How to make custom beer labels?

How to make custom beer labels? Custom beer labels are, in Canada, a key element for the mobility and functioning of the national liquor market. Mainly, because they are designs that allow the cultural and industrial identification of the products according to their values ​​of origin. Its wide level of acceptance and growth make this country a truly global benchmark for craft beer. Proof of all this is the 108% growth that this market has had from 2017 to the present.

 

In the same way, the density of this industry reaches the limits of between 160 and 220 beer establishments in cities such as Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia. All these types of characteristics demand the highest level of commercial performance from any new beer brand. This vast market would be unsustainable without consistent and optimized brand images. Entities channeled to the public through quality labeling. To more accurately demonstrate the type of processes required to create custom beer labels BluCactus has created the following blog. In its content, you will find the main notions to build basic packaging designs for alcoholic products.

 

Where was Canada’s first commercial brewery built?

 

Historically, the emergence of the Canadian beer industry directly relates to the arrival of colonization orchestrated by the French regime. In mid-1688, Jean Talón founded the first commercial brewery in Quebec City. A brand that had great success and receptivity from its first months of operation. It also became the first beer brand exported from Canadian territory. Before that date, in 1646, the Jesuit brother Ambroise legally registered the first producing winery nationwide. The historicity and classicism created from such sources is today a fundamental element in the process of creating custom beer labels.

 

A case apart, the country has the oldest wineries in North America. They are those of Jhonn Molson in Quebec in 1786 and Alexander Keith & Son in 1829. Today, Canada has a beer-producing park measured in 644 registered breweries. All this allowed it to invoice estimated annual profits in a volume greater than 162 million liters in its entirety. All of this dataset makes up an even massive beer growth market. This in turn demands the creation and circulation of creative and new custom beer label designs.

 

How to make a beer label?

 

Generally speaking, the design of custom beer labels in Canada requires a consistent and defined informational profile. In particular, this process is governed by the Food and Drug Regulations, by its acronym FDR, specifically in its division number 2. This regulation comprises a document that is available to the public through the website of the Canadian government. Its constitution is based on establishing all the criteria of an informative order for the labeling of food products in the territory. For this, said legal body has a total of six chapters for the legal treatment of said matters. The first section is in charge of legislating everything related to food in general.

 

The second segment is a section specifically dedicated to the informational configuration of the sale of alcoholic beverages of different categories. Among them, the genres of whiskey, rum, gin, and brandy are part of it. All of this, among the sections listed between paragraphs B.02.10 to B.02. 30. Information on beers occupies this last segment. In total, six informative parameters are present to be explicitly declared in the front section of custom beer labels. The declaration of such elements must, in turn, follow the following organizational criteria.

 

Product common name:

 

It is the first element for the construction of custom beer labels. The legal declaration thereof falls on segment B 02.132 of the aforementioned legal body. As a general feature, the mandatory presence of said elements is established, both for their presentation in bottles as for any of its fields and advertising applications. Each of these names is directly related to the degree of alcoholic concentration that the content has. So, a total of five general specifications for alcoholic products is established for this segment. Also called qualified common names.

 

A powerful feature of this regulation, for the presentation of custom beer labels, is its constant variability. Generally, certain local and provincial regulations influence the configuration of the label. On the other hand, the addition of manufacturing substances and/or the presentation of the ingredients also modifies its name. A fact under which a secondary section focuses on said treatment. The table of segment 02.131 has two equal columns being established under the following range of associations and elements.

 

Extra light beer:

 

The products in this category are classified according to an alcoholic concentration of maximum, minimum and medium range. For minimum beer products, brands can use the expression “extra light” when they are in the range of 1.1 to 2.5 parts of alcohol by volume.

 

Low-Calorie Beer:

 

The range of appreciation allowed for this type of alcoholic product is between 2.6 to 4.0 parts by volume per alcohol.

 

Beer:

 

This section occupies the middle tier when it comes to product name declaration in Canadian custom beer label design. Their identification levels have been between 4.1 to 5.5 degrees of alcohol.

 

Strong beer:

 

Within the Canadian territory, the range of strong beers occupies the highest rank in the FDR qualifying category. For this, the value of 5.6 units is the minimum value while 8.5 is the maximum value for identification.

 

Extra strong beer:

 

When the alcohol concentration exceeds the value of 8.6 it must be present in this category. Custom beer labels must also add the prefix “extra” to the declaration to indicate the categorization of the product at this important level.

