When I made cider from my garden apples, I also got some apple juice. The label feature a cut out making the color of the juice in the bottle a part of the design.
Home made Apple juice with cut out label
Tag: paper
Bottle cap stickers
Cool idea from Leon Löwered. Instead of labels he use stickers on the cap. That save a lot of work when bottling. He prints them on self adhesive printer paper.
New Beerigami labels
New design for my Beerigami Wit.
White bottle home brew as a wedding gift
So, we needed a weeding gift. What about a beer and wine tasting with some food pairings? We added a home brew to the mix. It was pimped with white paint before we added the labels.
Hällevete
“Hällevete” is a home brewed American Wheat Ale from my friend Erik at @eriklikesbeer. The bottle feature a nice professional label design from @janius. How often do you see that on a home brew?
Wrapped white label
A nice wrapped label from @sofiaornerstig.
Simple pure white label
Mango Ginger Gose by home brewer Anders Rosdahl featuring a simple pure design. How did he do it? The label is just cut out with a pair of scissors and glued on with milk. Clean and stylish.
Home brew inspiration labels El Sombrero and La Piñata
Some beautiful beer bottle and cardboard bottle carriers. Designed by home brewer Per Lönnroth.
Paper label tutorial for the home brewer
This is a tutorial on how to make beer labels for the home brewer.
Design
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Printing
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Cutting
Please avoid using a scissor as this will appear less professional. You can use a paper cutter but for best result use a cutter knife with snap off blades. Use a steel ruler for exact cuts.
Attaching
The easiest way to attach a beer label to the bottle is by gluing it on with milk. Pour some milk on a plate and dip the backside of the label in the milk. Just press the label on the bottle and dry excessive milk of with a clean kitchen towel. If the label is printed with a laser printer the ink will not come off.
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Different types of beer labels
There are many kinds of beer labels. Some are more convenient for the home brewer than others. We will now present some of the more usual types and some more special that would make your home brew look very professional.
Papel label
This is the most common type of label. It’s perfect for home brewers since you can print it out on your home printer and glue it on with regular milk. Yes, milk is very convenient as it easily accessible and holds the label on very well. Since it isn’t sticky you have time to adjust the label before it hardens. It’s also very easy to remove the label with plain water. A very environmental friendly method that we think commercial breweries should use too! Some commercial breweries use a glue that is water solvable but some use some sticky glue that you must use chemicals to remove. Boycott those breweries!
The papel labels can be printed on different kind of printers or be ordered from a print shop. If you print it buy your self we recommend a laser printer since it doesn’t smear off when it becomes wet when applied to the bottle. If you only have a black and white printer you can use colored paper to make more elaborate designs.
Plastic label
On some bottles there are transparent plastic labels that look like the graphic is printed right on the bottle. Never buy these beers if you want to reuse the bottle for your home brew. The plastic is generally very hard to remove. It’s also not as environmental friendly as a paper label.
But this method could be used as a home brewer since you could use the same label over and over again for the same beer.
Some commercial breweries (like the one pictured above) use plastic labels without transparency. We think this is utterly stupid, please contact any brewery using this method and ask for a change.
Aluminium can
For some reason cans are becoming more and more popular with small craft breweries. The trend started with Dale’s Pale Ale from Oskar Blues Brewery. Cans are easier to handle and transport. The downside with cans is that they are sprayed with an epoxy resin on the inside to prevent corrosion. This coating can leak BPA (Bisphenol A) into the beer. The effects of this is out of our knowledge so research for your own if you but a lot of canned beer. Ask your favourite brewery of what coating they use in their cans.
Cans are generally not used by DIY:eres and why would you?
Printed bottle
There are many ways to print directly on the bottle. From stamping or using a stencil for DIY:ers to silk screen and direct printing on a commercial level. We will present a number of techniques on this page that can be used at home.
Etching
Etching on the bottle is a interesting technique for the home brewer is it can look very exclusive. It is rarely used in commercial brewing as it is very costly but as a home brewer you reuse the same bottle over and over again. Use small labels or hand writing on conjunction with an etched label to be able to do different beers in the same bottle.
Wrapped label
Wrapping the whole bottle in a printed paper can make an exclusive look on any beer. It’s most commonly used by small belgian breweries and is of course also a feasible project for a home brewer.
Decoration and other techniques
Only the imagination is the limit for your creativity. Add decoration to your bottle in form of strings or paper craft. You can look at scrapbooking for inspiration but be aware that it may look tacky!
