Labels!!!!!!

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Theres are a label that i have made

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I use just small colour stickers on the bottle lid. You can buy like 250 stickers of 5 different colours for a quid or so on ebay, simple cheap and easy
 
I have to ask (sorry for thread hijack), what's with the horse head things? Is this some Welsh custom that has thus far passed me by? I'm genuinely intrigued.

It's the Mari Lwyd - the grey mare (or Mary) - which is a traditional Welsh Christmastime luck-visiting tradition. It's basically a horses skull on a pole with the bearer covered under a sheet which is led from door to door. Traditionally there was a singing competition with the occupiers of the house/inn and if the Mari's party won they gained entrance and received drinks and food. Actually it's the singing bit that's specifically Welsh - similar horses head trads. survive in several parts of England - on the Welsh borders and Derbyshire/S.Yorks. i think there they're part of mummers plays. In times past it was widespread over England and there are similar traditions in Europe too.
We've been doing it for 20 odd years with our Morris team. It was very rare back then but there's been a huge revival. Mid January there's a Wassail and Mari Lwyd event in Chepstow we always attend - 9 different Maris this year.
 
I don't label mine yet, but when I do, I will be sticking plain paper labels on with MILK. Apparently, it sticks well and more importantly,the labels come off very easily in a simple water wash. I reckon I will stick them on, let them dry and then scribble the brew and date details on each bottle.

I can't use the cap code method because I have swing top bottles.

For gifts to friends, I print labels on a laser printer – they are designed in Illustrator (or now the open source Inkscape application). Cut them with a guillotine. Stick them on with milk. Works perfectly and is quite quick. For my own consumption, I rely on different coloured caps and occasionally add codes with a permanent marker. For swing-top bottles I often use little stick-on label 'dots' that I bought years (decades?) ago – I have thousands of them in various colours.

The only drawback of milk as an adhesive is that inkjet colours can run.

Steve
 
It's the Mari Lwyd - the grey mare (or Mary) - which is a traditional Welsh Christmastime luck-visiting tradition. It's basically a horses skull on a pole with the bearer covered under a sheet which is led from door to door. Traditionally there was a singing competition with the occupiers of the house/inn and if the Mari's party won they gained entrance and received drinks and food. Actually it's the singing bit that's specifically Welsh - similar horses head trads. survive in several parts of England - on the Welsh borders and Derbyshire/S.Yorks. i think there they're part of mummers plays. In times past it was widespread over England and there are similar traditions in Europe too.
We've been doing it for 20 odd years with our Morris team. It was very rare back then but there's been a huge revival. Mid January there's a Wassail and Mari Lwyd event in Chepstow we always attend - 9 different Maris this year.

Cool. No idea how I've never seen or heard of that before though I haven't lived in Wales for nearly 20 years and I'm from a relatively anglicised part (near Abergavenny). Always wondered what was going on with your avatar!

Thx for info!
 
I had a tough enough time designing a label for my best friend's wedding gift of 24 bottles - that so time consuming to label everything, I couldn't imagine doing that for 50 bottles every batch.

Who knows, it's on my to do list to design and make a base label for each style I eventually brew even though the recipes will likely change. For the time being I do what others do and use coloured crown caps to distinguish batches.
 
I dont bottle I use 5l mini kegs and use little plain stickers and wright on them. about £1 off ebay for 50
 
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