2016 Label Contest Winners

The BYO homebrew Label Contest turned 21 years old this year, and to help us celebrate its legal drinking age, our readers sent in what may have been the most artistic and creative homebrew labels we’ve ever collected. And it wasn’t just the designs on the labels that stood out, but also what they were made with (including one label made entirely with Duct tape as well as a bottle of milk stout that incorporated a homemade medallion of dark chocolate glued to the label with which the beer is intended to pair with). It wasn’t easy to pick our favorites, but in the end we are happy with all of this year’s winners. After choosing our Grand, Gold, Silver, and Bronze medalists we opened voting up online to allow our readers to choose their favorite for the Readers Choice.

Thanks again to everyone who sent in their homebrew labels, and also a big thank you to the sponsors of this contest who make entering so worthwhile by donating thousands of dollars worth of prizes each and every year!

Grand

TYLER BARNES
Corpus Christi, Texas

Bell Ale Co-op beers are made as special editions for Christmas gifts by Ted Barnes and his friend Danny Mynatt, and the labels are designed by Ted’s son, Tyler Barnes. They submitted three labels, all of which could have been award-winners, but Hip Hoppy Dark IPA really stood out. This beer was made in 2013 and is a black IPA brewed especially for Ted’s “beer snob” friends who love all of those hopped up IPAs that smell and taste like “frickin” pine cones. It’s a perfect beer for the hipster and the hopster.

Gold

MIKE LANZAFAME
Springfield, New Jersey

Mike Lanzafame and Binko Brewing Co. return to the podium after winning the Grand Prize two years earlier. This time, it is his Spare Time label for a summer session IPA that caught the judges’ eyes. Mike says the label combines two of his favorite things — bowling and a hoppy IPA. “I wanted to brew a beer that I can drink and keep my 102 average!” Mike said he always associates bowling with “retro” so he wanted this label to have a “vintage feel.”

Silver

ANTHONY SALMERI
Dunedin, Florida
Anthony’s Meathead label was created for a Belgian dubbel brewed with bacon. He says, “I’d been enjoying syndicated reruns of All in the Family when it struck me how distinctive Rob Reiner’s facial hair was (Reiner plays Mike Stivic, who is known by the unflattering name Meathead). As for the image, I went with a literal interpretation and basically opened a close-up image of Reiner’s face in Photoshop and layered bacon strips over his hair and mustache, warping and trimming the images as needed.

Bronze

KEITH HARTMAN
Columbia, Pennsylvania
Keith’s Evil Stag Stout label was created for his annual holiday beer that he gives to friends and family. He says, “The idea of drawing a drooling deer on the rampage mostly came about because I could not get the image out of my head. Evil possessed animals is a theme I can get behind on almost any occasion.” It is original art Keith sketched without reference.
PRIZES: Gift Certificate from High Gravity; Beer Cap Map from HomeWetBar.com; Gift certificate from How Do You Brew?; Gift certificate from St. Louis Wine & Beermaking; Gift certificate from Strange Brew

Reader’s Choice

JIM BOOTH
Halifax, Pennsylvania
Jim’s Powell’s Valley Session IPA label was created from a color pencil sketch he did years ago. Inspiration for the art came from auto magazines from the 70s and 80s that he found at a flea market, and after scanning the sketch and converting it to vector art it became the perfect beer label.