 at 12:36
  • Maybe a soak in ammonia solution. – brewchez Mar 21 '11 at 12:36

My answer would be this: Don't bother.

New 22oz bottles are about a $1.10 each. Used bottles by their very nature are worth less per bottle. I'm going to assume the idea here is to save some money and get some nice 22oz bottles out of it.

The acrylic paint used on Rogue bottles is going to require a heavy duty chemical like turpentine to remove. Combined with the labor involved, it quickly becomes ineffective cost-wise to reclaim these bottles.

The best alternative is to use them as-is, label and all.

That saves maximum money and time. The painted labels won't mold or get nasty like others. If that's intolerable, I submit to you that buying 22oz bottles is cheaper than dealing with the recycled ones with a stubborn label.

I make and buy a lot of beer and when dealing with 12oz bottles, I will trash any bottle that takes me more than about 30 seconds to clean and de-label (minus soak-time). Bottles are too cheap and plentiful to bother with otherwise.

Hope that helps!

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    Thanks, this was kind of my thought as well, just didn't know if there was a simple solution. If not I don't mind recycling them, just figured if it was easy I'd do it and get some 'free' 22's. I'm not about to spend anytime with a razor blade or anything scraping paint. Usually I just bottle in regular 12oz bottles but figured I would try some 22s sometime, unfortunately all the commercial beer I like to drink seems to have the worst labels to get off. – tomcocca Mar 21 '11 at 17:05

I've managed to scrape the paint off some Rogue bottles using a window scraper. One of these -> http://www.toolbank.com/p/C10208/STA028590 It took quite a while to get it all off and I decided after three bottles that the effort really wasn't worth the return...


Never tried it, but some people report success with soaking the bottles in regular-strength StarSan or CLR for an extended period of time.

  • I personally validate this with a Sam Adams Barrel Room 750ml label. 1 part CLR to 8 parts water (2 cups in 4 gallons/16 cups). I could wipe off the label in 20 minutes! – javafueled Jan 31 '14 at 20:41
  • A 1:8 ratio would be 2 cups CLR in 1 gallon water. 1 gallon * 16 cups/gallon => 2 cups CLR / 16 cups water => 1 cup CLR : 8 cups water. Note that I can't vouch for this ratio; I'm just correcting the math, here. – jsled May 29 '15 at 16:58

Vinegar takes the paint right off most bottles i deal with (Rogue, Stone, Coronado, etc). Just a 30 minute soak in 50% vinegar and water solution, then rub down with the rough side of a sponge/scouring pad.

  • Vingar ? Sure ? Any kind of vingar ? I'm interested to test it – Luciano Aug 5 '15 at 1:43

Try a dishwashing detergent called Lemshine and some powder bleach.... Takes 24 hrs. But the labels will wipe off with an old rag.....1/2 cup Lemshine vs. 1/4 powder bleach Put 2 bottles in a 5 gal. Bucket. Add chemicals and fill both bottle and bucket with hot water..... Take outside!!!!! Next day wipe labels enhance with Goo Gone


I know that sitting several days in Oxyclean Free won't remove the paint.

I don't worry about the paint being on them, though. I just stick a paper label on top of it, or don't hand out those bottles to other people. As long as the bottle is clean on the inside, it really doesn't matter.

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