BottleMark

Gift Certificates for Valentine's Day!

2012-02-14T13:54:00.001-06:00

Looking for a last-minute but perfect gift for Valentine's Day? Give the gift of 100% custom caps! The brewer in your love life will thank you for it.

Because nothing says I love you like a "POW IPA!"

BottleMark Gift Certificates

New Hops and Barley Caps

2012-02-01T10:23:00.002-06:00

Just added two new, ready-to-order beer series to the BottleMark library of designs. A tribute to the key ingredients of beer: hops and barley!

Hop to it!

The wonderful flavors of barley need love, too!

BottleMark loves printing photographs, and these new caps really show off the awesome photo-quality printing we do every day.

Now I expect some caps will be more popular than others in this series, but it could inspire some really interesting, unexpected brews. Why not make a hopped-up stout?

If you do, you obviously need this cap.

Or my personal favorite, a hop scotch?

Too punny.

See the caps for yourself in our design library: http://www.bottlemark.com/shop/cap-library/design

Mosh and Brew Cycle Crew

2012-01-20T12:45:00.001-06:00

Check out this tattoo-worthy design.

Guy in Ohio ordered this logo cap for his gang the Mosh and Brew Cycle Crew. Mosh and Brew builds tall and otherwise bizarre bikes; they ride with pride and also brew good beer (but I don't think at the same time). I suspect there's some heavy metal involved, too, for a truly epic hobby combination. Ride on!

Solid

2012-01-10T14:19:00.000-06:00

BottleMark loves brewers, but we also love companies that support brewers, too! And who can deny the awesome that is bottle cap schwag?

You cannot deny it.

Solid, a reputation management company specializing in elegant websites and media campaigns, is helping get some breweries going strong. As a special beer-themed gift, Solid designed these caps, dropped them into resin, attached a magnet, and...

Voilà!

A Solid idea.

The Slug and Satellite

2011-12-29T15:33:00.000-06:00

This numbered non sequitur series piqued my attention: was someone cellaring a beer for 10, 15, and 20 years? And...is that a slug??

Yes, that's a slug.

Over in London town, workers at a mobile satellite communications company called Inmarsat enjoy their very own fully-licensed, on-site pub. (The English have impeccable priorities.) Named as a parody of the pub chain "The Slug and Lettuce," the "Slug and Satellite" has served thirsty employees on Fridays 5-9 for many years. In fact, some of the all-volunteer staff have been working the bar for over five years. Manager Richard Locke decided that some recognition of service was in order, and so he ordered some honorific bottle caps. With a hole punch and some safety pins, he turned simple beer closures into "Up"-inspired badges of glory.

A Slug and Satellite Five-Star General

When not at their Friday posts, the Slug and Satellite crew have taken to flaunting their bottle caps on their employee ID badges, garnering plenty of attention for the bar in shiny style. Congrats, hard workers of the Slug and Satellite. We doff our hats to you, your years of dedication, and your worthy cause!

New Caps in Design Library

2011-12-02T13:26:00.001-06:00

Here at BottleMark, we've been hard at work expanding our little business (not to mention fulfilling orders), and now the design library reflects our all-new printing process.

Lookin' good, dawg.

White caps. Matte finishes. Colors that pop. All at the same ridiculously low price. Whether you're ordering from the library or creating your own custom masterpiece, check out just how good our bottle caps look: BottleMark Design Library.

We've also added a few new designs...
Our Brew Date design features the beer style, a barley graphic, and plenty of space to date your beer with a sharpie. Great option if you brew a lot!

Because you still like using sharpies on your caps.

New Homer Simpson beer quote cap:

Because it's a classic.

If I had my way, I would spend my whole day adding meme caps to the library. But for now, I limited myself to only one:

Because we're all brewing beer better than Dos XX.

Got a great idea for a library design? You know where to find me.

West 10th Brewing

2011-11-16T14:45:00.001-06:00

Homebrewer James from West 10th Brewing recently made some interesting concoctions. He found a tempting recipe on reddit's homebrewing community that joins the IPA styles of Bell's Two Hearted Ale and Stone's Arrogant Bastard. The result?

The hops will betray you.

