Shipping Beer

Ok, I'm not actually shipping it, 'cause I don't think that's legal.

I just brewed a Fat Tire-like batch...my first one back in the game...it came out great!

I'm flying from Austin to Seattle and I want to take someone two bottles of this batch I just did.

Any recomendations? I was thinking bubble wrap real heavy and then put it in a zip-lock bag in my check-in baggage. As far as I know that's still legal.

Will that work? Anyone done this?

That won't work, brother. You'll probably have to check it. See this: http://www.tsa.gov/311/

Nate1977 said:

That won't work, brother. You'll probably have to check it. See this: http://www.tsa.gov/311/

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But that seems to be just for carry on. No, I want to put it in my luggage that I'm checking at the counter, not the carry on. I KNOW I can't carry it on the plane ;-).

But will it store in the checked luggage ok? I don't know what the altitude stuff will do to it...

When I lived in Germany I used to put 2 5-liter kegs in my check-in baggage all the time. Never had a dropped spilled or a can dented. I just wrapped them up in jeans.

For bottles I'd probably bubble wrap and wrap in jeans.

I would place them near the top and bottom of the suitcase as these are the more sturdier portion of the case. If you put them near the middle that are has more "give room" and is crushable by other baggage...just a thought.

Luggage compartments are pressurized and temp controlled...no worries there. Only worry is the way your luggage is handled, so yeah you can do it, and like you said pack it well. And put a bag around it in case it breaks.

I brought several bottles of wine back from Italy a couple of years ago and had no problem with them in my checked luggage. I wrapped them in T-shirts and put them in a shoebox that I packed right in the middle of the suitcase.....no worries.

steve s. said:

But that seems to be just for carry on. No, I want to put it in my luggage that I'm checking at the counter, not the carry on. I KNOW I can't carry it on the plane ;-).

But will it store in the checked luggage ok? I don't know what the altitude stuff will do to it...

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HA! I misread it. Yeah, I've packed liquids in my checked baggage. Whiskey, beer, liquid nitrogen. Like the man said, just make sure to wrap it well.

Nate1977 said:

HA! I misread it... liquid nitrogen.

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Liquid nitrogen?! There's probably a story behind that...;-)

Ok. I'll give it a shot! Thanks all!

My mom took some of my beers back last time she visited. Just put them in her checked baggage with some bubble wrap. No problems at all.

Ryanh1801 said:

My mom took some of my beers back last time she visited. Just put them in her checked baggage with some bubble wrap. No problems at all.

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Excellent!

I work for an airlines (actually handling checked baggage) and people put beer and wine in their checked baggage all the time, including myself. Nothing illegal about it. Some people in the small communities in the area who don't have stores that sell alcohol will even check 12pk's of stuff like Corona or Miller/Bud in cans in original cheapo thin packaging.

Just pack it well and it shouldn't be a problem breaking. I don't even use bubble wrap; I just stick them in 6-pk holders and then into a bigger cardboard box. Then I stuff old newspaper around bottles and boxes so they aren't shaking around and touching eachother when the box shakes in flight. That or if packing into one of my suitcases, just wrap the bottles individually in clothes. I fly an average of once a month and tend to bring back $50-100 of beer back home that we can't get here in Alaska from each trip. Never had a bottle break. YMMV.

Actually, I just did an LA to Seattle trip a few weeks ago and took a significant amount of homebrew with me in checked luggage.

I had done this with just a few bottles earlier in the spring with no problems at all.

It was considerably warmer this trip. I ended up losing about 25 per cent of my beers to leaking caps. (Nothing like having all of your clean underwear soaked in IPA!) Maybe making extra sure that your bottles are tightly capped might help. I'm thinking I might try dipping the capped end of the bottles in wine cork wax on my next attempt.

All great stuff! Thank you very much!