Beer Labels

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When I published my recent home brewing results, frequent commenter Mark asked, “Does the label change from year to year or is this your brand? If so it would be fun to see collage of Stub Tail through the years”.

Stub Tail Pale Ale is the brand I use for client gifts at Christmas time. And yes, I try to freshen up the look each year. One thing that doesn’t change is Stubby the Bulldog. Here are a few Stubbie labels from the past.



While I have brewed many times I do not stick labels on each and every bottle. Soaking used bottles and scraping off labels with a razor blade before sanitizing each bottle takes way too much time, if I glue a label to a bottle I never want to see it again. Cheers!

Serious home brewers I know keg their brew in five gallon stainless steel soft drink casks stored in an old refrigerator charged by a CO2 tank, hoses and a tap head(s) sticking out of the side. This saves a lot of work bottling. With a set-up like that I would weigh 500 lbs. within weeks.

My preference in bottles is the 32 oz. E-Z Cap but they are hard to find locally and online sales are restricted to a one pallet purchase minimum. Not very E-Z. 12 oz. bottles are a huge waste of time so I have settled on the easily obtainable 22 oz bottle.




Last year I went to the high gloss design style. Portraying beer as wine in order to raise the perceived value worked well. Changing the name was a nice departure as well. I was pleased with it and the feedback was good.


If I am going to sit down and enjoy one beer a 32 oz. bottle is perfect. The pee to beer ratio for me is about 3-1 so that saves a few trips to the fridge but just as many to the pot.

Here is a reject label design. I thought it would be fun to create a mythical company named Big Wood Brewery.


Borrowing the interest of retro pulp mag cover art provides miles of creativity. Like this design for "REDHEADED LUSH".


I try to stay away from designing traditional beer labels, the kind with production tricks using foil and exotic substrates. Design elements such as engraved looking hops, barley are a no go for me. But I couldn’t help myself to give traditional style a simplified try with these three.






Brewing beer is a hobby. It’s much more fun drinking your own. When poured into a clean glass homebrew has a creamy head that will not quit. When it’s warm it’s clear, chill it and it gets cloudy. I prefer partly cloudy.


That’s called a “chill haze”. It tastes better than most bottled stuff you will find in even the largest liquor store selections.

Enjoy your weekend. I sure will. Here's George, riding a Sportster 1200. Trying to be a badass. Rock on.



That is all.
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