This one's going on my to-brew list. Try it yourself! Two Hearted Bastard

James also had fun researching and creating his very own Tripel recipe, dubbed "Tripel Barrel." Wicked cap for a clever beer, showing here:

Bang, bang, shoot, shoot.

Find the Tripel Barrel recipe and more homebrewing chronicles on his blog: West 10th Brewing.

North Bay Brewery Tours

2011-11-04T11:23:00.001-05:00

James from North Bay Brewery Tours piqued my interest with this cap.

Turns out he and a couple of friends started a business transporting the thirsty to craft breweries in Sonoma County, California. Forget winery tours! Free lunch, lots of draft tastings, and even some homebrew education: a Saturday well spent.

Each day tour visits 3-4 different breweries. A sampling of some of the locales:

Lagunitas Brewing Company

Bear Republic Brewing Company

Broken Drum Brewery

Stumptown Brewery

Third Street Aleworks

The Beverage People (Homebrew Supply)

Fun photos, courtesy Scott Manchester for the Press Democrat.


North Bay's tour bus unloads at Lagunitas

The chalkboard at Lagunitas. Thirsty yet?

This is why you take a bus.

We like the way you roll, North Bay.

With some magnets, glue, and BottleMark-made custom caps, North Bay Brewery Tours now have awesome (and affordable) "schwag" to hand out to their guests.

If you're visiting northern California, take the tour! http://northbaybrewerytours.com/

Backyard Bounty

2011-10-31T14:20:00.003-05:00

Robby from Alexandria, VA created this beauty.

I can almost smell them!

In his second year of growing his own hops, Robby had a big enough yield to hop a recent batch. He brewed a wet hopped harvest ale, and while the wort was boiling, he literally dashed to his backyard and returned with the bounty you see here—with just enough time to snap the picture he used for the cap, of course. Don't believe me? Check out the photos on his awesomely-named blog Profiles in Pourage.

Robby completed the look with some rockin' custom labels.

All dressed up and heading for the fridge. (Nice book, too.)

About his backyard bounty Robby jokes, "Soooo holistic, right? From bine to beer to bottle cap." Bravo!

Joe Nathan's Homebrew

2011-10-27T15:51:00.001-05:00

Jonathan Dickerson may be new to homebrewing, but he's already got some fantastic bottle caps. After a little fiddling with a photo of his carboy, he created this design...

Rock that carboy!

...and ordered it in an assortment of colors!

I love this concept of color-coding homebrews: orange for pumpkin ale, yellow for pilsner, etc. It's a great plan for the experimental and spontaneous brewer, and a lot of microbreweries do it, too. Joe Nathan can make whatever he likes, whenever he likes, and he's already got caps handy.

Which is good because it sounds like he's a busy brewer. For Joe, it all started with the wonderful community at r/homebrewing. A special pumpkin ale for his wife followed, and he's already brewed five more beers! Way to go, Joe. Welcome to the best of hobbies.

Roark's Honey Porter

2011-10-13T14:37:00.004-05:00

If you've got a small farm in Bucks County, PA, and you've got extra-pollinated honey, what do you do with it?

Brew, of course! Chip and Shannon love their farm, complete with peppers by the ton, chicken friends, and three honeybee hives. When the couple first wound up with honey a bit too strong for normal consumption, instead of tossing it, they started brewing. Good call. It's apparently just the kind of honey you want for beer! So that's homebrewed porter with homemade honey. Awesome.

They named their porter Roark after this guy...

On three: 1, 2, 3....AWWW!

Yes, yes, I do think the internet needs another cat picture. Roark is a polydatyl highland lynx with curly ears. I'm in love. I just hope Roark doesn't bother the chickens too much.

Hot sauce and honey porter and an impossibly cute cat. Now that's the good life.
Check out Chip's farming blog: http://sherwoodtaylor.com/

Blank caps, magnets, and more, oh my!

2011-10-10T11:58:00.001-05:00

BottleMark recently added some new fun stuff to the shop.

We've got blank caps for those of you without any custom cap ambitions. Fully lined white and silver caps for $0.03 each.

Our bounty is as boundless as the sea

We're also offering these totally bizarre bullseye caps. We printed a whole heap of these to help calibrate our printer. They're raw caps, so the design may scratch a bit. But they're perfectly good for capping!

