How do you label your bottles?

[reverendj1]

I'm going to be buying these: http://www.bottlecapco.com/10-Color-Bottle-Cap-Combo-Pack_p_344.html

Gotta buy caps and may as well buy color coded ones at the same time! If I end up any extra bottles I'll use one of the colors and end up with a ton of bottles all different with the same color cap. These will then be my 'surprise' bottles.

Those are pretty expensive (~$0.13 apiece), you should look at the colored caps at Midwest Supplies, they are only ~$0.04 apiece, and you can pick the colors. I want to buy several to match caps with styles, but the shipping can be pretty bad, so I'm waiting until I can get a decent order.

 

[ScotBrew]

$35.00 for 500 works out at 7c each???

 

[reverendj1]

$35.00 for 500 works out at 7c each???

Dur, How does I math? Sorry about that. Not sure where .13 came from. At any rate, they are still cheaper from Midwest, and you can pick the color. They just don't have as many.

 

[el_horno]

I dont label I like a good surprise!

 

[Bierliebhaber]

Of course, I label with Care Bear stickers per appropriate mood and occasion for consumption.

 

[Soulshine]

Create labels for all my beers. Quite time consuming. I name all my beers after music/songs I enjoy. Have even gotten my beers to the guys in Furthur, Ryan Montbleau Band, and others. Have them sign a label for me and frame it in my 'man cave' downstairs. I also keep one bottle from each I create and add that to my wall containing an empty bottle of each beer I have brewed. Plus since I do share my beers with many friends it is nice to have a label on them.

 

[mac21]

I try and use different bottle caps (colors, runoffs, anything to differentiate). Def don't put a label on there if you don't want to clean them again! The stickers should work well. I've also found that metallic sharpies work really well to write on glass and metal.

 

[rodwha]

I just label the caps with a permanent marker.
You'll need to be somewhat specific possibly as I confused my blonde with my brown by labeling them both BA (_ Ale).

 

[cpl-america]

I'm going to be buying these: http://www.bottlecapco.com/10-Color-Bottle-Cap-Combo-Pack_p_344.html

Gotta buy caps and may as well buy color coded ones at the same time! If I end up any extra bottles I'll use one of the colors and end up with a ton of bottles all different with the same color cap. These will then be my 'surprise' bottles.

Those are linerless. Won't you lose carbonation?

 

[CityOChampBrew]

I just finished soaking and scraping the labels off of 240 beer bottles which lead me to think about the way that I will organize and label my bottles.

I understand that some print labels on shipping stickers while others print out their labels and glue them to the bottle with milk or some sort of glue.

The question is: If my wife and I plan to be the sole consumers of my homebrew, should I even bother labeling them with a fancy label? I was contemplation placing a simple sticker on the cap such as the one pictured below on the brew that I plan to drink while creating fancy labels for those that I plan to give away.

What system do you use to keep track of your beer? Marking the cap seems to be the easiest way to avoid additional bottle cleaning. BTW, I plan to keep 5-6 different batches in circulation... if that helps.

Thats exactly how I do it, I use dot stickers on labels and I have also purchased star labels.

 

[CityOChampBrew]

http://www.avery.com/avery/en_us/Products/Labels/Identification-Labels/Print-or-Write-Round-Color-Coding-Labels_05467.htm

http://www.avery.com/avery/en_us/Templates-%26-Software/Software/Avery-Wizard-for-Microsoft-Office.htm?N=4294967076&refchannel=3980ac83ae70a110VgnVCM1000002118140aRCRD

The first link is for the labels and you can get them in other colors. The second link is for the Microsoft Word Add in software. They are 3/4" round labels and I have never had a problem finding them in any office supply store locally. People commonly use them to price garage sale items.

Thanks for the link for the software, I would have never thought to print on the labels... Now I can continue to use the same labels I use and not have to explain what beer is what all the time when entertaining.

 

[ScotBrew]

Those are linerless. Won't you lose carbonation?

Just noticed this post. I've just checked and yeah, they are linerless. Thanks for posting that. I would have bought a ton and not noticed!

 

[emyers]

when i did bottle i would write the brew style on the cap with a sharpie. No cleaning and no trees killed. Get kegs.

