Mailing Beer

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WheeledGoat

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So I ordered some PET bottles & caps from NorthernBrewer.com with the intention of mailing my Dad some of my homebrew for his bday. My plan was to use the USPS Priority Mail 1-rate box and stuff as many of those bottles in there as I could.

I go to the post office to pick up a box and, in a moment of stupidity, am honest with the lady about what I'm intending to put in the box. She tells me they can't ship beer. Somewhere deep in my mind I knew that (which is why I was picking up the box to pack it at home) - but since I was already into it, I went ahead and asked "Why?"

The answer? "Because it's flammable".

I went ahead and made a comment, something like "It's 5% - you couldn't set it on fire with a blow torch if you wanted to" but quickly qualified that I wasn't arguing with her. I walked out with my box anyway.

Who's the moron that thinks beer is flammable? Or must they draw the line at anything with alcohol in it? I bet I could ship some mouthwash...

I'm prolly gonna load up the box and tell 'em it's homemade soda pop. It's only a felony to mess with the postal service, right?
 
Just ship it with UPS or FedEx or a private company. It's legal with them. I even told the guy it was homebrewed beer and he thought it was cool. Glass bottles are fine to ship btw.
 
yeah, but i didn't want to have to worry about packaging against breakage, and the added weight... thought the plastic bottles would save me some trouble.

guess not!

i'm still irritated that somebody out there thinks beer is flammable.
 
At the top of the DIY forum there is a "sticky" that all about Shipping Beer!

There are a bunch of great Ideas in there ....


-Jason
 
Just ship it with UPS or FedEx or a private company. It's legal with them.
Actually it is against their policies (you got a guy that didn't care) because every state has different laws on shipping Alcohol. Your best bet is wrap them really well and don't tell them what is in it.
 
I shipped some to a friend in Alaska via UPS. The guy at the UPS Store asked what it was. I was honest, and told him it was home brewed beer. That led to a 15 minute discussion on how to brew beer.

My friend got the package a few days later, sooner than they guy said he would.
 
Ship via something other than USPS. It's illegal (fines, etc possible) to ship beer via USPS - it's only against policy to ship via other carriers...


Why take the risk on your liquid yeast samples?
 
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