Labeling your brew (pt 2 of 2)

This is the second half of my brief labeling primer.  I'm by no means a labeling pro, but I decided that there is far to little information out there about labeling brew.  So without further delay:

Label Design Continued:



Once you find the image you like, you'll need to tap into that latent artistic talent.  Resize/stretch/crop it until it fits into your label dimensions.  After it's the right size, paste it into the new image you created and enhance it to fit your liking.  Add borders, motion blurs, camera flares, embossed logos, whatever you like.  I even added a picture of my own face to one of my wine bottles.  Some people I know called it my "Stalin Wine" because it looked like I placed an image of Stalin's face on it.  I don't look that much like an evil dictator do I?



Add clearly visible text to your label.  I usually consider a name the bare minimum.  You might want to also include the alcohol content, date (or a year for wines), and any other useful info.  Listing any special deviations from your recipe, or a batch ID might help you remember why this brew tastes better or worse than the others when you try it 6 months later.  If your text is hard to see on your background change the color, or even add a border around it from a color on the opposite side of the color wheel.  Again, you'll need some familiarity with your image editor.  When done, save your image.



Printing and cutting:


Create a new image roughly the size of a piece of paper (8.5x11 inches) and copy/paste your saved label-image into the new image as many times as it will fit.  This will help you save time and paper. I can usually fit at least 4 labels on a sheet, and for beer labels sometimes 6 or more.  Decide how many bottles you need labels for, and print out enough sheets to meet your needs.  I recommend laser printers for your labels.  Ink from ink jet printers tends to bleed and get messy when it's wet (and it'll probably get wet at some point, but if you put the labels on AFTER you bottle, there's less risk of that).  Laser toner tends to be more resistant to that type of abuse.  If you're really really worried about your labels bleeding when wet, you can purchase water resistant paper to aid in your cause.  I personally don't go quite that far.


Cut your labels down to size.  This is actually very time consuming to do well.  Having a commercial paper cutter really comes in handy at this point, but you can get by just as well with scissors.  Try to be consistent from label to label.  Make sure your cuts are straight and that the sides match.  It often looks good if you leave a small border of the white paper around your image.  Whether it looks good, and whether you want to do that is up to you and might depend heavily on the image you used.  Stack your final labels into a pile and save them for later.


Attaching the labels:



Make sure you've bottled your brew before placing labels on it.  For wine, I let the wine sit for a few days, giving the cork a chance to seal, before I jostle it around during labeling.  Wash the outside of your bottles.  Yes, I know you washed and sterilized them before you brewed, but you'd be surprised at how much of your brew accidentally ends up on the outside of your bottles unnoticed during bottling.  Let your bottles dry and get your labels ready.


I've tried several different glues and methods, but in the end I always come back to glue sticks.  A purple one gets me through about 15-20 labels.  Also, with glue sticks (especially the purple ones meant for school), the adhesive removes easily after being soaked for a while in water.  Elmers glue, spray on glue, and several other ideas were either too messy, caused too many crinkles in the paper, or just didn't stick good enough.  At one point I found a "roll-on" glue at walmart that I really liked, but I haven't been able to find it again.


Prep your bottle labeling area.  Get your labels and bottles all lined up nearby and at the ready.   Place a large piece of cardboard or some thick heavy paper on the table.  The cardboard will protect your table from getting glued.  Place the label face-down on the cardboard, and apply your glue.  I like to coat a large heavy outline around the border and leave the center clean, so I can handle it without getting too sticky.  Line up your label on the bottle and stick it on.  Some glues (glue sticks aren't too great for this) will have some "give" to them after you stick the label on, so you can move it around a bit while the glue is still wet.  You mostly want to focus on making sure your label is lined up correctly, and smooth out any wrinkles.  Try to place the labels consistently from bottle to bottle as well.



I'm terrible at this part of the labeling.  I get impatient after a few bottles and just start slapping them on without regard to straightness.  The end product looks terrible and often skewed when I don't pay attention to detail.  If you want to get really meticulous, i've found an article with instructions to create your own bottle labeling jig.  I might actually do something like that later on, since seeing my labels all lopsided is kind of irritating.


Appendix - AKA other useful info:



Regular Sam Adams bottles are almost identical to the bottles I use except they are 1/8 inch taller and have "Sam Adams" embossed into the glass.  Since they're similar in size and shape to my own bottles I decided to compare their labels to mine.  Their main label is not a solid rectangle, it's almost like a rectangle with a large oval in the middle.  Their label is 4.5 inches wide.  A massive 2 inches wider than mine, but interestingly, their main viewable logo in the center is almost the same size as mine.  They use the extra 1 inch of space on each side to print all sorts of info like bar codes, manufacturer info, born on dates, and surgeon general's warnings.
I might incorporate something like that into a future label design.  The Sam Adams label is roughly the same height as mine at 3.5 inches.  However 1/4 inch at the top and another 1/4 inch at the bottom mostly serve as a border.


Another important difference, is that Sam Adams includes a label around the neck of the bottle.  The label wraps completely around the neck of the bottle.  I measured this label too, in case anyone wants to design their own neck label.  When unwrapped, it runs 4 inches wide at the top, and 4.5 inches wide at the bottom (to form a cone shape when wrapped).  The neck label is 1.25 inches high, but again, they use some of it as border.  This might be another good place to put extra information about the brew, clever quotes, propaganda, or whatever you want.