However, when i do bottle for gifts i have used power point to create the label then clear packaging tape to glue them on. If your neat with the tape it looks real clean. I don't expect to get gifted bottles back so i don't worry about cleaning em.

 

[Calder]

I create labels in power point (9 to a page), print on a regular inkjet printer, cut out and stick on with a glue stick.

They come off really easily when soaked in water for a minute.

I've probably got bottles from up to 50 different batches around. Little stickers on the tops would not do it for me.

 

[MagicSmoker]

I've been going back and forth between the dots on the cap idea, which doesn't require any extra cleaning later but doesn't give you a lot of room for printing either, and Avery 22809 beer/wine labels.

The 22809 labels come 90 to a pack and cost $14.50 (+ tx) from Staples. $0.16 per label seems pretty reasonable to me, as long as the glue doesn't require hours of soaking in ammonia or PBW solution to remove...

 

[mglicini]

I create labels in power point (9 to a page), print on a regular inkjet printer, cut out and stick on with a glue stick.

I have to agree I actually designed my label in paint.. I wish I new photoshop but all I did was fiddle around and design a label that I only need to tweak a little in order to change the beer (color and name, and the little picture). Designing It took a evening but glue stick works great to hold it on
but if you screw up like I did, I had to redo my holiday so just be sure you spell correctly

 

[twd]

Thank you for the links! I checked the website and it appears that the program only works for Windows computers. I have a MAC, and customer service told me that I can choose a template online and print from their online page. Unfortunately MAC users cannot imbed this software into Microsoft Word. The web printing is just as good, just not as convenient. Thanks for your help.

The online software isn't too bad, easily allows you to include an image, circular text, etc. The biggest pain that I had was to get everything centered properly when it printed. Then I found when you print you can adjust the print up or down in very small increments using the "printer adjustment" button. Wasted quite a bit of labels trying to get it printed correctly, but now that I got that printer adjustment dialed in, it works great.

 

[Hulud]

sharpie on caps and when im feeling fancy i put actual labels on them

but since i keg i rarely bottle unless i am giving it to friends

 

[Hulud]

I have to agree I actually designed my label in paint.. I wish I new photoshop but all I did was fiddle around and design a label that I only need to tweak a little in order to change the beer (color and name, and the little picture). Designing It took a evening but glue stick works great to hold it on
but if you screw up like I did, I had to redo my holiday so just be sure you spell correctly

photoshop isnt too bad to learn if you just mess around with it

but when affixing labels i spray the front with clear coat from a can from an art store and the back with spray adhesive

 

[zeg]

I started off labeling each batch, but then I got busy... I will probably do some again when I hit on recipes I want to make more than once or for beers that I think I'll store a long time (or if I just get inspired). When doing that, I printed through Kinkos. IIRC, it costs something like $0.50 for a color printed page. I tiled my labels 6 to a sheet, so it worked out to a bit less than a dime per label. Quality was very good (printing quality, I make no claims about my art).

Since then, I just write a couple letters on each cap with a Sharpie, like so many of us. It works. I don't think I'm likely to go anywhere between these extremes. When I've given people a mixed bunch of bottles, I just send along a legend that explains what the codings are.

 

[BigRedHopHead]

I use the dots on the caps. But I keg mostly, and only bottle a few batches per year. I usually tell those who I gift/give them to the general beer style and leave it to them to try it out. Don't have the time or patience to print and stick labels. Sure they are nice, but when you have kids, job, and wife, and make about 35 batches per year who has the time? I would rather spend my time formulating recipes and making beer.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

I just sharpie on the cap some initials and the bottling date.

Like VP 11/15/12 for Vanilla Porter ...etc

 

[rodwha]

SWMBO has cool labels for canning that wash off. No need to peel them off or anything. Those would work if you want something simple.

I understand many of you want a nice presentable label, and that's cool. I don't have good enough beer to enter competitions, and I hate peeling labels from new bottles.

I am considering setting a 6 pack off to the side from each batch to stash away and try at a much later time, in which case initials won't work so well. But a date too would be just fine with me. I'm simple...

