Some people may have noticed that I too suffer from BADD (Brewing Attention Deficit Disorder, renamed from the ABDD reference in Kicker's previous article). I started on the apple cider brew, and well, it hasn't moved much further along than being racked into the secondary fermenter. Rest assured that it's still alive and awaiting bottling and blogging.
In the meantime... I decided to put together a quick primer on custom labeling for beer and wine bottles. I know labels are not a glamorous topic. You might think "hey, I know what I brewed, and I know what it tastes like, so who cares what the bottle looks like?" Well, three reasons I can think of:
1. Identification. You and everyone else know what brew is in the bottle you're drinking, and any other pertinent info you decided to include on the label such as alcohol content, batch number (especially handy if you're trying small variations on a recipe), and age (signified by the date brewed, the year the grains/fruits were harvested, or date bottled). You can go into as much, or as little detail as you like. Some commercial beers (such as Rolling Rock) include ingredient lists on their labels. Many commercial wines tell you where the fruit was grown and harvested.
2. Presentation. I don't know about you, but I like the brew I give out to my friends and family to show a bit of my character. A good label adds polish to the final look of the brew. In addition, those who haven't tasted homebrew before will be naturally squeemish, and more-so if it's just some dirty old bottle with no label. You don't want your mother-in-law guessing what's in the bottle or she'll assume it's moonshine and bound to make her go blind.
3. Fun. I like making my own labels. The whole process makes for an interesting side-hobby. Making labels look better than a scribbled post-it note can present some odd challenges. There are several processes that come together to make it unique. When making labels, I find that I'm measuring, designing, printing, cutting, gluing, and finally aligning and attaching. If I were to get really serious there could even be some woodworking involved, though I've never gone that far. When I'm done placing the labels on the bottles, I definitely feel a sense of pride and accomplishment.
Getting started:
Your very first step is to remove any previous labels and adhesive on your bottles. You should be sterilizing the bottles before you put your brew in them, so that's the most convenient time to remove the old labels. You can also remove labels after you've already bottled your brew, but I find it easier to knock out this step during the sterilization phase. I hear just about any bottle sterilizing solution works great for removing paper labels and that gummy adhesive. Soak the bottles overnight and scrub clean. If you're trying to take the printed labels off of Corona bottles you'll need a strong acid solution like Star San. I've also heard (and tried) a white vinegar solution with water (I mixed about 50/50, there are suggestions that you can go as low as 10% with the white vinegar. Over time (like a couple of days) the acidic solution breaks down the clear coat on the printed labels and leaves the paint vulnerable to vigorous scrubbing. However, I've never been able to get the printed labels completely removed, as you can still see a ghost of them on the bottle. I'm open to suggestions on getting those Corona bottles crystal clear.
For the purposes of this article I'm going to assume you want to make your own labels. I am aware that you can buy pre-made labels. Some wine kits may also come with their own labels. Use them if you like them. I don't really see anything wrong with them, but I like my brews to have a personal touch to them.
Measuring:
You'll need to come up with a proper label size, so measure your bottles. I could tell you what measurements to use, but I don't know how big of a bottle you are using. Bottle sizes vary. I find that the viewable width is about 1/3 of the circumference of the bottle. For my cheap old 12oz beer bottles that means 2.5 inches wide. You don't want them too wide or you'll have to move the bottle around to see what the whole label says. Height is a little tricky and even with some measurements you'll probably have to eyeball it. Most bottles have a vertically flat and smooth area that is meant for labels. Measure the height of that suitable area and pick a size slightly smaller than your measurement. As an example, the label area on my bottle is 4 inches high. To keep the label from looking "too tall" I went for a slightly shorter label at 3.5 inches high. Therefore my final label dimensions are 2.5 inches wide, by 3.5 inches high. Again, your mileage and measurements will vary.
For my wine bottles I bend the rules a bit and often aim for a horizontal look. By my 1/3 rule above, my wine labels should be 3.16 inches wide, but to make them more horizontal, I actually make them 5 inches wide and only 3.5 inches tall. However, to make the label easy to read, I center all of the text I want to be immediately readable, and make sure it's no wider than the 3.16 inches I calculated above. If I wanted my wine labels to have a vertical look (like my beer bottles), I'd simply stick to the same vertical orientation rules I used above. Instead, I threw in some guesswork and a little bit of trial and error to come up with the 3.5x5 horizontal label.
Really, having a wider label is okay, as long as the main logo or name is immediately visible and you don't have to spin the bottle around to figure out what it is. If you named your brew "Dirty Mud Beer" and made the text too wide, you might only be able to see "Dirty Mu" before turning the bottle around a bit to see the rest of it say "d Beer". If you want to eyeball a label, cut a large rectangular piece of paper (preferably with text or writing on it for points of reference and as a text visibility check) and wrap it around your bottle. If it's too big, cut it smaller until it looks right. Note the final size of your paper. Regardless of my semi-scientific-sounding spiel above, this isn't rocket science.
Label Design:
Hopefully you know how to use a graphics editor. If not, you'll want to brush up on the basics of creating an image before continuing. As far as software goes, I'd recommend Gimp for us die-hard free software fans, Adobe Photoshop or some other commercial software if you want better documentation and tutorials. Most software has the ability to create an image with the dimensions in pixels or in some measurement such as inches. Choose inches and plug in the label size you chose earlier.
Scour your image library or the internet (Google images may help here) for an image that fits your theme (of course, if using an image from the internet make sure you can legally use the image for your label. I wouldn't want any of my readers to be sued over copyright infringement.) I tend to pick images that fit with the brew. Apple orchards for apple cider, snowy log cabins for winter brews, relaxing beach scenes for summer wines, etc. Play with a bunch of ideas, or browse around other wine labels for inspiration.
I've broken this behemoth post into two parts. Part two is coming up in a day or so.
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