Won't you give one a home? Only a penny each.

Our favorite new product: practically-perfect-in-every-way bottle cap magnets. At 3/4" they nest exquisitely inside of a bottle cap. Ideal for crafting or displaying your custom cap. Order a magnet for each of your designs!

Made for each other.

Crafting with bottle caps? Check out our new services...
If you don't own a capper ($15-$60 bucks) but still want the "finished look" of a bottle cap, let us cap your caps for you!

Uncapped vs. capped (definitely a crafting-only service).

Making bottle cap jewelry and need a hole for a jump ring? We're punching small holes in caps for our customers, too.

Go explore the whole store!

Henry Sipos's Clever Caps

2011-10-05T12:29:00.000-05:00

Homebrewer Henry Sipos recently designed these clever beauties.

Simple, streamlined hilarity

This cap is doubleplusgood

The awesomeness speaks for itself.

Shizmo Brewing Co.

2011-10-03T12:33:00.001-05:00

With a little bit of luck, you should be seeing this cap yourself in the future:

Lucas E. Szymanowski is living the American (homebrew) Dream. Inspired by Alton Brown's Good Eats (and who isn't?), Szymanowski started with a simple extract Belgian homebrew. Soon after, the wife joined the fun, and brewing equipment took up permanent residence in the house. Three years and many Belgian beer awards later, the Szymanowskis are now in hard-core planning mode to launch their very own commercial craft brewery. Their graphic is even professionally designed. A hobby no longer!

Totally legit.

Why call it Shizmo? Well, sometimes those nicknames from old school days just stick.

Shizmo Brewing Co's Hibiscus Saison

What's brewing now: Shizmo's Oktoberfest label

So if you're living West Coast style, keep an eye out in 2012 for these beauties. Best of luck with the launch, Shizmo! May we savor one of your Cinderella-story saison's soon!
Website: http://www.shizmobrewery.com/

Design Templates are here!

2011-09-29T14:34:00.000-05:00

If you're not quite a design whiz, or say, you love one of our beer style caps in the library but you're making a cream ale or a steam beer, never to fear: BottleMark's Design Templates are here!

Soda Shop Template saves the day. Whoosh!!

Now you can download just what you need to get your design started. Templates include: a blank cap canvas, a complex design with graphics and circular text, and templates of all our beer style designs: Soda Shop, Bar Code, Comic Pow, Heavy Metal, Graffiti, and University of Homebrewing. I've also added links to the (100% free) fonts featured in the library designs.

Complex template is complex.

The templates are in SVG form, which open in a number of design programs, including our favorite, Inkscape (Totally free, you say? Totally free, I say.)

Some basic tips about the templates:
1. Download fonts first, then download the templates so the fonts display correctly.
2. Some of the templates feature a thin black circular stroke that represents the bottle cap. It's useful as a design guideline. Set the stroke to transparent if you don't want an outline around your final design. You can also set the fill of the circle to a color if you want a background color.
3. When you're done designing, export your design as a PNG, upload the PNG on the BottleMark website, and congrats! You've achieved custom cap perfection.

Try them out: http://www.bottlemark.com/svgtemplates
Got design questions or requests? You know where to reach me.

Mr. Marko's Magic Bottle Caps

2011-09-22T20:39:00.001-05:00

Houston magician Mr. Marko has a secret. By balancing a simple pen on a bottle cap, say, on one of his brand-new custom ones...

Card stock, step aside! Bottle cap business cards have arrived.

...he can make the pen spin around his finger without touching anything at all!

Mr. Marko Magic specializes in special event entertainment for kids, and he loves this trick above all others. After explaining the fun scientific principal behind the magic, Mr. Marko teaches the older kids how to perform the trick themselves. They even get to keep their very own Mr. Marko pens and bottle caps so they can impress their friends.

Just for kids?? Dang it!!!

Here's his short video featuring his trademark trick. Can you figure out how to do it?

Darbarian and Sons

2011-09-19T17:44:00.000-05:00

John Bossong III is the latest brewer to adapt an awesome label into an awesome bottle cap:

Home brewing since 1985? Now that's impressive!
And here's the label to go with these beauties...

