Bottle labelling

[awalton007]

What do you all use for labelling your bottles I wanted some ideas. I was thinking chalk pens. Not actual paper labels because they will get taken off when they are washed. I've seen like plastic hooks that go over the necks

What do you all do?

 

[oldbloke]

Not much of my stuff gets seen outside the house, so I don't really care what it looks like. I don't even bother removing the old labels.
For wine, I cut an A4 sheet into 12 to make neck collars- big plus is they hang down when the bottles are in the rack so you can read them without moving anything. And they fit over the fermentation lock on the demijohn, too.
For ale&cider I just use a sharpie on the crown cap.
If I'm giving somebody a bottle I'll write on standard printer paper with a sharpie and stick it on. Making it looks smart would just raise their expectations.

 

[stevie1556]

None of mine have been labelled yet because I haven't had the time, and that I didn't want to make labels for wines that tasted like ****!

I'm looking at making some labels and sticking them on with milk, but as they are currently un-labelled, I've got them sitting in rows in the wine rack, and a little not on the side telling me which row of bottles is which flavour.

 

[PD]

Chalk pen.

But beware at this time of the year, bottle conditioning in a water bath..... :whistle:

 

[BigDDunc]

I mark with a Sharpie on the bottle cap (but also alternate bottle cap colours).

OTR A = On The Rocks Apple kit
OTR MB = On The Rocks Mixed Berry
RASP = Malina(Raspberry) TC

I also note down those on a spready I record small details in (when I started it off, racking, bottling, abv etc etc).

I'll be giving a few samples out at Christmas, they will get some fantastic white sticky labels with my handwriting on

 

[Moley]

Every brew gets an A5 note sheet in a ring binder with a reference number, name, ingredients (with costings), method, sugar calculations, dates strained / racked / filtered / bottled (with gravities), final alcohol content and any other notes or comments.

Beers just get a brew number written on the cap, and I also alternate cap colours.

Some juice wines go into 660ml clear cider bottles with gold crown caps which just carry a brew number and clue to contents, e.g. “WOW 1208” which would represent my 8th brew in 2012.

Other wines get a self-adhesive label bearing brew number, name, date started, bottling gravity and abv.

I work in the printing trade and occasionally stand in for the works manager / guillotine operator, so I have a box full of business card sized offcuts from sticky labels which would otherwise have ended up in the bin, and I only keep those whose glues I know will soak off in hot water.