Adding labels to your homebrew beer is fun (if a bit time consuming.) It lets you play around with label art (I'm sure there's a museum of beer labels somewhere), and keeps you from accidentally serving unlabeled chili beer to an unsuspecting friend.

There are a ton of different ways to label, ranging from commercial adhesive labels to short-run professional printing to simply marking the tops with a Sharpie (which I actually do nine times out of ten.) However, these all have drawbacks. Commercial labels are a pain to get off, pro-printed runs are expensive, and the permanent marker route leaves something to be desired in the aesthetic department. Here's my current solution to the problem:

What You'll Need

• A label design
• Decent-quality office paper (non-glossy)
• A laser printer (color preferred, but see below)
• Liquid starch (you can mix your own, but laundry starch is easier)
• Filled and washed beer bottles

Step 1: Design Your Labels

This is the fun part - go nuts. I happen to use PhotoShop, but any drawing program will do. I won't attempt any advice on good beer label design, but I do have some technical tips:

• Make the art relatively vertical. Standard beer bottles have a fairly tight curve. Wide art tends to wrap out of view, requiring you to turn the bottle to read it.
• Consider the bottle color you're applying to. Chances are it's brown, so consider how your design will look against that border color.
• Large areas of white don't tend to look good in this particular method, since it makes it more obvious that the label is uncoated paper. If you want to use white, consider either a small label, or top-coating the label after the fact.
• Labels don't need to be round, square, or any other specific shape. Be creative. Just remember you're going to be cutting out about 48 of them.
• Economy plays a role. Size your labels to get a decent number per sheet.

Step 2: Print

Annoyingly, this technique pretty much requires a laser printer. Inkjets generally use water-soluble ink, so will run during the application process. If you don't have a laser printer, consider taking your design to a copy shop, or print it on your inkjet, then have the copy shop color photocopy it.

If you want color labels, either use a color laser printer, the copy shop route above, or consider printing them black and white and coloring them in by hand. Water color pencils work will if it fits your label style, as do graphic arts markers. Highly labor intensive however.

Step 3: Cut

If you've gone the square label route, this is easy. Either stack the sheets and cut through with a razor knife and a straightedge, or use use a paper cutter.

Round and irregular shapes take some work. Consider including a very faint grey border in the final label shape in your design to give you something to cut to. Scissors or a razor knife work fine. Rope your friends and family into helping.

Step 4: Apply

Pour a small amount of your starch solution into a wide, shallow dish. (Baking dishes work well.) Dilute till it's relatively thin (the viscosity takes some experimentation to get right, but a wide range seems to work OK.)

Take a single label and submerge it briefly in the solution (a second to two.) Don't worry about getting it on the front surface - it actually makes it easier to smooth out.

Center the label on the bottle. Start in the center and gently smooth out toward the edges. You're pushing the excess starch out from under the paper, so look for pockets and work them to the edges. Take your time and get it absolutely smooth. (Yes, this makes a mess.)

Any white or light colored areas in your design may appear to darken. This is just the water saturating the paper - it will turn back to white when it dries.

Gently wipe the excess starch off the bottle and the label with a damp soft sponge. You don't have to get it perfect, since the starch dries relatively clear.

Step 5: Dry

Set the bottles aside overnight in a dry place. May take longer in humid climates. (Here 25% is considered humid, so the process is fast.)

That's it - simple, and it can give excellent results. Best of all, the standard bottle washing process will slide the labels right off when you're ready to recycle them.

Credits

This technique is a modification of the one taught to me by my local brew shop, Hops & Berries, but substituting starch for the casein they recommend.