See more labels at the Darbarian photo site

When it comes to design, it seems the Darbarians are far from barbarians. It's delightful medieval iconography—a phrase I never thought I'd say.

Lesson of the day: put a dragon on your bottle cap for instant awesome. And it'll probably earn a post from me.

Seriously love dragons.

Redditor Gus Stathes's Me Brewsta

2011-09-16T18:45:00.000-05:00

So I was browsing around reddit the other day (as I do...everyday...) when I stumbled upon this:

Me Brewsta

Not coincidentally, the internet discovered BottleMark. Again. (Didn't crash this time.)
You redditors out there reading this and eagerly awaiting your caps need to thank Gus Stathes, the genius behind this post. Hope you got some good karma, Gus! You've definitely shared it with us!

The official pic from BottleMark Photography Studios (i.e. fancy lights, milk jug, and an SLR)

An enticing Bitter Blonde gets the honor of the Me Brewsta. Gus describes it thus: "a sessionable blonde ale (4.2%ABV) that's hopped to the gills. I wanted something you can drink all day, but still tasted great. The trick with a beer like that is not letting the hops take over. I use a half-ounce of Cascade for a bittering addition, then throw 5.5 ounces in the last 20 minutes. It gives the beer a huge hop flavor profile without being overly bitter." Hops...all day...Me. Definitely. Gusta.

Gus usually kegs, but he couldn't resist the cap temptation. Credit to him for the better idea of editing out the face circle from the original graphic (might change the design library me gusta, which, yes I make the meme caps, and yes, I think F7U12 is funny, and yes, I'll take your meme suggestions).

So in honor of our biggest customer base at the moment, I bring you our newest cap.

Thanks, everyone! I'm no longer lurking. Oh yeah, and...Chuck Testa.

Bootknocker Brewing Company

2011-09-14T11:16:00.000-05:00

Gale Wagner of Bootknocker Brewing Company knows how to design.

And from the looks of the blog, Bootknocker also knows how to brew. Find recipes and more fun at bootknockerbrewing.com

Curious about the name? Senior year of college, Wagner signed up for a History of Blues class (wait...that's awesome. I love college!), and as they studied the quirky tradition of Blues names like "Blind Lemon Jefferson," he and his frat brothers were inspired to form "Mad Spank and the Bootknockers"—mostly a parody band, but they did play once in a while. This collegiate blues tribute now lives on in some really sweet brews.

Over the last 15 years of brewing, Wagner has also been drawing and designing labels, going from hand-drawn work to Illustrator and Photoshop. He's earned honorable mention in Brew Your Own's 2011 label contest for this beauty, the Barleywine "Eye of Horus."

Epic.

Now that BottleMark has launched, he gets to try out his artistry on a new kind of canvas. Here's the cap to top off this brew...

Mythos meets Beer.

Love, love, love it.
Check out Brew Your Own's 2011 Label Contest Winners.

So I'm thinking...bottle cap design contest? Oh yes, my friends. It will happen. Soon.

The Best Bottle Opener

2011-09-09T16:58:00.000-05:00

Bottle cap collecting is totally awesome. They're small, colorful, unique, and—like little love notes carefully stowed away in a shoebox—the sole bearers of deliciously delicate memories, of Blonde Ales and Belgians once tasted, now gone. Check out our collection of commercial caps:

My love life, mounted on a magnetic board.

And now with custom caps, these memories can be all the more delicious. You probably want to preserve one from your order for posterity.

So how do you open a beer bottle without damaging the cap? The average opener bends the cap in the middle: a very unattractive result. So everyone's on the search for "The Perfect Bottle Opener." What does BottleMark recommend?

The simple answer: if you're homebrewing, use twist-off bottles! No opener required, and you get a undamaged cap every time. Only problem: twist-off bottles are really weak. A twist-off bottle has a thinner lip than a normal bottle (and bottle cappers grab onto the lip of the bottle with lots of force), so after two or three uses, the top will break off. Yikes!

DO NOT WANT!

Some homebrewers don't bother using them.

So...is there a way to preserve caps on normal bottles?
The best answer: The perfect bottle opener is the one that you have. Plus a quarter.

