First few labels I've done

So I'm to the point that I'm going to start brewing my own recipes and trying to tweak them until I get them where I want them. I've got 4 of the 8 labels done so far. I brewed the first batch this past weekend and will probably hold off on doing any more labels until I get closer to brewing the other beers. I did the labels using Gimp which I had a little experience with. I watched a few tutorial videos to help get me started.

Cool labels. Not to bust your balls but traditionally its India pale ale, not Indian

schoellhorn82 said:

Cool labels. Not to bust your balls but traditionally its India pale ale, not Indian

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Yeah I know. Chief Lil' Ear was the SWMBO's nickname growing up and she wanted me to work it into a beer. So I decided to do an American IPA and change India to Indian. It's a play on words. Your not the first person to mention that to me.

Great labels

Still cool. Hey it's your labels, do what you want. I had just enough beer in me last night to be "that guy"

Great labels. Especially love the Autumn Ale.

I created another label for the beer I'm brewing for this winter. I'm planning on doing a winter warmer with hazelnut and rosemary. I struggled with the name for a while but finally settled on Fennario. It's a reference to the Grateful Dead song Dire Wolf. Once I had the wolf, I decided it would be appropriate to go over the top with the label. There's a lot going on and it took some work to get everything to mesh together.

GrayTopBrewing said:

Yeah I know. Chief Lil' Ear was the SWMBO's nickname growing up and she wanted me to work it into a beer. So I decided to do an American IPA and change India to Indian. It's a play on words. Your not the first person to mention that to me.

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I thought the American Indian Pale Ale name was an excellent idea.

Ditto. I liked the play on words.

I like the labels, doing pretty good for just "watching a few youtube videos" haha. I have a few questions, why is your "Gray Top" Logo sideways? Why did you decided to go with displaying your brewery name a different way in each of the labels and omit it on the last one? Looking good! Keep it up

The brewery logo is sideways because when its wrapped around the bottle it will be seen with the brew on date. I wanted the brewery name for each label to be specific for that label because I didn't want the brewery name design to affect my label design for future labels. The Fennario label has so much going on with it that I didn't want to crowd it with the brewery name. I will probably add the brewery name on future labels if it looks like it's part of the label and not just stuck on.

What program did you use to make these? They are awesome by the way.

mikecshultz said:

What program did you use to make these? They are awesome by the way.

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Gimp. It's free from the gnu project. Similar to photoshop.

I've created a new label for the red ale I plan on kegging for St. Patrick's Day.

Really like these! Good job! What are the dimensions of your labels?

The labels are 5.5" x 2.75" or 1650 x 825 pixels at 300 ppi. I based the size off a 12 oz beer label on one of the bottles I had in the fridge. I can't remember which beer it was. I mostly use 22 oz bombers or 16 oz grolsch bottles. I haven't put a label on a bomber yet. If it looks funny I may end up using 2 different label sizes; one for bombers/grolsch and one for 12 oz bottles.

I'm going with Brett. I really like your labels, although all that color will be expensive at the printer. (Gotta think about those things unfortunately when you're a "little guy".)

And you should come up with a branded brewery name/logo that is printed the same on all your labels. The most important thing you can do in any size market is make sure that people remember the SOURCE for the product.

Branding is your friend! The labels are very cool though. (Although again, just being a 'business advocate' the wolf label is crazy complicated and will be expensive to print a ton of them. Sometimes simple is better.) In my opinion, the 10W Sump'n and the Chief Lil' Ear are the best labels.

But please, take the commentary as it is meant, friendly opinion given in order to perhaps help you build a solid marketing base that can help you make and distribute great beer!

Thanks for the feedback MuddyCreek. Currently I'm only making a few labels for the bottles I give to friends so I'm not too concerned about mass labeling and ink. In terms of branding I probably should make the brewery logo standout a little more on the labels. One thing I was going to do is use gray bottle caps for the bottles as a play on Gray Top. This would help a little to differentiate the beers on the shelf. If I ever get to the point where I'm producing beer for consumption by strangers, I'll probably redo all the labels in some way to help with branding.

I see. I thought you were distributing a bit more broadly or had more imminent plans to do so. In that case AWESOME LABELS! ; )

I really do like that 10W Sump'n label. Very clean and catchy. I also dig that Red Clay label.

Created a new label for a Pale Ale I brewed for a friend. He came up with the name and label idea.

I've also updated the full barn label I did earlier and created a new one for a black rye pale ale I plan on brewing soon.