Rules for label making?

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bdolce

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I am new to the hobby and getting ready to bottle my first batch of Red Ale (I cannot wait to taste the first bottle!). I have made an initial attempt at a label and it still needs some work. Basically, I looked at some other labels online to get a feel for what it should look like and went from there. In getting this far with the label I realized you could go nuts playing with the design. It also made me think, are there any rules for labeling a homebrew? I am guessing things like date, % ABV, IBU, etc. should be on the label, but I also started a log book with all the same info. So it lead me to ask the question and I suspect people on here may have some opinions, which I would welcome. Thanks in advance, cheers!

intial red ale label.png
 
I would say the rule is, if you want it on there, put it on there. I've seen labels done up where the person had the brewery name, brew name, and maybe some kind of picture. I've seen some that had all kind of details about the brew and "gov't" warnings, some close to real and some really far off. I think the main thing is have fun with it.
 
On all these do whatever you want notes, I love this label, I think its hilarious, very well done
 
Thanks for all the comments and useful info. I suspected there really were no rules, but wanted to make sure. I really like Kurtism's comment on putting the same effort into the label as you did with the beer - good advice I will try to follow. As for JoeyChopp's comment, not sure I want to go "blue" with my first label, it is not my style. I may save the nudity for something a little more exotic down the road.
 
I never label beer....then I would have to remove labels (it also helps that I keg)

I appreciate the thought on kegs. I just spent a fair amount of money on equipment and ingredients so spending more now for kegs is hard to do. I did learn about adhering the labels with milk and did a test (label adhered well but came off easily and bottle cleaned up nicely). It worked great and I will just print labels off the computer for now. But as I look at all the bottles I already have, and thinking of handling them two or three times a batch, seems like a lot of time and work. I am about to find out and I suspect after a while I will be looking at what it would cost to get into kegs.
 
Personally I like a simple approach...the name that I gave the brew, the type of brew that it is and some form of photo or graphic that I get from google images that in some way relates to the name. I print out labels only if I'm giving away some bottles as a gift. That way I don't have to worry about removing them for my next batch. Here is an example of my label technique

CLOUDED JUDGMENT.jpg
 
First rule is never use comic sans!

But seriously it's a nice label but I don't like your font choices
 
I am new to the hobby and getting ready to bottle my first batch of Red Ale (I cannot wait to taste the first bottle!). I have made an initial attempt at a label and it still needs some work. Basically, I looked at some other labels online to get a feel for what it should look like and went from there. In getting this far with the label I realized you could go nuts playing with the design. It also made me think, are there any rules for labeling a homebrew? I am guessing things like date, % ABV, IBU, etc. should be on the label, but I also started a log book with all the same info. So it lead me to ask the question and I suspect people on here may have some opinions, which I would welcome. Thanks in advance, cheers!

what program are you using? if PS, you should fit the text to a path rather than line it up by hand. i don't use gimp but it might have such a feature too.

the number 1 "rule" if you will, with floating but curved text is make sure it lines up because the eye is immediately drawn to the ill fit title line.

i would also suggest trying your white text on the green sides as a single line..."ale kit" and "feb 2012" fading into a white center field with vast green sides could look better moved up to the other line, centered in both directions on the green.
 
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