Here's the trick...
1. Place a coin on top of the cap (a US quarter is the ideal size). The coin transfers the pressure from the middle of the cap to the edged teeth of the cap, thus preserving the cap's shape.
2. Gently apply your bottle opener to two or three places on the cap. Gently, mind you! The cap should come off easily in your hand, without any violence, if you do it right. NOTE: If you apply your opener to one place only, you'll end up with a flared edge.
See the technique in action (both correctly and incorrectly performed) in this short video...

But if you've run out of change and the bottle's not a twist-off, try to find an opener without any sharp teeth to it (the wider, the better) and apply mild pressure all-round.

Some other cool bottle openers and techniques...

Klein bottle bottle opener

Mounted gargoyle opener (WANT!)

Key-style Churchkey, perfect for key chains. Lots of different versions available, from the ornamental to the disguised.

Ring opener

Credit Card sized opener

Winner for the most bizarre: Flipflops with an opener in the sole.

Winner for the most disturbing: The "Happy Man" Opener (who, from the looks of it, has more reason to be sad)

The "Sentol" opener, a most crazy contraption: push down on the bottle, and the cap pops off clean. Available @ bottlepal.com

Other people swear by using a simple BIC Lighter (cool video here).

Really. Just an average lighter.

And then of course, there's always your teeth.

The original bottle opener.

Clearly there's no end to the bottle openers out there. But as long as you have something and a quarter, your cap will come off clean!

Just...don't buy the happy man.

Three Dogs Brewery

2011-09-07T16:02:00.001-05:00

We've been printing lots of pet-inspired caps—heck, our first design, the "Happy Lab Lager," was based on our dog Mozi (yes, named after Mozilla)—but Mike Runkle's design tops them all.

The Hound Mountains: Samson, Cassie, Maya

Here's his story...
After 15 years of homebrewing, Mike decided to get the real goods and build his very own HERMS (Heat Exchanged Recirculating Mash System).

Awwww yeah!!! That's right: all grain brewing!

While Mike labored on this beauty in the garage, his three "loyal mutts" kept him such constant company that they would not let him work without them. Hard work deserves recognition, and so the Three Dogs Brewery was born!
The Loyal Staff, showing here:

Samson, Head Brewdog and Guardian of the HERMS

Cassie, Customer Relations

Maya, Marketing and Morale

You can recognize their silhouettes on the cap. Wonderful work!
You can learn all about Three Dogs Brewery, the HERMS, and what's brewing now for Mike on his blog: http://threedogsbrewery.webs.com/

Bridal Brew

2011-09-01T15:19:00.000-05:00

What's the best wedding present? Beer, of course! To honor his sister's upcoming wedding, Aaron Ulrich concocted a special Bridal Brew and topped it off with this classy monogram wedding cap:

Simple elegance. I'm also a fan of the bride and groom graphic (available in a different version in our design library, thanks to Open Clipart, a great resource for designers. Woot free graphics!). A personal cap like this really makes the gift of beer memorable.

Congrats to the G's! May your "hoppiness" grow every day and your love never go flat!

Houston Chronicle Article

2011-08-31T10:03:00.001-05:00

Check out the Houston Chronicle's article on BottleMark!

It's raining caps!

(For those Houstonians among you, we're on the front page of the business section today.)

Many thanks to writer Ronnie Crocker for helping support our young business! And yes, we really do intend to make our fortune twelve cents at a time.

Anderson's Phunky Homebrew

2011-08-19T19:49:00.000-05:00

Check out Phunky Brewster Paul Anderson's cap:

Credit to Ed Stansty for the centerpiece art.

Delightfully surreal!
Here's the design crowning the official Phunky Homebrew...

...complete with a label designed by Anderson's 11 year-old son.

Nicely done, son!

I love to see fully tricked-out bottles like this. (With any luck, we should be adding custom labels to our site very soon (and carriers after that...?) so you can get all your custom stuff quickly, cheaply, and exactly like you want it. Clearly, we'll let you know when that happens.) Keep it Phunky, Paul

Recapping Experiment, the Final Phase

2011-08-17T14:29:00.000-05:00

Previously on BottleMark, the Boring Bottle Cap Slayer...

