What Label Is Best For Craft Beer?

You’ve done the hard work. You have expertly combined your hops, grain, yeast, and water, heated and fermented the mixture into a delicious beer, and bottled it with your glass bottle of choice. All that’s left is choosing the perfect label to represent your brand, beer, flavor, and mood.

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Hand labeling may have worked well when output was restricted to a few hundred bottles. Still, to compete with the growing number of microbreweries springing up around the country, containers must be branded fast, correctly, and consistently. In other words, a dedicated labeling machine would be beneficial. Even if you do decide to purchase a labeler, the more difficult choice may be between wrap-around and shrink-sleeve labels.

What’s the Difference Between Applying Labels on Beer Bottles and Beer Cans?

Bottles can look great with almost any style of label. Wrap-around and shrink sleeves perform about the same depending on your needs and which of the pros/cons lists above appealed to you. You don't have to worry about the un-adhered piece of a wrap-around label being easily torn away because bottles don't flex or crush. However, with glass container limits in public places (no one likes to stomp on shattered glass), cans have come to appear like an appealing option.

Aluminum cans have mostly won over craft beer enthusiasts, but they can still provide labeling challenges for craft brewers.

Unfortunately, most craft brewers cannot fulfill the required minimum order of 100,000 cans or more, especially for seasonal or limited-edition beers.

The issue is that a paper wrap-around label that looks crisp and elegant on a glass bottle would not work at all on a can. Cans are relatively flexible, and the prospect of a dented can allowing a paper label to be ripped off is enough to convince many breweries to use shrink sleeves. If you determine that wrap-around labels are the best option for your cans, maybe owing to cost constraints, film substrate labels are a considerably superior option, as long as the adhesive adheres to the aluminum under unusual conditions.

What Automatic Labeling Equipment is Right for Me?

If you're still unsure about which label type is best for you, think about what sort of automated labeler would be compatible with your label of choice – this might help you limit down your options.