Beer Labels Question

I’m printing beer labels for a client - is there paper sheets I can get with adhesive backs like a postage stamp? Does this exist? We need our beer!


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Brewing supply shops usually have labels or label paper, typically with an adhesive that’s easy to wash off (so you can label the next batch), for example:

Hello bulldogbraun, that kind of paper is called ‘gummed paper’.

THANKS! It’s a rather large run that could lead to a big run. Not just a craft brewer - hopefully the next midwest “Boulevard” so i want to impress these guys with it ready to go.

What you want is a C1S label stock one side uncoated so it will have “tooth” for the glue that the bottling line will apply

O f no practical help from this distance (U.K.) but for this kind of application i.e. sticky back as per modern postage stamps, here in the U.K.
At least, virtually every paper supplier, sells blocks/reams of *Crack Back* as many up as size permits, pre kiss cut, on wax backing sheet for overprinting on whatever machine permits, L/press or Litho, as the name implies cracked back to stick on to virtually any surface, and removable if needed.?? . Without solvents.
Available from all good high street stationers, for Home, Hobby and D.I.Y. enthusiasts!!
Supplied to the Trade (print) as reams of almost any size, blank sheets, on wax backed parent paper, Kiss Cut to any desired configuration from purpose made die cutting formes ???

I believe also, available in reel form for continuous stationery machines, and the modern equivalent of Addressograph Machines?? … NOT fact.
There must surely be the same available Stateside???

B. D. B. Sir dont bother about the complimentary bottle in The Mail its to far,! too risky,! and I dont drink anyway, but Cheers and a Happy Christmas, Oh! and send my regards to the Pres… MICK

On another but related subject, you should test whether the beer will affect the ink you intend to use, because there is a chance the beer could be spilled and run down the bottle, across the ink, and onto the counter the bottle is standing on. If the beer makes the ink bleed, and the bottle is standing on a white counter, you could end up buying the beer company’s customer a new countertop. Does the beer react with the pigment and change the color of the ink? The customer won’t like this either. On hot summer days, beer bottles are going to sweat and the condensed water is going to run down the bottles. Also, beer bottles are going to be put in coolers with ice and water. Will the label adhesive keep the labels on the bottles when they are immersed in water? You need a label adhesive which will keep the labels on the bottles when the consumer uses them, but which the beer company can wash off with hot soapy water (or whatever they use - you need to find out), when the bottles are re-used. Beer bottles which go through a filling line and into cartons, take quite a beating in filling and shipping, so does your ink have adequate rub and scuff resistance for this? At the least, you may have to overvarnish the labels to protect the ink. Have you discussed with the customer how the labels are going to be applied? If it is by machine, are there properties which the labelling machine requires, such as a certain COF (coefficient of friction) on the printed label surfaces, to make the labels slide through the machine correctly?

You should work with your ink supplier, tell them what the ink is going to be for and any other info you have on how the ink is going to be used, and have them recommend an ink or make a batch especially for your application. There are ink companies which have a lot of expertise in food packaging, like Sun Chemical (the biggest ink company in the world), or Flint Group.

Food packaging sounds at first thought like a good market to be in, but you have to cover all the bases before supplying a lot of labels, and you have to accept the risks of consumers and food packagers making claims in situations you do not foresee. If a consumer makes a claim because your label failed in some way, you will end up paying the claim, not the beer maker.

You should print a small batch of labels and test them with the beer company in every situation you can think of, that they may be exposed to in “end use,” before printing a large batch for actual production.

I’m not saying I have covered everything, but this is a start. I would also be sure that the ink toxicity is low enough for this type of application. That is another reason for going with an ink company which supplies a lot of food packaging inks. In this case you have the advantage of having the glass bottle between the beer and your label, when the beer is in the bottle.

WOW, AMAZING, INCREDIBLE, UNBELIEVABLE, and I Quote, ***In this case you have the advantage of having the glass bottle between the beer and your label, when the beer is in the bottle.*** . .WOW and WOW again!!
Where else?? . Floating free maybe, with the Lable encapsulated in an impenetrable force field, which disappears on point of consumption???
Since the U.S.A, was the alleged home of prohibition which ended 8 (EIGHT) decades ago, approx. By implication, and since then, there must surely have been, enough labels stuck to enough bottles, from a thousand and one bottling plants (bottles stacked upright) to stretch to the Moon and Back??
This by way of saying/implying that the problems of adhesion by lables to GLASS Bottles must have been solved decades ago!!! When letterpress was King??
With respect, maybe, re appraise the previous post, non intended!!!

