Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

I have observed that Pat McCusker does a pretty good job of dressing up his meads/melomels....and they have a very distinctive and nice look. And I've been thinking that I might like to do that on my better productions...or ones I intent to age over time.

So....

Do you put labels on your bottles/cans?

If so, how do you create them? Do you print them at home? Order them?

Who does your design?

I bought a cheap program called Label Maker (under $20).

I acquire graphics from the Internet, then put together the labels in Label Maker.

Taking them off is not as fun as putting them on.

related: I asked Joe what he does for wine label removal, as the good wine kits come with durable adhesive labels. He said they just keep sticking the next one right on top of the previous one, don't bother to remove em

Have you tried "Removable White Matte" from online Labels?

https://www.onlinelabels.com/Products/O ... t=decimals

It uses a low-tack adhesive. Not sure how that sets long-term.

Oxyclean does a really good job of taking off the labels. For unknown reasons, old labels seem to come off easier than new ones.

I have a friend that highly recommends good old-fashioned "washing soda".

Have you tried "Removable White Matte" from online Labels?

These are extremely removable.

The labels will slide off cold bottles that sweat in high humidity. Not exactly useful if you put any bottles in a cooler.

I can confirm that.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

Pat - do you use an Avery label for your Wine and Mead bottles?

I use whatever I get my hands on at Sam's Club or Office Max.

daryl wrote:Pat - do you use an Avery label for your Wine and Mead bottles?

But yes, I use standard mailing labels that either are branded as Avery or provide the Avery number that the label is common with.

I generally use the ones that are 10 on a page (so 2ish by 4 ish) or 6 on a page (3ish by 4ish).

I generally dislike washing off labels and adhesive residue enough that I use tags tied on with string.

But, I have to admit, a nice label really dresses up the product when you're taking it over to a friend's house or introducing someone to what good homebrew can be.

I've not found that PBW or Oxyclean makes much difference. Goo-Gone, once the paper is scraped off seems to help. Then there's the new fused-glass labeling found on higher-end bottles. Need a sandblaster to get that off.

Pat, do the Avery (and like) labels leave much of a residue?

karl wrote: Pat, do the Avery (and like) labels leave much of a residue?

Some brands come off very easy and some are very difficult. The problem is that I am not removing labels until several years after I put them on, so I have no idea which brand label I was using way back when.

I use a concentrated solution of Oxyclean. So I use rubber gloves when I scrub the labels off. I generally let bottles soak overnight or at least for a few hours. I have noticed that the older the label is, the easier it is to get off. I use a knife to get the paper off and a Scotch Brite scrubber to get any residue off.

One of my friends likes to use old-fashioned soda wash. But I have not tried that.

Saw this ad in the last BYO mag. Might be worth looking into if you have a lot of bottles to de-label.

https://labelnator.com/

I just processed 129 bottles for mead, and most had the Avery-type label.

I used hot water and baking soda.....about 1/4 to 1/2 cup per gallon. Did it using a bucket.

Filled the bucket with baking soda and about two gallons of water. I did a preliminary rinse of each bottle, then filled them with hot water and placed them bottom down in the bucket, until the bucket is full. Then I topped off with hot water until all of the labels are covered. And then I let them soak for 10-15 minutes. I take a bottle out, keeping the water inside, and then I place it in the bottom of the kitchen sink and I used my thumbnail to scrape off the label...and steel wool to scrape off the residue. I then rinsed with lukewarm water, sometimes continuing the use of the steel wool, and then empty the bottle and set it aside to dry.

Some of them had a glue that I needed to use a little Goo B Gone to remove.

As I took one bottle out of the bucket, I will fill the next bottle with hot water and put it in the bucket. In this way, I do not dilute the baking soda water and the hot bottle helps keep the bucket water hot.

I wasn't too bad a job, a little monotonous, bur even that can be a bit of a meditation. The next steps with these bottles will be much more fun. AND....if I remove labels as I use the bottles, it spreads the effort across a long period of time, and does not take but a few minutes.

tony b wrote:Saw this ad in the last BYO mag. Might be worth looking into if you have a lot of bottles to de-label.

https://labelnator.com/

I have one of these that I haven't even used yet, if someone wants to borrow it and try .