Minimalist Labelers : The Westvleteren Brewers

The Trappist monks at the Westvleteren Brewery in Belgium prefer simplicity. "The bottles have been sold without labels since 1945. All of the legally required information is printed on the crown tops."

I was thinking about trying this out. Does anyone know of a good company that makes custom bottle caps?

freeradical said:

The Trappist monks at the Westvleteren Brewery in Belgium prefer simplicity. "The bottles have been sold without labels since 1945. All of the legally required information is printed on the crown tops."

I was thinking about trying this out. Does anyone know of a good company that makes custom bottle caps?

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You might find this useful: http://www.wildhopsprintshop.com/
They're in the vendor list on this site here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/vendors/
There are lots of useful features on this site, have a look around.
Regards, GF.

All that my homebrew caps require is a few letters to tell me what beer it is. I can do that fine with a sharpie. What kind of stuff are you looking for have on yours? Unless you are making the same beer over and over, it seems silly to get caps made since you will probably have a large minimum order.

ohhhh, i need to make a trip to see those Monks.

Tim

Custom bottle caps will be expensive if you want different caps for each batch.

A much cheaper alternative is the 3/4" round labels: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f46/cheap-easy-bottle-cap-labels-125410/

I switched to these from the Sharpie method. I think it's $6 or $7 for 1008 labels (42 cases worth) at Staples...cheaper if you buy on ebay.

I got tired of people asking "Is this an M or a W?" on my wheat beer and "What does S mean on this cap?" for my scotch ale. If you're just drinking it yourself, then go with Sharpie.

bknifefight said:

All that my homebrew caps require is a few letters to tell me what beer it is. I can do that fine with a sharpie. What kind of stuff are you looking for have on yours? Unless you are making the same beer over and over, it seems silly to get caps made since you will probably have a large minimum order.

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Good point. Sharpie for now, but when things go commercial I'm following in the footsteps of these monks!

gratus fermentatio said:

You might find this useful: http://www.wildhopsprintshop.com/
They're in the vendor list on this site here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/vendors/
There are lots of useful features on this site, have a look around.
Regards, GF.

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Thank you. Just looked at the vendors section, it seems very useful.

MX1 said:

ohhhh, i need to make a trip to see those Monks.

Tim

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Yes!

Neat ideas.

Those Belgians must have some wonderful product packaging laws. In the U.S., things seem to be a bit more complicated. I just ran across this post the other night talking about some of the requirements for commercial beer labels:
http://www.baying-hound.com/index.p...28&id=9:the-anatomy-of-a-beer-label&Itemid=24

BrewThruYou said:

I got tired of people asking "Is this an M or a W?" on my wheat beer and "What does S mean on this cap?" for my scotch ale. If you're just drinking it yourself, then go with Sharpie.

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You should have told them "S" stands for "skunked"