opm
Member
G'day all,
I'd like to share my labeling technique, which cost under $5 a batch, is water resistant (so you can store your beers with the rest in an ice bath) and quite simple.
I've been brewing about a year or so now and have got to the point where I don't really buy beer any more. The problem is when a weekend comes around and a mate has a party or similar. (No matter how nice the beer is, people still look at you wierd when you pull a no label beer out of the esky.)
So i jumped on homebrewtalk.com and found the laserprinter and milk solution, which works a treat if you keep your beers in the fridge but lasts all of 2 seconds in an ice bath and those blue freezer blocks just couldn't keep the esky cool for long. So, back on the net looking for a label that could survive a bath. Everything I found was either very expensive or too perminate (i never brew the same thing twice and like to have all the details on the label, brew date, bottle date, %, standard drinks)
I liked what i was getting with the laserprinter and the paper seemed to stand up ok in water so the problem was the milk/glue. I started experimenting with different glues (glue stick, pva, rubber glues, basically anything i could find) doing little test labels on bottles full of water seeing how they stood up to sweating, 6hrs in ice water, and how easily they were removed for cleaning. And still couldn't find anything i was happy with.
So it was back on the net, this time reserching glues. After a couple nights of serching i'd found plenty of cold resistant glues but only in industrial quantities. After a bit more reaseach i ended up making my own glues to test and finaly found something that i consider perfect.
The great thing is all the ingredients are either pretty comman of useful for the home brewer. (for other uses do a seach for "gelatin finings" for gelatin, and "yeast banking" for glycerine)
Here it is:
Basic Waterproof Glue
* 6 tbsp water
* 2 packets unflavored gelatin (1/2 oz.)
* 2 tbsp white vinegar
* 2 tsp glycerine
Bring water to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in gelatin until it is dissolved. Add vinegar and glycerin and stir well. Let the mixture cool slightly and pour into a jar and seal tightly. To Use: This glue is best applied while warm. Apply to surfaces using a brush. Glue will gel after a few days. To re-use, warm by placing the jar in a pan of hot water. Good for binding leather to leather, fabrics to cardboard, paper to paper.
This glue is very liquid when hot/warm and is easily applied with a paint brush (just paint the whole back side of the label and stick it on, wipe any exsess off with a bit of paper towel) make sure to use a laserprinter not an inkjet or the ink will run, if you don't have one just print off a good copy and get it photo copied. Stick with square/rectangular labels and buy/borrow an a4 rotarry trimmer (beats using scissors)
It takes a couple days for the glue to fully gel, but once it has these labels hold very well in an esky of ice water for several hours, any longer than that the labels become very easy to pull or rub off but they're still not going anywhere by them self and will be fine again, once dry.
To remove, simply get your tap running as hot as it can, fill up the sink and give the bottle a soak/dunk. Depending on how hot your water gets they will need anywhere from 10sec (for boiling water) to mabey 2 mins (for warm water). and there is little to no residue left on the bottle.
I mixed up a half batch of this and have used it for three batches so far and still have at least half of it in the fridge.
(note: As an Aussie, i don't use oz. there is a chance that with all the converting and halfing that i ended up used the full 1/2oz. of galatin for my one half batch. If you find that this glue is not working for you that is probably what happened.)
Enjoy, hope this works as well for you as it has for me.
I'd like to share my labeling technique, which cost under $5 a batch, is water resistant (so you can store your beers with the rest in an ice bath) and quite simple.
I've been brewing about a year or so now and have got to the point where I don't really buy beer any more. The problem is when a weekend comes around and a mate has a party or similar. (No matter how nice the beer is, people still look at you wierd when you pull a no label beer out of the esky.)
So i jumped on homebrewtalk.com and found the laserprinter and milk solution, which works a treat if you keep your beers in the fridge but lasts all of 2 seconds in an ice bath and those blue freezer blocks just couldn't keep the esky cool for long. So, back on the net looking for a label that could survive a bath. Everything I found was either very expensive or too perminate (i never brew the same thing twice and like to have all the details on the label, brew date, bottle date, %, standard drinks)
I liked what i was getting with the laserprinter and the paper seemed to stand up ok in water so the problem was the milk/glue. I started experimenting with different glues (glue stick, pva, rubber glues, basically anything i could find) doing little test labels on bottles full of water seeing how they stood up to sweating, 6hrs in ice water, and how easily they were removed for cleaning. And still couldn't find anything i was happy with.
So it was back on the net, this time reserching glues. After a couple nights of serching i'd found plenty of cold resistant glues but only in industrial quantities. After a bit more reaseach i ended up making my own glues to test and finaly found something that i consider perfect.
The great thing is all the ingredients are either pretty comman of useful for the home brewer. (for other uses do a seach for "gelatin finings" for gelatin, and "yeast banking" for glycerine)
Here it is:
Basic Waterproof Glue
* 6 tbsp water
* 2 packets unflavored gelatin (1/2 oz.)
* 2 tbsp white vinegar
* 2 tsp glycerine
Bring water to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in gelatin until it is dissolved. Add vinegar and glycerin and stir well. Let the mixture cool slightly and pour into a jar and seal tightly. To Use: This glue is best applied while warm. Apply to surfaces using a brush. Glue will gel after a few days. To re-use, warm by placing the jar in a pan of hot water. Good for binding leather to leather, fabrics to cardboard, paper to paper.
This glue is very liquid when hot/warm and is easily applied with a paint brush (just paint the whole back side of the label and stick it on, wipe any exsess off with a bit of paper towel) make sure to use a laserprinter not an inkjet or the ink will run, if you don't have one just print off a good copy and get it photo copied. Stick with square/rectangular labels and buy/borrow an a4 rotarry trimmer (beats using scissors)
It takes a couple days for the glue to fully gel, but once it has these labels hold very well in an esky of ice water for several hours, any longer than that the labels become very easy to pull or rub off but they're still not going anywhere by them self and will be fine again, once dry.
To remove, simply get your tap running as hot as it can, fill up the sink and give the bottle a soak/dunk. Depending on how hot your water gets they will need anywhere from 10sec (for boiling water) to mabey 2 mins (for warm water). and there is little to no residue left on the bottle.
I mixed up a half batch of this and have used it for three batches so far and still have at least half of it in the fridge.
(note: As an Aussie, i don't use oz. there is a chance that with all the converting and halfing that i ended up used the full 1/2oz. of galatin for my one half batch. If you find that this glue is not working for you that is probably what happened.)
Enjoy, hope this works as well for you as it has for me.
