QR codes on beer cans: a guide for craft breweries

Nobody scans a can to read your homepage. People scan at the shelf, at the bar, or on the couch with the can in hand, and they want answers about this beer:

• What is it? Style, ABV, hops, what it tastes like.
• Is it fresh? When was it canned, and is it still at its best?
• Where can I get more? Which bar pours it, which shop stocks it, what's on tap at the taproom today.
• Who made it, and how do I hear about the next one?

They're on a phone, often one-handed, sometimes on a bar's patchy wifi. So the page has to load fast, answer those questions before any scrolling, and ask for one thing at most: a rating, or an email or WhatsApp number for the next release.

Because it's beer, expect an age check before anything else. On QR Beers pages a drinker confirms once on that device and isn't asked again for a year, so the second scan goes straight to the beer.

There are three sensible targets, and most breweries end up using all three in different places.

• Brewery code. Opens your brewery page: story, lineup, what's on tap, where to buy. Best on things that aren't about one beer: coasters, table tents, business cards, the taproom door.
• Beer code. Opens that beer's page. This is the one for the can. It's printed once with the label artwork and stays true for every run of that beer.
• Batch code. Opens one canning run, with its canned-on date and a freshness verdict. Because it changes every run, it has to be printed per run: a sticker, a case label, a keg collar.

If you can only print one on the can, print the beer code. On QR Beers the beer page already shows the freshness of the newest batch and links to that batch's page, so the drinker still sees a canned-on date. The can in their hand may come from an older run, and that is the question a batch code settles.

Don't point a can at your homepage or an Instagram profile. Both change over time, neither answers "is this beer fresh?", and a homepage makes the drinker hunt for the beer they're already holding.

A static code stores the destination URL in the pattern itself. It never expires, and it can never change: if that page moves, the code on thousands of cans is dead.

A dynamic code stores a short link that redirects to the destination. You can change where it goes after printing, and the redirect can count scans. The catch is that the redirect runs on the provider's servers, and it only works for as long as they keep it running for you.

That's the trap with many free generators. The free tier or trial makes dynamic codes, and when it ends the codes stop going where you pointed them. One large generator's help center says so plainly: when the free trial expires, dynamic codes "are deactivated and point to a service page rather than the original destination" until you upgrade. A can may spend months in a warehouse, on a shelf and in someone's fridge. The code has to outlive all of that.

Before you print, ask any provider, including us:

1. What exact URL does the code encode, and who owns that domain?
2. What happens to printed codes if I stop paying, downgrade or close my account?
3. Can I change where a code points without reprinting, and does that cost anything?

Here are our answers. Every QR Beers code encodes a short link on qrbeers.com (qrbeers.com/q/ followed by a ten-character code). You can change where it points from the dashboard at any time, at no cost. Printed codes keep working if you downgrade. If you close your account, the codes are retired rather than deleted, so a scan lands on a page saying the code is no longer in service instead of an error. The honest trade-off: the codes depend on qrbeers.com, and we don't offer custom domains today.

QR codes are forgiving, but a can is a hard surface: curved, shiny, wet with condensation and scuffed in the cooler. Start conservative and test.

• Size. A common rule of thumb is that a code scans from about ten times its own width, and the usual minimum for print is 2 × 2 cm (0.8 in). A can is scanned from 15 to 25 cm away, so 2 cm is a workable floor and 2.5 cm (1 in) is comfortable. Anything read from farther away needs to grow: roughly 1 cm of code for every 10 cm of distance.
• Density. The longer the URL, the more modules (the small squares) the code needs, and the smaller each one gets at the same print size. Short links print small. A QR Beers code is 29 modules across, so at 2 cm each module is about 0.7 mm. A long tracking URL from a generator can need a much bigger grid, so give it more room.
• Quiet zone. The QR standard asks for a clear margin four modules wide on every side. A busy label pattern creeping up to the code is one of the most common reasons a can won't scan. Keep plain background around it.
• Contrast. Dark code on a light background. Avoid two mid-tones, gradients or a photo behind the code, and don't invert it (light on dark) unless you've tested it on older phones.
• Error correction. QR codes carry redundancy so a damaged code still reads: level M restores about 15% of the symbol, Q about 25% and H about 30%. Higher levels make a denser code. QR Beers artwork uses Q, which suits a can that gets wet and scuffed.
• Format. Send your designer or printer vector artwork (SVG or PDF), never a screenshot. QR Beers codes download as SVG, PNG and PDF.

• 12 oz and 16 oz cans (355 and 473 ml). Both standard sizes share the same diameter, about 66 mm (2.6 in); the 16 oz is simply taller. A code 2 to 2.5 cm wide wraps around roughly a tenth of the can, which phones handle well. Much wider and the edges curve away from the camera, so test before you go big. Put it on the flat middle of the wall, near the canned-on date where people already look, and away from the seam of a wrap label.
• Direct-printed cans. Bare aluminium is shiny and reads as neither dark nor light. Print the code on an opaque white base, and check the proof for ink spread, which can fill in small modules.
• Pressure-sensitive labels. The easiest surface: flat when printed, with good resolution. Keep the code off the overlap.
• Shrink sleeves. A sleeve shrinks most near the top and bottom of the can, which stretches artwork. Keep the code on the straight wall and ask your sleeve printer about distortion before the art is final.
• Keg collars. Read by bar staff and buyers at arm's length, often in a dim cooler. By the 10:1 rule that's about 5 cm of code. Collars are often made or marked for each fill, which makes them a natural home for a batch code.
• Tap handles. A handle sits on the far side of the bar, often a metre from the customer. By the same rule that means a code around 10 cm wide, which few handles can carry. A code on the handle works for the bartender and anyone standing close; for everyone else, put it where they sit: the menu, a table tent, a coaster.
• Coasters and table tents. Board coasters soak up ink and blur fine detail, so print bigger and with more contrast than on a label. Your brewery code usually fits here better than a single beer's.

