Paul & Michele's Wedding Caps

Here at BottleMark, we're proud to make your beer stand-out, but it's not every day we get credit for a an epic reception.

It all started with these caps...

I love the classic "single-logo" look on bottle caps, and with the white fill and black stroke, the graphic pops on a wide range of colors. Designers, take note!

Here's the story in the groom's own words...

"BottleMark is incredible. I mean, I know it’s just custom bottle caps, but for me they were the difference between a ho-hum, amateurish wedding and the awesome, everyone-gets-wasted wedding that I had.

Here’s why. I’ve been a homebrewer since 2007, which gave me the chutzpah to convince my then-fiancée to let me brew all the beer for the wedding.  I wound up brewing nine 5-gallon batches, four of which I bottled. Those were the strongest beers, all over 8% ABV, and they were to be aged for several months prior to the wedding.

I know a lot of people like to label homemade wedding beers, and that’s well and good for them, but if you’ve ever done it before, you know it’s a pain in the butt. And that’s just if you’ve done it for a single batch of 48 bottles. Imagine doing that four times over. So I sought an elegant, easier solution. And that’s where BottleMark came in.

My little brother drew the symbol for the wedding, and we did our best to plaster it on everything we could. Aside from just being pretty, it was the perfect foreground image to put on the bottle caps. Each background color represented a different kind of beer, so all I needed to do was tell the bartenders which color was which beer and voila – the bottles have been labeled. 

I loved using BottleMark’s site. The cap creator was simple and easy to use, and it allowed me to perfectly align the symbol so that when I crimped the caps down it would look exactly like it’s supposed to. When the order arrived a couple weeks later, I was very impressed at the lines, bold colors, and overall professional look. 

So were all the guests. A lot of people wound up taking used caps home with them as keepsakes, and my partner and I have decorated our house and leftover wedding paraphernalia with some of the unused ones. They truly are that pretty. I’m planning on brewing some beer for my five year anniversary, likely aging that one as well. The style and timing is still up in the air, but the place I’m getting my custom bottle caps from isn’t."

Sunflowers, skulls, gears, and bottle caps? I think I like these two.

Thanks, Paul and Michele! We wish you a marriage just as epic as your wedding!

2 Years and Growing

BottleMark officially turns two today!

And we're (ahem) pretty excited about it.

We're very busy printing caps and destroying cakes today, but we wanted to take the time out to invite you to celebrate with us. So we'll let you in on a little secret...

Yellow Labs: Coming Soon

SHHH! It's a secret to everybody.

Adam and Jodi's Save the Dates

While we hope not to get a lot of repeat business from them, brides and grooms love our custom bottle caps. For the wedding of Adam and Jodi at the Jester King Brewery (located in the nonpareil Texas Hill Country), nothing suited better than a bottle cap logo, and some bottle caps to go with it!

Here's their save-the-date magnet bottle caps alongside their invitation.

And here's the happy couple!

Nom.

Check out all of Adam and Jodi's gorgeous wedding porn in Jodi's "Tasty Touring" blog post here:
Tasty Touring: Our Texas Hill Country Wedding

You don't want to miss the sandwich collage. Trust me.

Sharon's 60th

You'd be surprised how many babies we print on bottle caps. It's becoming a thing. I'd bet lots of proud, new-crowned Dads are celebrating in the best way they know how: brewing!

But this baby here? She's not so new.

Like many saavy wives, Rhonda gifted her hubby Mike a beginner's homebrew set last Christmas. But unlike many wives, Rhonda loved homebrewing even more than her husband! After working together on a Winter Warmer Cherry Ale in January, they've now fallen into their respective positions of Brewer and Official Taster. She says, "I was hooked." And I'm sure Mike's not getting off with a bad deal either.

