Cheap and Easy Bottle Cap Labels

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jackson_d

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Fellow Homebrewers...

I have not made to move to kegging due to finances. I would love to put nice graphic designs on bottle labels, but I re use most of my bottles and I HATE peeling lables. I was looking for a solution to my problem of labeling bottles but not having to peel them... Bottle Cap stickers? Yuh huh. Tried a few different options and styles and landed on this convienent little option. Pictures to follow...

A typical bottle cap is about 1" in diameter. So we want a sticker a little smaller to account for labeling while you are drunk and having some wiggle room beyond dead center. 3/4" will work best. Go to Staples. Item # 166132, 3/4" Print&Write Multiuse Labels. The package says they are removeable but this does not concern us. 1008 labels per package, they come in sheets of 4 lables across by 6 lables down. This allows you to mess up your first few printings and overprint due to 5.5 or 6.7 gal batches or any uneven number of bottles that your custom batch created without being upset that you printed more than you bottled... i.e they are cheap so chill out!

Here is one confusing thing. The outside of the package you will find hanging on the rack at the store will say 'item# 166132' when you open the package, the individual sheets will say 'item # 13932' in the top right. I have no idea why or how that works, but I would suggest you purchase based on the item number listed on the outside of the package...

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when you find the sheets, use this link to get to the Template that will set up Microsoft Word to print appropriately on the stickers you just bought. I had a friend who is good with graphic design make very minor adjustments to my margins, but I'm sure with a little tinkering, you can figure it out for yourself...

Free Avery® Template for Microsoft Word, Round Label 5461

Enjoy! Now you can label your bottle caps without labeling the bottle and having to peel the labels everytime you want to re use the bottle...
 
I've been using the 3/4 round stickers since my printer crapped out. They work great and are cheap . I just write mine with a pen and stick em on.
 
Good resource- thanks. The template for Word is the important part. Labels are available on Amazon cheap with free shipping. I've just been writing on the caps with a Sharpie up to this point, this'll be much better.
 
Whenever I make labels for my bottles, I print them on regular, white printer paper. I cut them out and use a glue stick to glue the labels to the bottle. Works like a champ, its cheap, and it super easy to remove the label.
 
+1 on the Glue Stick - soaks right off in the sink - stays on in the fridge.
a light spray of krylon and the inkjet won't run...

I DO have an old Coke machine, and I like the OPs labels for the bottles I can only see the top of...
 
I've been doing this for a few months with the Staples round labels. I had been using a Sanford paint pen to mark each bottle, but it took a strong ammonia solution to get rid of the paint marks prior to reuse... so I switched to this instead.

I like this method a lot and can label two cases in recycled commercial beer boxes in under 5 mins. Also, now I just look at the caps when I pull beer up from the basement to toss in the kitchen fridge. The same benefit occurs when you put the bottles in a cooler under ice; I dont have to pull a bottle to read a label. When wet, the stickers I use lose some opacity, but the ink from my laser printer holds up really well over the course of a day in the ice chest. Haven't had a problem yet.
 
That's a great idea... my issue is you can't put bottles on ice for parties... labels fall right off once they get wet.

I just use a paint pen on the cap.
 
I know this is an old thread but I love this idea! I've been trying to figure out a solution for labeling that would stay on well but not be a pain when cleaning bottles. Perfect!
 
Thanks, I was looking for something and until I move into needing labels on bottles this is my new lable method.........
 
I know this is an old thread, but thanks for this tip. I've been getting tired of explaining what my chicken scratch sharpie writing meant on the bottle cap and also getting "Is this a M or a W?" on my wheat beer.

Bought the Avery labels today and it worked great.
 
I have also been using this method since I found it here. My staples had one size larger... I think 7/8" IDK if it will fit easily, so I got the 3/4" which seems too small, but it's perfect for labeling them.

If you do put a label on the glass it just looks that much more complete, and if you don't it looks nice too.

Actually I need to make new ones for my newest IPA I'm bottling tomorrow...
 
