Label Making

Completely unnecessary, yet so fulfilling. Making labels for my latest porter was a project and a half considering I have no photoshop skills, however, i think they turned out marvelous. I put about 85-90% of the work into and my soon-to-be wife took care of the kinks. I managed to do things with the software that she never figured out for herself. The difference between her and I is that she does it for work and I just clicked around and accidently ended up doing unwanted things.

Being that my graphic design skills are so basic, I stuck with a black and white design. Next time of course I will work on adding color, etc. I've been looking at labels from all types of beers and found some common components in many of them. Almost all are color, some utilize clear labels, but almost all have some facts, descriptions, and origins of the beer/brewery itself. In comparison, mine is black and white with some color, uses a white label, and has descriptions of the beer and some homebrew notations. For example, I have a statement that states, "Please recycle by returning empty bottles to Halbe."

I am doing this for pure enjoyment and that's it. Labels cost money, printer ink cost money, and bottles cost money. I can reuse the bottles in two ways. If I do the same batch again I can reuse the labels too. They hold fairly well. If I decide to do a different batch I can apply some heat and carefully remove the label and insert a new one. I could even half-ass it by just smacking a new label over top of the old. Actually, that brings up a funny point. Lagunitas Brewery in Cali decided to get very daring with their commercially available brews and started creating very whacky labels, infringing the copyrights of famous songwriters and remarks about LSD, jail, etc. Needless to say, the Cali government stepped in and they had to cease. Instead of pouring beer down the drain (Lagunitas brews about 50,000 barrels of beer per year), they just stuck duct tape over the infringement, crossed it out with crayons, markers, etc. People were buying good beer that came in a package that looked something like a moonshine bottle.

Anyway. Here is my first label. I may make some changes before I print them all out. I have to make sure the beer turns out well before I label 3 cases of porter. If it doesn't, then I will brew again. I am confident though. I hit my numbers and the beer tastes great pre-carbonation. I have come a long way in brewing over the past 3 years. What's really interesting is the palate and nose I am developing for beers. Take a look at the label and you will see that I already have a description of the beer and it's not even ready. This is in part because a pre-carbonation taste gives off the obvious flavors (nut, roast, etc) and the grains and hops tell me how it is going to pan out as well. So here's to it.

The holidays are gonna be great as I will have a keg of belgian dubbel on tap, a keg of porter on tap and 3 cases of porter to be consumed. On top of that, it looks as if we are brewing something between xmas and new years, so even more beer to come in the next few months. Let me know what you think.