While discussing her new hobby with her long-time brewing brother-in-law, his wife Sharon piped up in enthusiastic ecstasy for the Seadog Riverdriver Hazelnut Porter brewed in Maine, which (like all the good craft brews) isn't widely available. Sharon's 60th birthday was coming up, and as Rhonda reports, "Now I had my mission, and it would not be impossible!!!"

Cue music.

With some awesome help from Annapolis Home Brew Gurus, Rhonda customized a standard porter recipe for hazelnuts. Being no ordinary beer and no ordinary birthday, it needed to be dressed to the nines.

Cue labels, carriers, and caps, of course!

Rhonda did some research with her mother-in-law and decided to order cute 5 month-old Sharon on a bottle cap. What better tribute on a birthday? And here's surprised Sharon:

My, how you've grown!

Needless to say, this homebrew was a hit. Why not cellar some, Sharon, for your 70th? (Say that three times fast). Happy belated birthday from BottleMark!

Bullard's Brew-gift

Every job comes with its perks: maybe it's a company car, cheap pitchers, or unsupervised reddit time. But here at BottleMark, the big company perk is our customers. Brewers are just the nicest people out there.

We recently made a homebrewer so happy, he insisted he share the love. So we got two of our custom caps back, but with the brews attached!

Our caps fulfill their destiny

Josh Bullard reports, "I get inspiration for my beers from experiences, crazy ideas, friends/people I meet, music, art...weather patterns." I lol'd. I'd like to see a whole brewery be weather patterned-themed.

For the first beer, Josh was dreaming of a heavy-hitting wheat when the song "Bombshell" by Operation Ivy played, and so this Imperial Wheat was born. He completed it with a punk-rock anarchy cap.

The second is a special brew made for Josh's friend Natalie. She's fond of honey beers but not so much of hoppy beers, and so with the help of some local honey, Josh created a nicely balanced Honey Pale Ale. Natalie got pride of place on the cap and christened it Bumble Brew.

And for the first time I can actually report back that "nicely balanced" isn't just Josh's claim: it's mine, too! We hoarded the gifts for a special occasion at the Cooper household...what better night than chicken fajita night! Here I am hamming it up with the Bumble Brew Honey Pale Ale.

Natalie's not the only one who can make quirky faces!

This beer had a forward honey-induced sweetness that the hops at the end kept from turning too sweet. And here's Cameron with some delicious fajitas and She's A Bombshell Imperial Wheat.

He grew those sideburns for a play, I swear!

The Imperial Wheat had a lovely nutty taste, wasn't super-wheaty, and was super-drinkable for 8% ABV.

And here's the brewer!

(on the right)

While BottleMark can't exactly accept payment in beer, we're certainly open to company donations. Thanks, Josh, for some great homebrew! What's next? A Cumulus Cloud Cream Ale, perhaps?

Bottle caps and Bardolatry

For those of you who know me in the real world, you know I've got one of the quirkiest combinations of passions. It's time to confess to you all: I make custom bottle caps for a living, and I do Shakespeare. Wait, what?

Forsooth, I speak the truth! In fact, Shakespeare got me into bottle caps: I met Cameron through Rice University's Baker Shakespeare program, and he even proposed dressed as Prospero at the end of a Tempest rehearsal with a Shakespearean line he said on stage to me two years before ("Will you have me, lady?"). Thankfully Shakespeare left me free to give my own answer that time. When you have the Bard to thank for both your living and your love, you call it Bardolatry.

For the last ten weeks, I've been hard at work every evening directing The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare's most controversial play, for Baker Shakespeare at Rice University. At this Saturday night's cast party, we're popping the top on these bad boys.

An ESB brewed with a vengeance.

An English Brown Ale: as beer as beer gets!

So if you're in Houston, TX this weekend, consider catching our last three performances of The Merchant of Venice!

In this most problematic of Shakespeare's comedies, Shylock the Jew seeks a pound of flesh from Antonio the Christian while three couples fall in (and out of) love. All that glisters is not gold in this equal parts funny and frightening production, set in all the opulence and prejudice of Renaissance Venice.

Remaining Performances: This weekend only!
March 14, 15, 16 @ 8pm
Baker Residential College, Rice University
6320 Main Street

Tickets:
$5 Students
$7 Alums/Faculty/Staff
$10 Public

LINKS
Show info with maps and parking: http://www.bakershake.org
Rice Thresher Review
Meme

Kickstarter: LA Ale Works

You know the dream: good homebrew grows up into a great brewery. One of our favorite customers, LA Ale Works, is enjoying those fabulous growing pains right now. Help turn them into a brewery!

Want better beer in LA? Go donate to their kickstarter NOW! Pledges start at only $1.
LA Ale Works Kickstarter

When you help fund LA Ale Works, they'll send you a certain amount of "vote" tokens, redeemable for awesome things later. These tokens are our very own flattened custom bottle caps with the LA Ale Works logo. Very cool!

There are lots of other great prizes at different levels, from getting your name engraved on their fermentor to hand-made bottle carriers to naming a special release beer after you. You know you want some of that action.

If you'd like to enjoy beer like the Buttress of Windsor Coffee Rye Porter or Das Kolsch (a real traditional kolsch) among many of their award-winning other brews, support LAAW today!

Bells Brewing Company

Tom thought he might save some money brewing his own beer. After a year of avid homebrewing and making all the necessary equipment purchases, he's got the cost down to a mere $8 a bottle! But money hardly matters when you're sharing good beer brewed with care with friends and family.

When gifting beers, it's great to add a personal touch to the bottles--not to mention a label so they know what's inside! And thus Bells Brewing is addicted to custom bottle caps. Tom enjoys making connections between his beers and his rural home. Here are some of our favorite designs:

Named after the county

Named after the county's unfortunate laws

Tom added coffee to the secondary, hence the "Joe"

A 2-for-1 name: a "hoppy" ESB brewed in the land of cotton growing

Brewed with a touch of honey

Bells Brewing's latest offering is an Altbier, brewed with a top fermenting yeast and capped with this lovely Oktoberfest lass. (The wife however is not convinced "top-down" refers to just the yeast!)

And here's the design in action:

Unique names, crisp graphics, and a uniform design scheme that unites them all together. A great custom cap line-up from Bells Brewing!

The Bottle Cap Bar of Dodge Brewery

After four and a half years of brewing, Eric Dodge finally has all the badging of the pros. He's put his family crest logo on t-shirts and labels before, but nothing says "official" quite like a bottle cap.

Classy? Quite. 

But wait...it gets even classier. Saddled with an outdated bar in his basement, Eric Dodge decided to jazz it up with bottle caps. He edged it in wine corks, laid out a substantial collection of bottle caps, and covered the top with half-an-inch of clear resin for a solid top surface.

The ultimate basement accessory.

Check out the cork siding.

A custom cap in action!

Dodge's only regret? Not using more custom caps. My only regret? Not having a basement where I can have my own bottle cap bar.

If you collect or otherwise craft with custom caps, check out our quarter technique tutorial—by far the best way to remove a bottle cap without damaging it.

Design Lesson #5: Clip Art and Finishing Touches

At long last, the quest for a perfect bottle cap design is over! Check out the final steps of the Tully design in this fifth Inkscape screencast. You'll learn how to use the Open Clip Art Library, how to draw stars, and how to use the dropper tool. Remember to double-check your design at 1" to make sure no element is too small! Seriously!!!

And here's the cap in real life:

Rock it, kitteh.

Now if only I could brew and bottle such a beer...

Bierkast and LA Ale Works

Some folks love beer so much, they can't have just one cool beer project—they need two. Such is the story of Kip Barnes, a founding member of both Bierkast and L.A. Aleworks.

