Craft Beer Labels
A craft beer label gets wetter than almost anything else we print. Not damp, wet: bottles and cans go into ice, sit in melt water for hours, come out and get wiped down, and go round again. Add a brewery that releases something new every few weeks and you have the two problems this page is about.
Ice buckets and cold wet glass
Condensation is the easy part. Submersion is the test that separates label constructions, because standing water will find any edge that is not properly keyed and work its way underneath. Paper facestock is out immediately: it wicks, swells and goes to pulp at the corners.
We build on synthetic film, usually BOPP or polyester, with a high-tack adhesive specified for cold wet glass rather than a general-purpose one, and the print finished under a laminate or varnish so a wipe-down does not scuff it. If the beer is going into a cooler rather than a chiller, mention it, because that is a waterproof specification rather than a moisture-resistant one.
Clear labels and the can question
A clear label on brown glass gives you the no-label look that a lot of craft branding is built on, and it is the reason transparent stock is so common in this category. It is also less forgiving, because on clear film every bubble and speck shows.
Cans are the other half of the market now, and a pressure-sensitive label on a can is a genuinely good option for a small brewery: it avoids the minimum order quantities that come with printed cans or shrink sleeves, and it lets you change artwork between batches without committing to a pallet of pre-printed cans.
A new beer every few weeks
This is where a small brewery gets squeezed hardest. Seasonals, one-off collaborations, a pilot batch that may never be brewed again. A printer with a minimum order turns a twenty keg experiment into two thousand labels you will throw away. We have no minimums, so a run of a hundred and fifty for a single release is a normal order, and you can keep one base artwork and change only the beer name, the ABV and the colour block. Batch numbers and canning or bottling dates print variable on the same pass.
Getting a beer label approved
Alcohol labels in the US go through federal approval before they go on sale, and that is a step worth building into your timeline rather than discovering at the end of it. Send us the copy once you know what it says and we will set it legibly at the size the bottle or can allows, including the mandatory statements and the government warning. What your label is required to carry, and whether a given design will be approved, is between you and the TTB or your own adviser. We set type; we do not file applications.
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Popular label formats
Rolls, sheets and die-cut shapes — paper, coated paper, waterproof poly and more.
Need custom craft beer labels?
Tell us your product, size and quantity — we'll recommend the right material and send free samples.