Best of luck, Ms Braun.

While the idea of matching Boulevard’s excellence
is audacious, it will be fun to see them try.
At least they’re aiming high with their graphics.

BTW: I’d order a stack of bumper sticker stock.
It isn’t water soluble but good enough for a prototype
& cheaper. At least it used to be.

If you are really talking about a large label run, the last thing needed is Crack-n-peel stock. The cost per sheet, hand labor and waste from the liners is just not commercially acceptable. Any commercial brewer is going to use automatic labelling machines with their own requirements, for example grain around the bottle. The label will also need to adhere despite refrigeration and moisture, and that requires specialized adhesives.
You really need to be asking the customer their requirements not getting guesses off the web.

Following up on what parallel_imp just said, another MAJOR consideration is that your label stock (and inks) are going to get cold and WET. Think of the condensation that occurs when a cold beer is brought out into a warm and humid environment.

Decades ago I did a very small 4-page piece for a client per their specifications. It was printed and looked great! BIG PROBLEM!!! They soon called to say that the pieces were disolving and falling apart! The one thing that they had failed to mention was that the pieces were going to be attached to products placed inside of freezers. That information would have been extremely helpful in determining the stock to be used. Needless to say the job was run again, at their expense, on the correct material.


Yes, the customer should have an idea of what they want. I die-cut neck labels for a trade customer, and it is a particular 40 lb C1S—not the easiest stock to work with.

Label runs will pretty much dictate that you have an autofeed press, as the quantities get very big very quickly, unless you are making these for a home brewer.

You certainly want to look up food grade inks, and that will probably require you to use oil base inks, if you are not already.

Bottle label standard stock used to be referred to as Pancake in the UK. water based remoist gum backed , washes off easily in the bottle washers .

Good comment, Peter. There are a lot of things to consider when doing any kind of food packaging, especially when the containers are reusable.

You don’t want a label that rinses off easily if the bottle may be set into a cooler filled with melting ice. That’s exactly what happens with a lot of beer bottles.
This may be a moot point: dry-gum stock seems to be a thing of the past. The manufacturer GPA doesn’t even list it anymore (and the “GP” stands for gummed paper), and I haven’t seen a lickable stamp from the USPS, a major user, in many years.


I want to ask, when was the last time you pulled a beer from a cooler filled with ice and the label DIDNT come off easily?

not that every label is temporarily affixed, but I mean to say that a good portion of the beers I’ve had from such a situation had the label come off without a problem after a good ‘soak in the tub’

I guess California microbrew is in a class by itself, in all ways.

In the US, Nashua Products still makes their Davac line of dry gum papers. It might take some working of better paper houses to get some, but it’s out there.

Alternately, another coater/distributor offers retail quantities of dry gummed stock on the US, in coated and uncoated sheets:

If memory serves, beer bottle labels are (or were) designed to remain on the bottle when subjected to plain water, because plain water was not supposed to affect the adhesive (or “gum”). It was only when the labels were subjected to the soap/detergent in the washing process that the adhesive was designed to break down. This was probably due to the wash chemicals making the wash water a different pH, as well as to the soap/detergent action in the wash. As discussed in the previous posts, this didn’t always work as it was designed to.

Most labels for use in refrigerators and coolers that will then sweat once bought out of the cold , a coat of typical food safe sealer is all that is required at print stage to make said labels able to withstand reasonable dampening in use .
I do Iced cream tub labels using a standard grade gloss peel and stick self adhesive material that is only treated with an overcoat of ordinary printing sealer ,suited to food packaging . The problems we encountered were the adhesives dont cope so well with the cold and self adhesive peel and stick often wants to return to the “roll” the material was born of.
With disposable packaging a permanent adhesive type works but a bottle as mentioned above brings its own grief , gum arabic based adhesive were the norm and where i would look .
modern label applicating lines use a hot melt adhesive to affix the label , the very hot steam washers used in bottle sterilising plants removes most all labels but those with remoist gums like the mentioned “dry Gum” that requires damp to wet the glue in order to apply it are fine , the labels wash off completely in the plant and less bottles get “knocked out” of the bottling line because the sonic bottle testers read the bits of old label as flaws in the glass .