Bierkast began as a group of beer lovers and exploded into a blog of tremendous energy. It's the kind of site that puts 99.9% of bloggers to shame—yours truly not withstanding. While it chiefly spotlights personalities and events in the Los Angeles beer world, Bierkast offers its readers much more than that. It's slick, it's entertaining, it's wide-ranging, it's personal. It's passion on a webpage.

And here's passion on a cap.

Now I know you're not doing anything productive on this lovely Friday, so go check out Bierkast. But beware the green-eyed monster jealousy: some of the writers went to Oktoberfest.

Because a kick-ass blog is not enough, Kip needed a kickstart project, too. L.A. Aleworks is a handcrafted work-in-progress. Tired of the less-than-thrilling brewing scene in LA, John Rockwell and Kip Barnes decided to take matters into their own hands and start their own brewery. LAAW promises to be a boutique community brewery. They're starting with their award-winning homebrew recipes...

Gams-Bart Roggenbier (a Bavarian hefeweizen brewed with rye malt instead of wheat malt)

Dampfmaschine (a California Common, aka Steam beer)

Lievre Saison

With a few custom caps, their sample bottles now have both the look and the taste of the pros.

Expect a Kickstarter campaign soon to support the launch of LA Aleworks. Keep up with LAAW news on Bierkast here.

Major props to graphic designer Ken Barnes (father of Kip). You can tell he has mad branding skills. Both the Bierkast and LAAW logos translate phenomenally on bottle caps. Nothing's too small, nothing's too complex, and the strong color contrast makes every element pop. These are the kinds of logos you remember.

Here's to more ale in the city of angels!

Review from Bull City Homebrew Shop

Over the last year, BottleMark has been causing a bit of an online stir among homebrewers. I've seen a lot of reviews on blogs and forums--and then there are those 438 five stars of feedback from our customers (enough to make even George S. Patton blush)--but I can't help but shout out a special thanks for the recent BottleMark review on the Bull City Homebrew Blog.

Located in Durham, North Carolina, this homebrew store ordered some logo caps to sell as promotional magnets. And I think they liked them!

Magnety goodness.

We've also got an in-store coupon available for patrons of Bull City Homebrew, so if you're near Durham, go get thee some yeast, hops, barley, and a special custom cap offer.

What with passionate homebrew shops and custom caps for homebrewers, revolution is indeed brewing.

The Brons Standard

With his first foray into craft beer, Justin Brons felt the divine touch of Saint Gambrinus. He started keeping a notebook, a written record of playful flavor combinations he'd want to try in a beer. Inspiration soon led to perspiration. Craft breweries are certainly pushing the envelope, but they have yet to brew a Boysenberry Pale Ale. Well, Justin Brons has.

The Brons Standard certainly sets a high standard for flavor fusions. Justin and his fiance started with an Espresso Oatmeal Stout, and soon followed up with such unique beers as Blood Orange-Honey Maibock, Bourbon-Vanilla Porter, Toasted Pecan Oktoberfest, Honey-Lemon Hefeweisen, and a Pumpkin-Pumpkin Pie Porter. Yes.

Such innovation deserves branding. Branding like this:

I love the color scheme, the contrast, the two possible tops to the design. It's rich without being busy. So what's the Brons Standard for bottle cap design? Keep it simple. "If you look at professional craft brew caps, the caps are very simple.  You need to get across the attitude and image of your brewery, and you don't need a whole lot on there to do that.  For mine, I was just trying to keep it fun and organic." Amen, brother. You can really tell that your cap is successful when it looks good from far away.

A pro-class line-up.

Labels present a different design playground. The labels Justin likes to design have more color and detail than the caps, but the aesthetic principle remains the same: simplicity can speak volumes.

Let's admit it. A beer called Godzilla Dopplebock really does deserve the full cap-n-label treatment.

Ready to stomp Tokyo in style

Thanks for sharing your inspiration, Justin! We look forward with great anticipation to a Bacon and Fruity Pebbles Pale Ale. No, wait, nevermind. That sounds terrible.