Hey guys, if you are looking at doing this, the Avery 5408 3/4" round labels are perfect. You can get 42 sheets (1008 labels) for like 6 bucks at staples or office max. Here are some pics:
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The "source image" I made for it:
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clear round labels would probably work good also if you dont have color printer
 
I tried to buy some of these labels today and couldn't find them at Staples or Office Max. They had several colored varieties, but none of the plain white labels. Maybe I'll just order from Amazon.
 
Hey jcbrewer. I noticed your labels in the thread for bottle cap labels and I really like the graphics that you came up with. It is better than just text in black and white. Did you do that using the template in Microsoft or did you use a different program to get those results? I have my own ideas for graphics I am just not very familiar with the programs. Thanks.
 
This is great. I love making labels, but there's no way I'm shelling out for ink to label every bottle. I've been using little colored dot stickers quickly label caps, but there are only five or six colors and I've run out. I need to either finish some of these older batches to reuse colors or move on to this idea.
 
Avery now has a pretty darn good online design and print app.
http://www.avery.com/avery/en_us/ go to "Software & Templates" then "Design & Print online" (beats the wizard I used to have installed in Word) It's a little tricky to get them perfectly centered so I try to make designs now that it doesn't matter. (See Adventurous Joe Coffee Porter below...grabbed the graphic right off "Joe's" web site). I also waffle between color and B&W. Then I always stick one on the door of my conditioning chamber. Oh, and every "dot" has the bottling date on it. If you watch for specials Staples has some good deals. My ink is not waterproof so coolers of ice are a small problem. Have fun.

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Oh...the square ones are from a test page (I print on the back of the sheet first sometimes). Also, I stick them in the outside of the boxes I store the beer in. Helps with "Inventory Control". That's my 2011 output! It was a good year!
 
This thread was just was I was looking for!!!

I just brewed my first batch last weekend and was looking for a way to date code once I bottle. Didn't want to hassel w/ full labels and like being able to ID the beer when in a cooler so cap labels just make sense!!!

Avery 5408 are their 3/4" Round White Labels -

This guy has them on eBay for $8 shipped.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Avery-Remov...ultDomain_0&hash=item45ff74bc8d#ht_1527wt_551
 
lgilmore said:
they're like $6 at staples. I use em and love em along with different colored caps.
I'll have to check staples next time I'm down that way. With gas at $4 p/gal free shipping just keeps getting more economical :)
 
Hey jcbrewer. I noticed your labels in the thread for bottle cap labels and I really like the graphics that you came up with. It is better than just text in black and white. Did you do that using the template in Microsoft or did you use a different program to get those results? I have my own ideas for graphics I am just not very familiar with the programs. Thanks.

I made them in photoshop, and then used the free avery software to print it to the labels. You could use any photo editing software to make the design really. I think the free avery software even has a bunch of clip art included.
 
Gonna have to give this a try. I was trying to figure out how I am gonna label my beer without having to go through too much trouble. Nice idea and it means I don't have to try and clean labels off of bottles later down the road!
 
I had the same idea jackson_d - this is such a time saver and takes the guess work out of trying to figure out what you have in storage! Thanks!
 
Don't the 1" labels fit better? I think Staples even has clear 1" stickers that might look cool?
 
Don't the 1" labels fit better? I think Staples even has clear 1" stickers that might look cool?

First of all, I'll join the chorus of people saying that printing labels is the way to go, easier than hand-writting on every bottle and looks much better too.

Second, the 1" labels are actually just a tiny bit bigger than the flat portion of the bottle cap. So a) they're a pain to center when you're trying to put them on and b) they'll end up hanging over the edge of the cap, giving you a wrinkled look around the edge. Neither of these are a huge deal, but having tried both sizes I think you'll get better results (faster to apply and more aesthetically pleasing) going with the 3/4" labels. Now if only they made a 7/8" round label ...
 
I'm reading the description on this page
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0085NOBSQ/ref=ox_ya_os_product and it says they have 'Strong adhesive' and are 'Water resistant'.

Seems to go against what you'd want? Has anyone tried these? I use Grolsch bottles and would like to be able to easily remove the labels without too much work when the time comes?
 
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