Travel Collectables: Beer Labels

In my series on travel collectables I talk about things I keep and collect from places I go. Today’s one will make my girlfriend cringe as she hates how I keep stuff which should be thrown in the bin, but hey, this is my thing! I collect beer labels! It’s my colourful visual memory into the many beers I have tried from travelling to 70 plus countries. I’m a travelling Northern Irishman who loves to relax with a cold beer!

As a teenager I used to collect actual beer bottles, coasters and cans. I eventually made the cans into a chair and called it my “beer can throne” (this was finally destroyed in 2013 by my family when I was in Asia!). I no longer have space (or even a permanent bedroom) to collect things as bulky as that, so I now collect three things related to beer – beer mats/coaster, beer labels and beer bottle tops. Yes, I still collect all three! Today I’m writing about beer labels, peeled off bottles!

But I’ve started doing it in a much neater way. I rip them off the bottles and I put them in a scrapbook nowadays where I write where I had it, where it’s from and the percentage of alcohol. It only uses up the space of one scrap book and doesn’t cause clutter!

I have had a beer in almost every country I’ve been to and these days I keep the label only if it’s a new beer and a label I don’t already have. I don’t do repeats!

I don’t actually write the date I have the beer as I won’t remember all the previous ones, but perhaps if I start doing it this way they will be in order. When I started my scrapbook last year, I just put them in a random order. I now have over 200 of these…and have absolutely NO plans of stopping. Now – how do you actually get the labels off the bottles…?

How to get beer labels off bottles:

I admit that sometimes it’s tricky. These are the ways to do it in order of which one to start with:

1. Peel it off easily on your own. Sometimes they just come off. If that doesn’t work…

2. Use some cold water on it and try to peel it off under a tap. If that still doesn’t work…

3. Use some hot water on it and try to peel it off under a tap. If that still doesn’t work…

4. Use a kettle or a flask of boiled water and set the beer bottle above it as the smoke is rising (be careful not to put your hand in the way of the smoke or you’ll pick up a hot burn!). This should moisten the label and you’ll be able to peel it off within minutes. If that still doesn’t work…

5. Order another bottle of the same stuff and repeat process 1 – 4 😉 ! If that still doesn’t work…

6. Give up, relax, enjoy your beer and don’t stop living!

Cheers and safe travels guys and girls! Check out my regular Thirsty Thursdays feature for more beer related stuff!