How do you legally ship beer?

[cincyjrod]

brown plastic bottles labeled as Root Beer

.....

Best idea yet!

 

[dantheman13]

I have done a few beer swaps with a bloke inTexas. We have both just packaged the bottles very well, then claimed they were "Barbeque Sauce" If the bottles are brown and have no labels, I doubt they will open them to inspect the contents. This worked for USA-AUS and AUS-USA both directions.

I know that Aus has some strict customs laws. For example, nothing with soil can enter the country. I wonder if something that implies there is yeast such as "root beer" or "ginger ale" would get through? BBQ sauce just sounds a little strange if they open the package and find a glass bottle instead of a plastic container. Any other Aussies have success receiving beer from outside the country?

 

[zgardener]

I tried to ship a box with some local Austin brews up to Michigan for a beer swap, and just saw on the tracking site that the package is being held for unauthorized alcohol shipment...They it says that they'll be contacting the shipper (me), haven't received any calls or emails yet... Time to practice playing dumb...
Totally sucks, doubt that he'll be getting his package. Debating whether or not I should try to resend, or reimburse him for the lot he sent down to me...

 

[Wakadaka]

A lot of gray areas here. What if you took some wort put it in a 2 liter or something that could handle a lot of pressure, and pitched the yeast right as you were dropping it off at the store. haha only the shippers would be doing the illegal part, because you dropped it off without alcohol.

 

[nebben]

I tried to ship a box with some local Austin brews up to Michigan for a beer swap, and just saw on the tracking site that the package is being held for unauthorized alcohol shipment...They it says that they'll be contacting the shipper (me), haven't received any calls or emails yet... Time to practice playing dumb...
Totally sucks, doubt that he'll be getting his package. Debating whether or not I should try to resend, or reimburse him for the lot he sent down to me...

I had a package over the Christmas holiday get held up, then was eventually returned to me with a note saying there had been damage during shipping (and presumably during the return back to me). I got a letter from FedEx a week or two later from their legal department saying that I needed to work with them to resolve this matter.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/speaking-hbt-bjcp-competition-i-got-warning-letter-fedex-220218/

It turns out I'm not alone in this, as there are other homebrewers that have got these letters too. In the long term, I never heard anything else about it again. The gist of it seems to be that FedEx sends out those letters as a CYA maneuver, in case they were ever investigated that they would be able to document that not only did they return the package with the "illegally shipped alcohol", but they can show that they notified the sender that it was against the law and essentially that if it was a mistake, FedEx would try to help fix it.

I wont be shipping beer or in the case of the Christmas package, 21% homemade 2.5 year old port anymore.