Duct Tape Labels

Hello all,

I'm a fairly new brewer and had been trying to find an easy, inexpensive way to label my bottles. At first I wanted to get some chalkboard paint and paint the bottles so I can just write on it in chalk.

However, my fellow brewer showed me that he labeled my bottles with duct tape and I thought it was a pretty good idea.

There's nothing fancy about it, and my hand writing is not the neatest, but it's quick, easy, and I can keep changing it up with all the different colors of duct tape these days.

The grey tape is my Fish Ladder IPA (my version of Two Hearted) and the purple is my Holy Diver IPA (simcoe/amarillo hopped American IPA). I have a roll of green tape that will go on my bottles of Hop Hammer Double IPA (recipe from BYO).

Just thought I'd share.

Nice. Have you tried taking the tape off to see what residue is there? I did it once and perhaps it was the dollar store duct tape that I used, but it left the residue that was tough to get off.

Regardless, I think it's a great idea and there are indeed at least 2-3 dozen styles of duct tape now.

I use round labels on the cap with batch ID, name, style, ABV, and IBUs. Bonus: no label or adhesive residue to remove before reusing the bottle. My batch ID is B, M, or C for beer, mead, or cider, followed by the Julian date, followed by the batch number.

Use gaffer's tape- it's just like duct tape, but the adhesive is different; it doesn't leave residue like duct tape.

Yeah, the glue residue duct tape leaves behind can be yucky. But there's no reason to remove the duct tape label until it starts to get nasty if you can erase the writing before the next use.

Here are my go to solvents and cleaners:
Solvent alcohol (paint store) will remove Sharpie from most smooth and hard surfaces. It may leave a ghost image if the substrate is porous.
Naphta (paint store) will remove most glue remnants, not just from duct tape, from (semi) hard surfaces. It may need to be applied and rubbed a few times to dissolve it. Use a rag or strong paper towel.
Goo-Gone (brand or generic) is a solvent that also contains citrus oil, and removes most glues and solvent based adhesive deposits.

Solvent like these, particularly soaked rags and paper towels, are easily combustible. So use safety precautions and dispose of them properly. I let them "air out" outside before putting in trash. Rags can be reused.

A better alternative to duct tape is real Gaffers tape. It rarely deposits glue, but it is difficult to find colors other than black or red. It is relatively pricey too.

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^ that is what I do now as well. I don't have a batch ID but I just put info relevant to most folks who get my beer. ABV, what is in the bottle, brew date. Easy to remove if I opt to enter into a comp, never have to remove if I get bottles back (they come back with so much gunk that dealing with a label too is an annoyance), and easy to read in a box.

^ +1 to jscherff + Hello

I've also found marking the bottle caps by far the easiest. I just use a Sharpie with the beers' initials.
When I give bottles away I supply them with the legend on a sticky note.

I use blue painters tape and a Sharpie for temporary labeling of growlers, carboys, buckets, etc. It removes a bit easier than masking tape.

Jscherff: what labels are you buying and are this paper boxes or filing boxes?

I've not had any problems with residue after I removed the duct tape. To get labels off bottles from the store I soak them all in oxyclean free and (depending on the brand) that gets labels right off. I may have to scrub with a scouring pad to get the residue all the way off. I'm sure that will work for these duct tape bottles as well.

Those are indeed nice boxes! Document storage from what it looks.

Regular 10-ream copy paper boxes don't hold the bottles 6x5, they aren't quite wide enough, so they're staggered in between the full rows, and still a bit loose. They're also too flimsy to hold full bottles and if the ends are poorly glued they can give out any time.

Jekeane: the labels are Avery #5466. I also use different colors based on IBUs – some of my friends don't like hoppy beers (gasp!), so I tell him to stay away from red or yellow labels. The boxes are indeed document storage boxes. They hold exactly 30 12-ounce bottles or 20 bomber bottles perfectly. The exception is short, fat 12-ounce bottles like the ones Sierra Nevada uses. I can only fit 25 of those in staggered fashion.

Bomber bottles, standard 12-ounce bottles, and Sierra Nevada bottles, respectively: