I've been wanting to ship some to my dad. Now I know how!
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On Deck: Apfelwein
Fermenting: Oatmeal Stout
Conditioning:
Drinking:
I'm not sure if beer is exactly the same as wine, as far as legalities go, but I do ship a lot of wine.
To ship alcohol through FedEX or UPS (and most regional carriers) you need to sign a contract.
Both FedEX and UPS do not allow alcohol to be shipped from consumer to consumer. (sources 12)
USPS does not allow alcohol of any kind to be shipped.
So take such advice with a grain of salt. If you ship beer through USPS, FedEX, or USPS, you at best are violating their terms of service, and at worse, possibly committing a felony (in the case of a felony alcohol state).
Disclaimer, I am not a lawyer, this is just my interpretation of their rules.
Are these bottle conditioned beers that everyone is shipping? Will the yeast sediment settle out well enough afterward for entry into a homebrew competition? This will be my first time shipping my beer and entering into a competition...
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Primary:-
Secondary:IPA, just "IPA"
Bottled: Applewood Smoked Porter, Windy Bridge Stout, Maple Chocolate Pumpkin Ale, Maple Pumpkin Ale, California Steam, Black Cat Porter, Irish Coffee Stout
Kegged: Blackberry Stout, Nut Brown, Sweet Cider, Apfelwein #2, IPA, SNCA Clone
I did this recently and when I walked up to the counter at the post office, I forgot they were going to ask me what was inside. I panicked and said uh.... books! So he slapped a "media" sticker on it and said it may take longer. Whoops. I figured my beer was surely going to end up all over someone else's book packages. Needless to say they got there alright.
Thanks for this tutorial, it's very thorough and I don't think there's a chance of those bottles breaking!
I did find a couple of other solutions though and just thought that I'd share with the community what I found. Not as cheap, but they may look a little more "clean cut" or give you that "professional" look for delivery as a gift for birthdays or holidays. Here are the links:
This post is fine, but any posts involving pot or selling beer get flamed and deleted. Some people need to recognize that not too long ago all of this was illegal in the U.S. Also, any competent doctor would tell you marijuana is far less harmful to society than alcohol.
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Waiting:
Logan's Bite Old Ale/Brett Old Ale
December Old Ale
February Old Ale
La Guitarra Flanders Pale
Saint Benedict Strong Dark Ale
Thunder APA
The Fires of Heaven (super experimental beer)
On tap:
Sorachi Storm IPA
Darksong Dubbel
Heartsong Dubbel
Lamentation Belgian Blonde
Soul Purpose Tripel
ESBraggot
Dark Braggot
Chocolate Braggot
There are some good tips in the OP but I think he uses more bubble wrap and definitely more tape than is necessary. If you are shipping to a comp, try to consider that somebody is unpacking like 50 boxes. My amendments would be:
1. Get the perforated bubble wrap and use one sheet per bottle. Attach it with a rubber band (works as well as tape, much easier to unpack). The point here is just to make sure glass never touches glass.
2. One layer of the large bubble bubble wrap around the outside wouldn't hurt anything.
3. Pack the box TIGHT. Preventing movement is 29% of the battle (60% was preventing glass on glass contact).
4. I very recently heard Gordon Strong on The Brewing Network talk about building an insulated box. I did this for NHC first round this year and it isn't all that expensive and was very easy. Just get the pink foam board and cut pieces to line the bottom, sides and top of the box (just score it with a knife and it breaks pretty clean over your knee). Then you pack the box and leave it in the fridge over night. If you don't have that much cold space, just get the bottles really cold and then pack and seal it. This apparently got Gordon's 2 day morning delivery shipped beers to Oakland in June still COLD. My wife just went to visit family back West and we sent some commercial beers this way so she could unpack them and get a first hand idea of how well it works. We also plan to do some experiments where we leave an uninsulated, insulated, and insulated with a cold pack box out for a couple days and see which works best. Unless I can't figure out how to make it work at all, I will use this in warm weather months from now on for competitions or just sharing.
ETA: I used 1" foam board, not sure what GS used. It does happen to work out perfectly for standard 12 oz longnecks in a 12" box though.
Definitely dont tell them you're shipping beer. It's against federal law. We're trying to write a bill at the federal level to allow it for home brew competitipns. Also, some private mail services, like DHL, may allow it.
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