What a friggin' mess!!

OK, so here's the set up. I brewed a blueberry blonde ale for a summer bbq. Go out on the web to get a picture of blueberries to put on a label. Buy some Avery labels and print off 2 dozen labels for my bottles. Label all of the bottles and put them in the fridge. They looked awesome. After a day of drinking a belgian white, I break into the blueberry blonde. It's dark outside now but still warm enough to make the bottles sweat. When I finally go inside to pass out, I look in the mirror and I look like a F#$@ING SMURF. The blueberry labels had run causing my hands to be covered in blue ink and I wiped the sweat from my face with my hands. I think from now on I'll stick to using a sharpie on bottle caps. Any other label disasters out there or am I the only idiot?

Best advice I can offer is print them on a color laser printer, if you can...

HAHA! Tell me you got a picture =)

No picture = it never happened

reminds me of last night's episode of Rescue Me. One of the guys was using self-tanning lotion on accident and wanted to know why his............

nevermind - you needed to see it.

EDIT: see "it", meaning the episode, not actually "it"

AZ_IPA said:

reminds me of last night's episode of Rescue Me. One of the guys was using self-tanning lotion on accident and wanted to know why his............

nevermind - you needed to see it.

EDIT: see "it", meaning the episode, not actually "it"

Click to expand...

Uh huh... you are always trying to get people to "see it!"

Any other label disasters out there or am I the only idiot?

Click to expand...

I used an inkjet printer too and I realized the same thing. However, I kept it simple and cheap; one 4x6 sticker-inkjet-paper cut in 16 pieces; makes 16 label!

I think you could spray clear paint on top of the label (like before gluing it to the bottle). Or use clear plastic wrap and wrap your bottles before sharing your beer to prevent a Smurf invasion

I created a print sheet (fitting four of my labels on one piece of paper), took it up to Kinkos to print on color laser.

Then to waterproof them I bought some spray Shellac from Lowes. Sprayed the sheets and let them dry. I then cut them out and used a glue stick to put them on the bottles.

All labels stayed on the bottles, none of the ink ran, and they were waterproof enough to handle condensation (I didn't submerge them in a cooler of ice or anything).

Unfortunately (actually fortunately), no pics. I washed it off as soon as I could. All I could think about was walking into work the next day in business attire and smeared blue ink dried all over my face. Maybe I'll try the color laser printer next time with shellac. Also start drinking the bottles with labels earlier in the day while it's still light outside.

ThreeRatBastards said:

I created a print sheet (fitting four of my labels on one piece of paper), took it up to Kinkos to print on color laser.

Then to waterproof them I bought some spray Shellac from Lowes. Sprayed the sheets and let them dry. I then cut them out and used a glue stick to put them on the bottles.

Click to expand...

I use a color laser printer for my labels and waterproofing is definitely not required. I soak my labels overnight to get them unstuck and even then none of the ink will run.

Actually, I'm often able to soak my color laser labels off the bottle, and let them dry, and then reuse them. There's REALLY no need for waterproofing with laser ink.

Thats because lasers don't use ink. Toner is essentially micro particles of plastic. the scanner (aka Laser) scans the image onto the paper as it passes by, the scanning effect causes the specifically targeted points to be energized and attract the toner as it passes over the opening that exposes the toner roller. Then it enters the fuser and gets the plastic melted into place.