Bottle and Label Your Own Party Beverages!

Bryan's Workshop
by Bryan's Workshop
8 Materials
$30
2 Hours
Easy
This is an awesome way to add a little extra awesomeness to your party. It's awesome! You can totally label glass bottles with only a printer and...milk!
Here are the finished bottles! I used empty Kirkland Craft Brewed Ales brand beer bottles from Costco. I like these bottles, because they're plain without any logos in the glass. I looked into buying new bottles, but 24 new bottles cost about as much as a case of Costco beer over here in Japan....guess I'll need to drink 24 beers.
To remove labels, just soak the bottles in hot water with a couple drops of dish soap. Wait for the water to cool down (5-10) and then scrape the labels off. You might need to do this a couple times. My fingernails were enough to completely remove the labels. If you get a stubborn label, use a dish sponge. I use hot water and dish soap for whiskey and wine bottles too....I drink a lot... It's for arts and crafts so it's fine.
We bottled our own concoction of fruit juice for this years children's circus theme Halloween party. My lovely wife Mariko made these labels in illustrator. She used regular printer paper and a laser printer.
Before filling the bottles, we cleaned them and then boiled them for 2. 5 minutes each. If your bottles are really dirty, you can buy a beer bottle brush to clean the inside. The easiest way is to just rinse the bottles out with soapy water once you drink the beer. You should still boil them even if they're brand new.
You'll need a funnel to fill your bottles. Make sure you clean the funnel and caps before filling and capping.
We mixed a variety of 20% fruit juices. These will keep for 7-10 days refrigerated. The higher the percent of fruit juice the shorter you can keep them. 100% fruit juice will keep 3-7 days refrigerated. Only use whole fruit if you intend on opening the same day. We always make one extra bottle to test before the party. I don't have a definite expiration date for anything, but there is a ton of information for storing juice on the Internet. All this work for a drink might sound silly, but for us it's well worth it. The kids love them.
After you fill the bottles, cap them with your capper. You can buy a bottle capper and caps on Amazon for around $15.
Use milk to put on your labels. This is a surprisingly effective glue. The milk won't mold or stink either, so don't worry about that. Just place the back of your label in the milk and apply it to the bottle. Make sure you cover the entire backside of the label with milk so the corners stick down. Some people use a sponge brush. Milk has been used by home brewers to label their beers for years!
Slide the label into place and hold it while rubbing the label to get excess milk out.
When the label sticks, wipe down the bottle with a slightly damp towel. These labels hold up extremely well! You'll be surprised! They also come off clean under the faucet in 5 seconds.
Looks professional!
These are wine bottles labeled using milk.
This idea can be used for any event and everybody loves them! For more crafts, check out https://www.facebook.com/bryansworkshop/
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  • Eroque022810 Eroque022810 on Nov 11, 2017

    Well I'm going to teach my son about this because he brews his on beer and bottles it and names eacheck one. He keeps a journal with all of his recipes and names and now he can make an extra label and include it as well. This will be fun. Thanks for posting.

  • Amanda Bowman Amanda Bowman on Jan 25, 2018

    How in the world do you find time to do all that?!

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