West 10th Brewing

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

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

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

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

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!

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

Homebrewer Henry Sipos recently designed these clever beauties.

Simple, streamlined hilarity

This cap is doubleplusgood

The awesomeness speaks for itself.