Containers

Closures and the seal

On this page8

The necks here The bar top cork The screw cap The dasher, for bitters Alcohol attacks the liner And it attacks adhesives Test inverted, warm, for weeks References

High proof spirit attacks liners and adhesives the way any strong alcohol does.

The necks here

24-410 at 90, 20-410 at 70, 38-400 at 60, 33-400 at 35, 24-400 at 32 and 28-400 at 25. These are packaging finishes rather than the specialist cork finishes a spirits bottle usually carries.

The bar top cork

The category standard for aged spirits. It is a compression fit against the bore of the neck rather than a thread, which makes it a bottle specification as much as a closure one, and it comes from the glass supplier rather than from here.

The screw cap

141 continuous thread closures on this shelf. A screw cap seals better than a cork, does not taint, and carries a perception problem in a category where the sound of a cork is part of the ritual.

The dasher, for bitters

3 euro droppers and 27 spouted closures. This is the part of the shelf that genuinely serves its product, because a bitters dasher is a small packaging closure rather than a specialist liquor fitment.

Alcohol attacks the liner

At 40 percent and above, the liner inside a cap is in continuous contact with a solvent. It is the component that fails first and the one least often specified, exactly as in the aftershave case.

And it attacks adhesives

Which matters twice here: the label adhesive has a regulatory requirement to meet, and any spirit running down the outside of the bottle is working against it.

Test inverted, warm, for weeks

A bitters bottle is used upside down. A spirits bottle is stored upright and shipped on its side. Both deserve the test they will actually face, and neither test is the one run on a bench.

References

The Davis Pack Supply catalog, measured 17 October 2026. The spirits shelf is 419 rows: 192 containers and 227 closures, 149 PET and 43 glass, 30 to 710 mL with a median of 118. Across the whole catalog, containers exist at 12 of the 25 authorized standards of fill, including 110 at 475 mL, 59 at 945 mL, 54 at 355 mL, 21 at 250 mL, 19 at 100 mL, 15 at 200 mL, 12 at 500 mL, 8 at 50 mL, 7 at 710 mL and 3 at 750 mL.

27 CFR 16.22, legibility of the health warning. Minimum type size of 1 mm for containers of 237 mL or less, 2 mm above that through 3 L, and 3 mm above 3 L; "GOVERNMENT WARNING" in capitals and bold with the remainder not bold; characters not compressed, at a maximum density of 40 characters per inch at 1 mm falling to 12 at 3 mm; readily legible under ordinary conditions on a contrasting background; and labels affixed "in such manner that they cannot be removed without thorough application of water or other solvents". law.cornell.edu

Written from 27 CFR 5.63, 5.203, 16.21 and 16.22, and from the catalog as it stood on 17 October 2026. Distilled spirits are federally permitted and separately regulated by every state; label approval, permits and formula approval are outside what these pages cover, and nothing here is a substitute for TTB guidance on a specific product.