 

[Hulud]

SWMBO has cool labels for canning that wash off. No need to peel them off or anything. Those would work if you want something simple.

I understand many of you want a nice presentable label, and that's cool. I don't have good enough beer to enter competitions, and I hate peeling labels from new bottles.

I am considering setting a 6 pack off to the side from each batch to stash away and try at a much later time, in which case initials won't work so well. But a date too would be just fine with me. I'm simple...

Those labels that wash off, would they fall off from condensation?

 

[rodwha]

I'm not sure. I doubt it. They seem to hang on tight!

 

[Hulud]

Oh nice

 

[RIC0]

I actually label the shelves in my beer fridge with the type of beer instead of each bottle. Just food for thought.

 

[Hulud]

I actually label the shelves in my beer fridge with the type of beer instead of each bottle. Just food for thought.

That's what I'm gonna do when I get a beer fridge so I can keep kegging even more beer

 

[BonzoAPD]

This thread inspired me to try making some labels. Spent about a half hour on 3 designs. This is a preliminary one.

 

[01steve]

i like to use inventory or shipping tags that have the wire so i can just twist the wire around the neck of the bottle. i can just as easily twist them off aswell-... only porblem is when i put a bunch of them in cooler and the ice/water eats away @ the paper. other than that it's no problem in the fridge. i can even re-use the one that i plan to make another batch of.

i also thought about "borrowing" a bunch of "from and to" labels @ the local usps. the sharpie on the caps works but is a bit troublesome when the bottles are upright in a fridge

 

[ajlee]

I just take a sharpie to the cap, cheap and simple.

 

[allthingsgiant]

If you are going to contiue with this hobby, just move to kegs already. You will thank me later.

If I have to label, I get the labels from Onlinelabels.com. Wife makes up the labels in Illustrator, print them on an inkjet. However, these labels are a B***H to get off, so this might not be a good idea if you are reusing bottles. I second the motion to sharpie the caps if need a quick and easy solution.

 

[cpl-america]

print labels on regular paper, double sided tape. it holds easy, and when you are done it peals off. if you are using a cooler than spray it with that clear coat protect stuff, artists use to keep the colors from running when wet.

 

[Soulshine2]

Create labels for all my beers. Quite time consuming. I name all my beers after music/songs I enjoy. Have even gotten my beers to the guys in Furthur, Ryan Montbleau Band, and others. Have them sign a label for me and frame it in my 'man cave' downstairs. I also keep one bottle from each I create and add that to my wall containing an empty bottle of each beer I have brewed. Plus since I do share my beers with many friends it is nice to have a label on them.

Imagine that...Thats how I intend to label /name my beers too.

 

[Timberline]

Post-it notes and crayon

One of my LHBS has a link on their website to these guys - https://www.beerlabelizer.com/ Seems like you could create it there and then print on Avery.

For now, I'm just writing with a sharpie on the bottle caps

 

[MaryB]

My house ale everyone knows has no label, otherwise I do the yard sale dot with an abbreviation on the lid. If I give away beer I have some oval labels I can print off so people know what they are getting.

 

[GrizzlyBrews]

If I'm sending my beer out for a competition then it will have my house label. If it's staying at home then I just mark the caps with permanent marker, usually just the beer name initials. I keep all of my bottling dates etc on file so that I know what's what.

 

[Brownalemikie]

I must be lazy....I just use different color bottle caps and keep notes of which color for which beer. No labels.

 

[pshankstar]

I have a box of a 100 tags with the string from staples. Then I use the Avery printer labels and have a template. The template has the name of the brew, dates (brewed, kegged & bottled), the yeast, OG, FG & ABV. The labels get printed so I can read it (I have bad hand writing) and they fit on the tags folded over. For each brew I update the labels with the new info and place a new label over the old ones.

So far this method works for me and makes it easy for me to answer questions about my brews I bring to gatherings without pulling out my phone as much if at all.

 

[Cavpilot2000]

I just take a sharpie to the cap, cheap and simple.

Ditto.
Or use different caps for each different beer. Black caps for Munich Dunkel, Hop cone cap for IPA, Red cap for X, Gold cap for Y...you get the picture.