Short version: a QR code on a beer label is allowed, what it links to is treated as advertising, and it can't replace anything the label is required to carry.

• QR codes are allowed on labels. TTB Industry Circular 2024-1 (October 2024) says industry members may include a QR code on a label or other advertisement, and that the linked content must comply with TTB's advertising regulations.
• The page behind it counts as advertising. TTB treats linked pages as part of the advertisement, so the same restrictions on misleading statements and health-related claims apply there as in your ads. TTB also says that when linked content is only reachable through a label that already carries all the mandatory information, the content doesn't have to repeat it. A beer page people can also reach from search or social media is a web page in its own right, so ask your advisor what it should show.
• It can't replace mandatory information. In its January 2025 proposed rule on "Alcohol Facts" statements (Notice No. 237), TTB restated that it "currently does not allow mandatory labeling requirements to be satisfied solely by including the information on a website with a link or code on the physical label." TTB considered letting a QR code carry the proposed Alcohol Facts information, decided not to propose it, and asked for comments on the question. The Brewers Association, which had argued for QR disclosure, criticised that decision.
• Status of those proposals. Comments on Notice No. 237 and the companion allergen proposal (Notice No. 238) closed on August 15, 2025. As of September 2026, TTB's rulemaking list shows no final rule for either. For any final rule, TTB proposed a five-year compliance period.
• Adding a code to an approved label. TTB's list of allowable changes to approved labels includes adding, deleting or changing UPC barcodes and 2D barcodes such as QR codes. So adding a code to a label that already has a COLA generally doesn't need a new approval, as long as the label still complies with everything else. The same list covers adding or changing bottling, production or freshness dates and codes.

States have their own label and advertising rules, and exported beer follows the destination country's rules. This section is a summary to help you ask the right questions, not legal advice. Check TTB's current guidance and talk to your label compliance advisor or attorney before you print.

1. The vital stats, before any scrolling: style, ABV, IBU, hops and formats.
2. A canned-on date and an honest freshness verdict. On QR Beers that's Peak fresh, Drink soon or Past its best-by, worked out from your own window or the style's default. It's about flavour, never safety.
3. A one-tap rating, then optional reasons ("juicy", "too bitter") and a comment that comes to you instead of to a public review site.
4. A signup for the next batch, by email or WhatsApp.
5. What's on tap at the taproom right now.
6. The story and what's in it: who brewed it and why, malts, hops, adjuncts, yeast and allergens, as extra detail on top of what the label already says.
7. How to enjoy it: tasting notes, food pairing, glassware and serving temperature.
8. Where to buy it nearby: the bars and shops that carry it.
9. The brewer, on video, embedded from YouTube or Vimeo.
10. What's next: release dates, events, or a stamp card for regulars.

On QR Beers, items 1 to 7 work on the Free plan. Where to buy, video, events and the stamp card come with the paid plans. Signups are captured on every plan from the first scan; searching, exporting and writing to that list come with a paid plan.

Whatever you choose, put one short line next to the code telling people what they'll get. "Scan to rate this beer" or "Scan for freshness and what's on tap" earns more scans than a bare square.

A scan is the only signal you get from a can that has already left the building, so measure from day one.

• Count per placement. If the can, the coaster and the festival banner each have their own code, you can compare them. One code everywhere only gives you a total.
• Scans aren't people. One person can scan twice, and your own test scans count too. Read the numbers as trends, not headcounts.
• Watch what happens after the scan. A scan followed by a rating, a signup or a tap on "where to buy" is worth more than one that bounces.
• Using a generic generator? A static code can't count anything by itself. Add UTM parameters to the link so your web analytics can tell can traffic apart from everything else.

On QR Beers every code counts its scans, on every plan. The Free overview shows scans for the last 30 days and all time, your most-scanned codes and the latest scans with approximate city and country. Paid plans add the analytics workspace: trends, unique visitors, which buttons people tap, top beers, countries, a scan funnel from scans to votes to signups for each beer, and CSV export. Retired codes keep counting, which tells you how much old packaging is still out in the world.

1. The code opens the right page (the beer, not your homepage), and that page is published and filled in.
2. You know which URL is encoded and what happens to it if you stop paying.
3. At least 2 cm (0.8 in) wide on a can, and bigger for anything read from farther away: about 1 cm per 10 cm of distance.
4. A clear margin four modules wide on every side, with no pattern behind the code.
5. Dark on light, with an opaque white base on bare aluminium.
6. On the flat wall of the can, away from seams, label overlaps and the shrink zones of a sleeve.
7. Vector artwork (SVG or PDF) sent to the printer, not a screenshot.
8. One short line next to the code saying what the scan gives people.
9. All mandatory label information is still on the label. Nothing required lives only behind the code.
10. Test-printed at actual size on the actual material, then scanned with an iPhone and an Android phone, in dim light, with condensation, at arm's length.
11. The page loads quickly on mobile data, not just on the brewery's wifi.
12. You scanned the final proof yourself before approving the run.