Lodovico

Recipes 

So I read the sticky tutorial and it was very helpful. I'm just curious here.

With 43,000 HBT members, how many of you have gotten caught shipping beer to competitions or to friends?

Just wondering how often this happens.

The reason I ask is I know that a lot of people say they are shipping "live yeast samples" or barbeque sauce but don't the entry addresses give away what you're doing?

I'm getting my first competition beer ready to ship and this is the address:

3rd Annual Virginia Beer Blitz
c/o St. George Brewing Company
204 Challenger Way
Hampton, VA 23666

Pretty hard to get around, no??

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Lodovico Brewing Co.




On Draft: Northern German Alt
On Draft: Robust Porter
On Draft: Belgian Pale Ale
In Bottle: Brett Porter
In Bottle: Apfelwein
In Bottle: Espresso Porter
Fermenter: Biere De Garde
Fermenter: Belgian Amber Ale

chode720

Recipes 

One tip to get around having to explain it at all is to ship it via FedEx 2-day Air and fill out all the info at home. You just have to weigh the package and give the dimensions and you can pay and print the shipping label at home. Then you can just drop it in a FedEx Express box. You dont even need to go to the store, and no questions asked.

I cant speak too much about getting caught, I only entered 1 comp with the shipping method above and the beer made it fine.

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Primary1: Pumpkin Ale
Primary2: Christmas Ale
Pimary3: Apfelwein
Secondary: Sour Brown
Drinking: Warrior Pale Ale, Wit, American Rye

Lodovico

Recipes 

That sounds like a good idea but I didn't realize that the Fed Ex Express Boxes were that large??

You can fit a 12X12X12 box in one of those? If so, that sounds like a great idea.

I know it depends on where you are shipping but is that really expensive to ship that way?

__________________
Lodovico Brewing Co.




On Draft: Northern German Alt
On Draft: Robust Porter
On Draft: Belgian Pale Ale
In Bottle: Brett Porter
In Bottle: Apfelwein
In Bottle: Espresso Porter
Fermenter: Biere De Garde
Fermenter: Belgian Amber Ale

McKBrew

Recipes 

I'm going to throw in my .02 here. I almost got busted last year via UPS. (It made it all the way to the east coast and then got sent back) It would have never been an issue but my beer froze in transit. (It's that time of the year). Keep that in mind when packaging. My leaktight barrier wasn't so leak tight.

Lodovico

Recipes 

A good point that I didn't think about. So how do people ship to competitions in the winter?? Is there a trick to keeping it warm during shipping??

__________________
Lodovico Brewing Co.




On Draft: Northern German Alt
On Draft: Robust Porter
On Draft: Belgian Pale Ale
In Bottle: Brett Porter
In Bottle: Apfelwein
In Bottle: Espresso Porter
Fermenter: Biere De Garde
Fermenter: Belgian Amber Ale

MachineShopBrewing

Recipes 

I live in Minnesota and I was wondering the same thing.

MrInternet

Recipes 

Is this actually against the regs of all common carriers? I just dropped off an entry for the GLINT 2009 hosted by the Great Lakes Cider & Perry Association... THe shipping address was actually:

GLINT Cider & Perry Competition
% Siciliano's Market
2840 Lake Michigan Dr. NW
Grand Rapids, MI 49504 USA

Dunno... the bottles were audibly filled with liquid, and I even joked with the counter clerks and several people standing in line about that it was apple wine and were they sure their drivers wouldn't "lose" the package on the way.

Did I just get lucky? They made me sign a waiver, which was new, but he just said is stating I wasn't shipping "guns, drugs, or body parts" ...

Lodovico

Recipes 

What carrier was this?

__________________
Lodovico Brewing Co.




On Draft: Northern German Alt
On Draft: Robust Porter
On Draft: Belgian Pale Ale
In Bottle: Brett Porter
In Bottle: Apfelwein
In Bottle: Espresso Porter
Fermenter: Biere De Garde
Fermenter: Belgian Amber Ale

Edcculus

Recipes 

I just tell them I'm shipping picture frames.

Ksosh

Recipes 

I never actually lie to them, I just say 'sending yeast samples suspended in liquid, but packed really securely'. I also ship from a fed-ex/kinkos, and of the 5 packages i've shipped with beer, none have come back/been caught. Of course, my bottles are bubble wrapped, packed in 1 gallon bags (2-3 bottles/bag), and then everything inside another garbage bag with packing peanuts, so it's pretty secure against leaks.

I would just recommend packing safer than you think you need to, and say 'live yeast samples'. The people working at the counter at Kinkos don't get paid enough to care, imo. As for the address, I'd guess unless your box leaks, no one will care?

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-Ksosh
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Primary: Belgian Dark Strong, Version 2
Secondary: Second running session ale #2