"Can you recap a beer without it going bad?"
"Oxygen's the big bad, Haley, don't you see? There's no way beer can survive this! Some of them aren't going to make it."
"But shouldn't we let beer fight for the right to a cooler cap? Isn't that something worth risking a few hops for? We've got to give it a chance. So I say we change the rules. I say my cap...should be its cap. Tomorrow we will change bottling's destiny."
"Haley, what you said, it flies in the face of everything we've ever...every generation has ever done in the fight against flat beer. I think it's bloody brilliant."
*Haley and Cameron suddenly whip around and dust an onslaught of Pabst Blue Ribbon cans*
"Lets do this."

SERIES FINALE: TWO WEEKS

Procedure: Third verse, same as the first.
(Blue balloon for recapped beer, red balloon for control. )

Results:
BALLOON

Following three enthusiastic shakes, the bottles produced comparably sized balloons.

HEAD

To quote Keanu Reeves: whoa.
We've got a big difference here. The control beer (left in this photo) has lots more carbonation. Here's some more evidence...

The recapped beer (left) is weak compared to the fluffy thickness of the control beer (right)


Both still beautiful in my eyes, though.

TASTE
While the control beer tasted like all the other Independence Pale Ales we've enjoyed, the recapped beer was clearly missing the aggressive bite of the hops. Hoppiness was present but somewhat muted. It was very drinkable (and drink it we did, without regrets), but it didn't have quite the same punch.

FINAL CONCLUSIONS
Time matters. Day four was without difference, day seven showed a weaker head but no real taste change, and day fourteen is simply a different beer: weaker head, weaker taste. (Also I think the balloon test was not terribly helpful. So I conclude against getting ideas from elementary school science fair projects.)

THE RECAPPING COMMANDMENTS
Recapping a commerical beer with a custom cap for a special event is totally do-able, but you need to follow a few ground rules...
1. Thou shalt choose a date close to thy special occasion. Four days or fewer before the event shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be four, for four or fewer days is holy in Beer's sight. Seven shalt thou not count. Fourteen is right out.
2. Thou shalt sanitize the custom caps.
3. Thou shalt uncap and recap the beer swiftly, exposing it as little as possible to the demon oxygen, naughty in Beer's sight.
4. Thou shalt enjoy an awesomer bottle among friends on thy special occasion.

Thus spaketh the Science.

Planning on recapping a beer with a BottleMark cap? Share your experience and results with us! Use the comments or email me, for science's sake!

BJ's Scottish Ale

2011-08-15T18:19:00.000-05:00

Here's another fun design, made by Brian Jambor.

Nice hat.

That's an actual photo of BJ brewing the very ale that will use these caps: it doesn't get any more custom than this! I also like how he made the whole design circular, complete with borders—a style you see a lot on professional caps. And the date is genius. Can't tell you how many homebrews we've had in the fridge, not knowing if it was brewed two years ago or last month...

So cheers to Brian: may the malty excellence of your Scottish Ale fight the cold Minnesota fall nights.

Recapping Experiment, Phase 3

2011-08-10T12:29:00.001-05:00

Seven days after the recapping date, our Independence Pale Ales were ready for another test.

ONE WEEK

We followed the same procedure as Day 4: uncap, attach balloon (yellow for recapped, green for normal), shake three times, pour into glass, taste, compare everything, and enjoy the beers while watching episodes of Buffy. Oh, Mr. Whedon, you are so unpredictable.

Here are the results...
BALLOON

As you can see, the normal (green balloon) beer has produced a bit more foam. In fact, this balloon looks larger than both balloons at Day 4...has it gained carbonation or is this a rogue beer? The recapped beer's balloon (yellow) was smaller and more like the balloons from Day 4.

HEAD (we're talking beer here, stop giggling!)

The control beer (left) has a slightly larger head than the recapped beer (right)—further suggesting some loss in carbonation for the recapped beer. Both had plenty of bubbles (which are devilishly hard to photograph or video, so you'll have to take our word for it).

TASTE: For the life of us, Cameron and I could not taste a difference between the two beers. It was all equal hoppy goodness.

