As any craft beer fan knows the art featured on many of the bottles can be really cool and often worthy of display. But what do you do if you don’t want a bunch of empty bottles sitting on flat surfaces around your house? (I have done this and it gets very, very dusty). One thing you can do is remove the labels from the bottle to frame, make into coasters, wear on your head, whatever you want. This is what I decided to do (not the wearing on my head, but the taking the labels off the bottle thing) and below are some instructions so you can do it to.
1.Fill a large pot (I use a stew pot) and fill it two thirds of the way full with warm water.
2. Place the pot on the stove on high heat and heat until it is just shy of boiling (full boil can harm some of the labels).
3. While the water is heating fill bottles about halfway full with warm water, so they will sit on the bottom of the pot instead of floating to the top. I tend to do about three at a time but feel free to do as many as will fit in the pot you are using.
4. Once the water in the pot is just shy of boiling turn off the heat and place the bottles into the pot.
5.Set a timer for 15 minutes and let the bottles sit in the water and have a nice bath.
6.After the 15 minutes is up remove the bottles from the water and place on the counter to cool.
7.Once they have cooled for a few minutes dump the water out of the bottles and dry the outside with a clean cloth.
8.Now comes the tricky part: removing the label. A word of warning, not every label will come off nice and easy. Some will dissolve in the water. Some will tear as soon as you try to pull them off. Some will flop onto the counter as soon as you pull the bottle out of the water. It’s a game of trial and error. For most labels however, the hot water dissolves the glue enough that you should be able to start at the corner of the label, slide your fingernail under it, and gently pull until the label starts to detach from the bottle. It also works well to start detaching the label from both ends and pulling the label off towards the middle. Each bottle and label is its own special snowflake so often you’ll just have to try your best and see how it goes.
9.Once you have detached the label I suggest pasting it (you often won’t need any glue as some of the adhesive that kept the label on the bottle will still be present) on a piece of card stock or other heavy-duty paper. Beer bottle labels are often flimsy and this will give you a sturdier final product to do with what you will.
10.Now comes the fun part where you decide what to do with your newly separated labels. I’m a fan of breaking out the Mod Podge and making a collage but do whatever you want, I’m not your boss. Have fun! Be creative! And if you make anything fun post it on Twitter or Instagram and tag it @hophellion and share with the class.
Till next time-Prost!
