If you are just getting going brewing and haven't quite worked everything out yet, then labels for your bottles might seem unimportant, but it's still worth putting some thought into.  After all, as you continue to learn and your technique begins to progress, having customized labels for your beer can be both fun , and if it becomes a serious hobby, and add an instantly recognizable picture when you serve it to friends and family. Kind of like seeing the sign at your favorite restaurant – you know you're going to be getting something good.  A little extra homebrew beer info for those lucky enough to be imbibing.

Different Home Brew Label Options

If you're not the creative type, or not computer savvy enough to start messing around with a graphics program, you could always head down to your local print shop with a simple idea or a rough sketch and ask them how much it would be to produce something that represents you and your homebrew beer. Lots of times they have designers in-house, and will help you finalize your idea for a pretty reasonable price. They'll probably also have suggestions about formatting and what weight paper to use, how to affix it, and lots of other stuff you probably don't want to think about, but it's a good way to go if you have a couple of bucks to spare and want a pro to handle all the little details.

If you are worried about the cost, or like a lot of home brewers, are the do-it-yourself type, there are many options you can choose for making your own homebrew labels. You can design great looking labels on your computer if you want to – most operating systems these days have great graphic/image editing programs that can do just about anything you can imagine.  Alternatively, if you have some artistic skills you could always design on paper and scan it in to your computer – if you don't have a scanner, you might be able to get it done at your local library, otherwise just go to FedEx store/UPS store or one of the big office supply chains and they can do it for you, but not for free.

If you decide to use store bough packs of labels,  they will often even have easy-to-use software and free clip art and photography to use for your designs included. Also, there's tons of free home brew beer label programs on the internet.  Here's a great on to try, it's really easy to use and makes some great looking labels (plus it's FREE!):

BeerLabelizer

So spend a little time and design a homebrew beer label that will make your final product look as good as it tastes, and keep brewing!

Be sure to stop by our kits and supplies page to get what you need, and our books page for additional resources.

photo credit|ilovebutter|Flickr