(Tentative) CONCLUSION
We're beginning to think that recapping close to an event (four days ahead or sooner) is best. One week, although it doesn't seem to affect taste, does affect the outward signs of carbonation. It won't kill you, but it's not pristine. We'll have to wait for the final phase, two weeks, before we can make any hard conclusions. We hypothesize that by week two, the recapped beer will have noticable carbonation and taste loss. That is assuming the evidence is consistent. You never know.

Stay tuned for the epic finale...

Recapping Experiment, Phases 1 and 2

2011-08-04T19:01:00.000-05:00

Our custom caps shouldn't be just for homebrews. Why not trick out your favorite craft brew for a special occasion: birthdays, bachelor parties, weddings, really cool corporate get-togethers, or that long-awaited 21st?

But can you uncap and recap a beer without any loss in quality? That's what Cameron and I are determined to find out...

Stand back. We're going to try science!

OFFICIAL BOTTLEMARK EXPERIMENT: #1 RECAPPING

Phase 1

Einstein thirsts for science!

Purpose: To determine if a distributed (non-homebrewed) beer can be uncapped and immediately recapped without any noticeable loss in carbonation or alteration in flavor.

Hypothesis: We think this is gonna work.
(Here's why: oxygen = bad, flat beer. We're not exposing it to oxygen for very long, and unlike growlers, we're not drinking any to create more space for oxygen in the bottle.)

Materials:
1 6-pack of local craft brew: Independence Pale Ale (brewed in Austin, TX)

Note the plain gold caps. This pack is about to get an upgrade.

3 awesomer caps

Showing here

1 Klein bottle bottle opener

Yes, that's a Klein bottle bottle opener. Best. Wedding. Present. Ever. Doesn't damage caps much either.

1 really ancient antique capper

Cooper legend has it that this bottle capper has been in the family since the Prohibition era, when it was used to, ahem, cap "ketchup."

Iodophor sanitizer solution (poured into a glass) to sanitize

Control: We left 3 of the bottles untouched. When the proper time has elapsed, we will uncap both an original and a recapped beer at the same time to compare carbonation and taste.

Procedure:
1. Sanitize the new caps and the capper's hands in standard sanitizer solution. Very important step!

Step 1

2. Pose for the fanatical photographing wife while waiting 2 minutes for caps to sanitize.


Step 2

3. Uncap 1 bottle.


Step 3

4. Place new cap on bottle and use capper to crimp it into place. Try not to allow more than a minute to elapse with the beer open.


Step 4

5. Look at the cute dog, look at it!


Step 5

6. Repeat Steps 3-4 for a total of three bottles.


Step 6

7. Wait, my precious....

DAY FOUR RESULTS

Phase 2

After four days in the fridge, the capped and recapped Independence Pale Ales are ready for the first test.

Procedure:

1. Take one gold-capped and one Einstein-capped beer out of the fridge.

2. Uncap the normal bottle, attach a pre-stretched, helium quality balloon.

3. Give the bottle 3 hearty shakes.

4. Repeat steps 2-3 for the recapped beer.

5. Compare the balloon sizes.

6. Remove balloons, pour both beers into tall pilsner glasses, and compare heads.

7. Taste test!

8. Taste test some more...etc.

I love my job.

9. Delicious.

Here's the video showing the Day Four experiment results in real time.

DAY FOUR CONCLUSION (drum roll, please...)

Conclusion 1: Recapping a beer and opening it again in 4 days (or less time) has no effect whatsoever on carbonation or taste.

Conclusion 2: This beer is particularly delicious.

Double fisting for science. Beer for women.

Stay tuned for results after one week and results after two weeks.

Blueberry Wheat Ale

2011-08-01T15:44:00.000-05:00

Here's a new custom cap creation by homebrewer Jonathan Sutton.

He's bottling a blueberry wheat ale in clear bottles to show off the rich cloudy color and then topping them off with these vibrant caps so everyone knows what flavors to expect. Summer perfection.

International Shipping

2011-07-27T10:37:00.000-05:00

Our custom bottle cap site is now equipped to ship internationally with a click of a mouse. No need to contact BottleMark anymore!

Now shipping custom caps to the Colosseum, you know, in case you wanted to do that.

Beer, TX

2011-07-26T18:06:00.000-05:00

Check out the BottleMark feature in Beer, TX, a Houston Chronicle blog by writer Ronnie Crocker.