 

Company name and address:

 

The commercial identity of the manufacturing, packaging, or distribution company must be declared on the custom beer labels. For this, your company name must be included as a preponderant factor. It must be done using legible typography and be visible throughout the circulation and sale process. Without crossing out or any type of erasure. On the other hand, your current tax address must also be declared in that section. All this information will serve the purpose of allowing the user to refer to the origin of the product. Besides, this type of declaration constitutes a vital regulation within the importation process and export of beer. In itself, such data field facilitates and favors its identification within the acceptance and customs procedures.

 

Net Content:

 

In Canada, their placement and presence are required for the lower center end of custom beer labels. It must exclusively use the metric decimal system for the presentation of units. The units allowed corresponding to liters, milliliters, and centiliters. The units of volume should appear, if required, by using cubic centimeters. All this, according to the type of container, presentation, and level of scope and promotion.

 

Alcohol content by volume:

 

This range is directly associated with the declaration of the name of the product, who should be followed as a direct reference. Canadian regulations stipulate the obligation of the same for alcoholic beverages whose concentration is greater than 1.1% of parts of alcohol by volume. Its constitution must be carried out using the corresponding figure (X), followed by the percentage range (%) next to the expression “alcohol by volume”. Another variant of these regulations for the design of custom beer labels is the use of the stipulated abbreviation. Today, this informative feature has its abbreviated formula equivalent to the expression “alc.X% / vol”. The latter is essential in its use as the case may be.

 

Country of origin:

 

This informative parameter is mandatory for alcoholic products of both national and imported origin. The declaration of the same must be available for all the different types of custom beer labels. The latter, without making exceptions regarding its size and presentation formulas.

 

The mandatory nature of the presentation of this type of information is governed by the prominence of the Canadian market globally.

 

Because of this, the city of Ontario alone occupies a segment of that market equivalent to about 40.07% of the total market share.

 

Nutrition Declaration Labeling: Other Variants of the Custom Beer Label Design Process in Canada.

 

In contrast to other republics of America and the world, Canada excludes the ingredient declaration feature from its custom beer label system. Only, this informative field will present under an exclusive range of conditions. Among them is the use of a system of variants of the original name of the product in its nature. On the other hand, only pre-packaged beers must declare elements such as gluten, allergenic elements, and added sulfites. The declaration system for added nutritional components incorporates the following formula:

 

Low Alcohol Beer:

 

For this first category, the range of beers that have graduation is lower than the usually designated value. In essence, this denomination is only valid for products with a density lower than 1.1 alcohol. Regardless of its additions and processing techniques.

 

Carbohydrate source:

 

The addition of carbohydrates to beer usually serves the purpose of stimulating fermentation or slightly changing the color, flavor, and density of the product. Such feature must be present under the explicit name of the added product at any stage of the manufacturing process:

 

Herbs and spices/microorganisms:

 

Segment B.02.130 authorizes the use of yeast microorganisms to stimulate fermentation. Besides, brands can use any type of herbs and spices.

 

Flavoring preparations:

 

In custom beer labels, brands must do the modification of the common name by adding the name of the flavoring compound used.

 

Residual sugars:

 

Canadian regulations require, at the national level, that all beer composition does not have a sugar concentration greater than 4% of its totality. For any product with a concentration greater than that value, the use of the word “beer” isn’t legal in any part of its labeling system.

 

Food Additives:

 

For the design of custom beer labels in Canada, the government extends an important level of control. For this, there is a system of lists of legal food additives, which brands must consult to add or not such elements to the composition.

 

Adjuvants:

 

These types of substances are legal and, at the same time, don’t need to be present in the labeling. The adjuvant comprises a range of elements focused exclusively on facilitating the technical operations and processes of beer manufacturing. In essence, such substances do not modify the ingredients of the alcoholic liquid in general. Neither do they have the ability to leave residues that alter the taste, color, or smell of the product.

 

Cold beer:

 

In custom beer labels, frozen beer comprises a category reserved for that type of alcohol subjected to successive freezing processes. This also includes the removal of residual ice crystals associated with the process. For the declaration of this category, it is necessary to add the expression “with ice” after the main common name.

 

How to choose a good beer?

