How Do You Store Your Labels?

Our Chairman received this enquiry via email and we thought that many of you might like to pass on your tips & advice.

Dear Dale,
With a search on “how to store labels”, I found your website containing a huge amount of different labels.
I’m starting a collection of beer labels and I was wondering what was the or one of the best solution to store the labels. At the moment I
put a tiny piece of roll glue on a paper. The paper are stored in plastic sheet in a map. however after doing that I’m wondering if this
is not on of the worst think to do as I think the glue might become yellow during the time.
At the moment, the labels are stores with the top label on top of the page, the front label is on the middle left, and the back label on the
middle right of the page.
So I’m not sure what to do to store these labels in a better way.
Many thanks in advance for your advice.
Best regards,
Alexandre J.

So over to you our readers & (hopefully) contributors!

9 Comments

  • Dale Adams

    Hi Alex, Many thanks for your email and I hope that you do not mind me opening up this discussion so that you can hopefully gain more than just my opinion on your questions.
    Personally, I do not have experience with using stick glue (Pritt is the UK brand name) for sticking labels into albums so I will leave an answer on the long term implication of that to others who I hope will respond.
    I use slip-in photo style pages that go into 4-ring binders. These come from a specialist company that market to both photographers and hobbyist/collectors. They have the benefit of being ‘acid free’ which many feel is important for the long term preservation of their collections. I’m not too sure of just how important that is. What is important to me about this style of album is the ability to easily reorganise or arrange the labels which works well when new labels need to be inserted in my collection.
    Many others use album pages meant for stamp collectors and they seem to work well also.
    I do not recommend using sticky tape (cellotape) as the adhesive on these will bleed through as they are most often of petroleum based manufacture. Also, I would not recommend stamp hinges as these too have a tendency to damage labels.
    I will leave the discussion at that for the time being and see what others have to add.
    Cheers

  • Jauniaux

    Hi,
    Thanks for your advice.
    My father used glue like pritt and he confirmed me that the paper nor the label became yellow.
    I use this:
    http://www.manudepot.com/fourniture-materiel-bureau/colle-roller/colle-roller-rechargeable-Pritt-permanente-grand.jpg
    with permanent or removable glue. with the removable glue, it’s easy to reogarnise the collection.
    we will see with the time.

    thanks 😉

  • Dale Adams

    Hi, Nice info from Jauniaux that there 2nd generation experience with using glue like Pritt for sticking down labels. Also just fantastic that both Jauniaux and his Father both collect beer labels! Way to go with passing down the hobby interest from Father to Son.
    Cheers

  • Alexandre Jauniaux

    Indeed, it”s Nice to get his collection, to.see old labels,…
    My father is happy to give his collection instead of put it in the trash.

  • Dale Adams

    Maybe you could share a few scans of some of you Father’s labels! I’m sure that there are loads of people who would love to see the. Me included! UK or European, doesn’t matter which as we just love old labels! You can email scans to use using my contact email. If you could give us any special reason you & your Father like them or a bit of info on the brewery & date that would really be fantastic!

  • Pete Flaherty

    Whilst appreciating that the front, back and neck labels are more attractiveley displayed on a sheet of paper I can’t say I like the idea of glue or stamp hinges. I prefer to store my labels in photo albums with either 6″x 4″ or 7″ x 5″ pockets. these are very cheap to buy but even cheaper in charity shops which seem to have plenty of them. There.. are about 20 double pockets attached to each cardboard cover and I put the main or front label under the cellophane above the white paper which divides the pocket and the neck and back labels under the cellophane on the reverse. perhaps not ideal for viewing but great for storage.

  • Alexandre Jauniaux

    I will take pleasure in scanning some of the label.
    However first of all, I prefer to sort them as the amount of labels are big. I’ll try to make a website, for me to know what I have 🙂 and for the other to be able to share my collection.
    it will take unfortunately some time.

    I’ll try to scan some of them before so I can share it with you 😉

    by the way, do you know if there is a kind of book like for the stamps but for the beer labels? so I can know the approximate year ?

  • Dale Adams

    Hi Alexander, There is really no definitive book that can be used to date beer labels. Unlike stamp collecting, beer label collecting just attracts a smaller number of collectors so there is not profit in producing such a book. Almost all that I know about dating of labels has been obtained from other collectors via word of mouth. This web site is quacking establishing itself as a good guide to the age of labels. The many illustration in the various galleries attempts to establish at least which decade the label was likely used. Also, if you have specific labels that you would like to get assistance dating, they can be submitted to the blog and maybe someone out there will be able to assist.
    Cheers
    Dale

  • Alexandre Jauniaux

    too bad for the book, I do understand for the book that unfortunately there are not enough interested people. but there are nice website like yours which gives already a lot of information

    thanks.

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