Also you should check out Beer, TX in general. It covers everything from beer to beer politics. My kind of blog.

Christine's Beadworks

2011-07-25T14:13:00.000-05:00

Jewelry designer Christine Wilson of Christine's Beadworks recently ordered her logo on a bottlecap. The original logo on a virtual cap:

Fellow jewelry artist Christina Neit from Good Quill Hunting created this design for Christine.

And here it is on a real bottle cap:

And you won't believe the things she's made with it...

Photos courtesy of Christine's Beadworks

I've been researching lots and lots of bottle cap crafts, but I've never seen anything like this! Besides making these embellished art pieces, Christine is also using her personalized caps as customer favors and as give-aways in her cap craft classes (say that three times fast). She also has grand plans for magnets, too.

Christine started her own jewelry business back in 2001 and found her true muse in bottle caps—a classic tale of art inspiring art. She told me, "I've been known to try a brew just because of its cap." Getting to enjoy a new beer for business's sake? Not a bad plan! Check out some of her favorite elaborate pieces:


Earrings made with Dixie's Blackened Voodoo caps


Beaded bracelet with an Izze Sparkling Juice cap. Photos courtesy of Christine's Beadworks

Keep up the creativity, Christine!

Links to Christine's Beadworks: Website Etsy shop Blog

Autumn Oak IPA

2011-07-23T15:39:00.010-05:00

Doug Clapp recently ordered this beautiful family photo on a cap.

I'm a huge fan of the composition: the texture of the wood, the shape of the leaf, the colors. A classy addition to Doug's annual Autumn Oak IPA, brewed with pumpkin, brown sugar, toasted oak chips, and "a healthy dose of hops, of course." He plans to bottle in October but just couldn't wait. As a Texas resident, I'm with Doug and too eagerly anticipating the fall.

Pumpkin brews can be really exquisite. I waited at the Houston Flying Saucer for hours just to sample Saint Arnold's Divine Reserve 9, an imperial pumpkin stout. Anyone else ever enjoyed a unique pumpkin brew or love making one?

Raising Caine Brewery

2011-07-21T18:09:00.001-05:00

Raising Caine's Backyard Brewery has come up with two fantastic designs.

The Raising Caine logo. Truly bad ass artwork.

The logo for what Kevin Caine's brewing now: a Triple X Sweet Stout. He found the recipe in the book Brewing Classic Styles (available on Amazon here).

Credit for both designs goes to Kevin's friend Mike. Thanks, Kevin and Mike, and I hope the stout turns out as sweet as your caps!

First Order: Silvertooth Brewing Co.

2011-07-08T13:13:00.000-05:00

A day after launching BottleMark, we got an epicly awesome first order.

Very original logo. I love the level of detail, and the yellow background really makes the entire image pop. Thanks, Silvertooth Brewing Co., for a great first design!

Custom caps for the people!

2011-07-08T12:30:00.001-05:00

Collectors of bottle caps: beware. BottleMark has just changed the game.

Years ago when my husband Cameron first began homebrewing (and I was unknown to him...and underage...), he experimented with lots of batches at once, but he had no way to keep the different types straight in the fridge. Why not use custom-labeled caps? Wait, there's no such thing?

In this digital age, major brewing companies still make their bottle caps the old-fashioned way: lithography. Sure, it yields great results, but it comes with major start-up costs, charges more per color, and requires a minimum order of half a million or so. Not exactly in the reach of homebrewers, and even plenty of microbreweries don't sell enough to justify specialized caps for each of their brews. Crafters? Forget about it! And photos on bottle caps were simply unheard of.

Not anymore. A few weeks ago, BottleMark began waging a one-inch, crimped-metal revolution. No longer are caps the prerogative of fat cat corporate breweries. Now custom caps are for the people! With some cool technology and an online upload tool to customize your cap instantly, BottleMark's made cap creation easy. We're now printing anything on a bottle cap that you ask us to print. No minimum order, no color limits--no limits at all, really. Just wickedly awesome caps.

This blog will report from the front lines: I'll showcase the best of our custom orders and talk about craft ideas, news, and other various adventures in the now democratic world of crowns.

Viva la revolucion! http://www.bottlemark.com