 

Far beyond setting up the process of making custom beer labels, the Canadian government intends to guarantee the identification of each product according to its quality. For this, the regulations involve a set of annexed parameters that facilitate the consumer to find all the data to allow an adequate choice of final purchase. The “Canadian Food Inspection Agency” is the institution and body that is part of the management and control of these processes. The latter, because within the quality aspects, governments also include the food safety of the consuming public.

 

As a result, custom beer labels have quality qualification parameters such as the “low alcohol content declaration”. Next, there are the vodka add-on claims, the beer age claims, also known as “age level.” On the other hand, the use of the term “dry” and, for foreign beers, the warning parameters of consumption as well as foreign certificates of old age and authenticity are identified by their frequency and obligatory nature. Besides, in Canadian quality labeling for both imported and domestic beers, they must comply with the following two fundamental parameters:

 

Light Beer:

 

Brands can use the expression light and its consequence on custom beer labels. The latter, always within a specific range of alcoholic categories that the regulations divide into three important segments. The first of these is the Cider range, the clearest compounds, made up of a volume concentration equivalent to a figure of 4% or less. Next, the wine family appears, according to their order of importance, the latter are circumscribed under alcoholic concentrations of less than 9%. Finally, whiskey closes this set of categories with a category less than 25% in its concentration.

 

The use of the term “light” in custom beer labels should only be present on the low-alcohol quality. Without adding any additional description to its energetic properties. The exception of this last feature is present when the actual percentage of alcohol decides uses numbers on the label. This is the only way to allow different additional descriptions that are convenient. On the other hand, brands can use the term “light” to describe only the reduction or alteration of any component other than alcohol. This feature has an explicit statement about how it should be present. This set of regulations for nutrient content claims uses the term “light”

 

Gluten-free beer:

 

The regulation on Food and Drug Regulations FRD has section B.24.018 to clarify this parameter. Based on this, the use of custom beer labels in an obtuse or misleading way isn’t legal. That is, declaring it free of any compound formed or added based on gluten. The processes considered to add gluten to food consist of the addition of proteins derived from it, or their corresponding modifications. The same regulations don’t mention a specific concentration level for such marking. However, a level lower than 20 ppm of protein concentration is the general rule.

 

Furthermore, brands can’t use the attached “wheat-free” statement interchangeably with such an information product. The latter is due to its properties. According to its variability, gluten is present in products that do not have wheat. Besides, it’s present in elements such as barley, oats, and triticale. Wheat allergy, as well as celiac disease, are the medical conditions for which the government has stipulated the formulation of such a measure for custom beer labels.

 

How to make a product label?

 

The BluCactus marketing agency has a team of designers trained to answer all your questions about the process of how to customize beer labels. We are fully aware that the creativity of each design is a trait that government laws can’t control. Hence, our mechanisms are based on properly nourishing your brand with a fresh and innovative image. The latter through basic packaging designs that guarantee its presence in the market at the same time as a voracious acceptance in its general population.

 

On the other hand, our custom beer label creation services have a professional management level that guarantees your competitiveness for the export of your product to other parts of the world. No matter where you are in Canada, BluCactus professionals are there to provide the service you deserve. On the other hand, our company understands the design of each product as part of the general marketing. As a result, your company can receive attention in terms of digital marketing services and the creation of positioning strategies. This includes content creation for social media, email marketing, SEO auditing, and more. All of which will turn your beer brand into a solid, truthful, consistent company adapted to the new times.

 

Final Notes: BluCactus offers quality coverage and services for all beer manufacturers and wineries in Canada.

 

The BluCactus team was born in the German nation in the early 2010s and to this day has an important history of development in comprehensive marketing. Our expansion into the American market has enjoyed significant prestige among a voracious audience of diverse clients. As a result, our experience includes attention and the creation of projects for both nascent and established brands. So, with our effort, we have guaranteed its acceptance and permanence in the market. With our custom beer label design services both you and your brand can be the next big thing.

 

We have a wide presence in important cities in the country such as Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Quebec, and Calgary. The purpose of this is to always be available and within reach for you both to provide advice on custom beer labels or any other digital marketing service. Finally, don’t forget to subscribe to our daily newsletter. We also invite you to follow us on all the profiles of our social networks. From there, you will be able to know the most recent advances of our technical team in terms of digital development. So, if you think the time has come to create a new course for your brand. Don’t think twice and contact us! With BluCactus professional services the image of your company makes the difference!