label paper

what is good to use for bottle labels?? somthing that is easy to remove

thanks

I've never tried it, but a previous poster recomended using a bumpersticker stock for his labels. I have used an Avery label before.

Others suggest using paper and adhering with milk. They slide right off when you wash them I think.

Austin Homebrew Supply sells beer label paper. I ordered some, and have yet to use it, but it supposedly works fine with an inkjet or laser printer, and adheres with water(preglued back).

I've been using avery labels, nothing fancy.

Possibly the best thing I've learned from this site is to make your labels out of normal paper, and to stick them on the bottle by brushing the back with milk. They stay on great, and when you want to take them off, you soak them in water and they come right off. It sounds stupid but works fantastically well.

Unless you want to serve your bottles in a bucket of icy water, in which case it sucks. But otherwise it's great.

RegionalChaos said:

I've been using avery labels, nothing fancy.

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This is where I started. You are setting yourself up to hate bottling. These things are a bummer to get off.
I label EVERY bottle I brew...with plain paper and milk, both beer bottles and wine.
Check out my gallery and you'll see at least 1 set of bottles labeled this way...including the Apfelwein.

I work in a sign shop, so I thermal print vinyl - CMYK or spot colors. Easy on - easy off.

And the milk-regular paper labels don't come off when the bottles sweat and get transported?

NWernBrewer said:

I work in a sign shop, so I thermal print vinyl - CMYK or spot colors. Easy on - easy off.

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It's the same stuff as those window stickers your oilchange place sticks on your car, right? I've been wondering if that could be done...they'd even be reusable I would think....Can someone who doesn't work in a sign shop do it let's say on a home computer printer?

Avery 6464 removable laser jet shipping labels. Do not run, even in ice bath. Peel off in one pice wet or dry wiht no residue. I just printed 200 labels for my wine/cider and beer today. I use them all the time.

-Todd

Avery 6464 removable laser jet shipping labels.

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Those are almost a dollar a sheet! You might as well get professional labels made at that point. Am I missing something?

I actually use the Labels that UPS provides to print as shipping labels. I happen to have about 500 pages of them (mis-ordered 500 instead of 50 a while back), and I probably won't ship 1000 packages by UPS in my lifetime. Better than letting them go to waste, right?

Boerderij Kabouter said:

Those are almost a dollar a sheet! You might as well get professional labels made at that point. Am I missing something?

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$16.73 per pack, 25 sheets to a pack. Expensive? Maybe, but for me it beets cutting them by hand, wiping with milk or a glue stick, and scrubbing to get them back off.

Just my $0.02.

I did a google search on the Avery 6464 label and see them for almost $14 a package - comes with 150 labels

AHS has lables for 106 labels for $6 , how are these ??

Revvy said:

It's the same stuff as those window stickers your oilchange place sticks on your car, right?

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It's not - but that is a good idea. We have cling film here that hasn't been used since we bought it. What I use is the standard gloss vinyl - like the stuff that car decals are done with (fleet graphics...) It is expensive retail - but doing my own designing (see my gallery for a couple of early labels) and my own printing after hours using scrap materials I can do an entire batch for $2-3.

As far as doing it at home - the thermal printer is an expensive little piece of equipment - but if you design it you could have them printed at a FastSigns or Kinko's or something - just be careful not to get burned. Also - if you go to do that - plan for 3-10 batches and have all ran at once even if different labels/designs (bulk is cheaper per unit.)

I'm not to the point that I want to design labels yet, but for labeling different batches, I used these: http://www.onlinelabels.com/OL5275.htm Just stick em on the cap after bottling. I had to play with printer margins and things, their template wasn't perfect, but it's enough to put a batch number, name, alcohol % on them.

Plain paper and milk is the easiest answer. Works great.

I've been using the label paper commonly available at HBS's. Runs through the printer fine with beer labelizer program & sticks on with water moistened back. Comes off easily.

Great zombie thread! Plain paper and Knox gelatin. Labels stay on in cooler, ice, water and sweating bottles but slide right off in hot water. Use a color laser printer and the colors won't run, either.

Speaking of which, my old Lexmark X5470 ink jet is seriously fubared. I'm going for a laser jet next, for the very reason you stated. But I want the pic software uploader that Lexmark has with their printers. Never fails me, which cannot be said about Dropbox so far...

My Canon inkjet is also on its way out. Leaves a big black stripe down the back of the page. Looking at color laser but the cartridges are $$$$. So I'm torn. Is it worth it?

BlueHouseBrewhaus said:

My Canon inkjet is also on its way out. Leaves a big black stripe down the back of the page. Looking at color laser but the cartridges are $$$$. So I'm torn. Is it worth it?

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Not if you can make copies nearby. I'd just print them out at a printing service rather than spend $$ on a printer and toner.


If you are going inkjet again, we have had really good luck with the Brother line of All-in-Ones. They I think I've replaced 1 in many years due to failure. A second one is acting up a bit, but the person using it is fine with working around the problem. I think we have about 10 or 12 of them now.

HP AIO printers we had before these were crapping out after about a year and the network software was pretty flaky.

Still, if you are not actually buying a printer, I think just having prints made once a month or so is a cost effective solution.

Also, when an inkjet starts printing a line down the page you can usually get in there and clean it with some Q-tips and whatever cleans up that particular ink. For HP that's usually water, but I think Canon has a more waterproof ink. Maybe rubbing alcohol?

Not sure which model you have, but you might try removing the cartridges and see if you can get the Q-tips under the carriage and wipe around. Place a piece of scrap paper under there to prevent getting globs of ink on the printer under the carriage. Depending on the printer I've taken the whole carriage assembly out of printers to get to them cleaned up. It's not always a clean, or easy proposition, though.

Thanks for the tips. I'll give it a try.