Shipping samples....

[billspudley]

How does everyone ship beer to share with others? I have some friends I would like to share with, but not sure how to get it from here to there with most carriers prohibiting the shipment of alcohol. Help me share my stuff!

 

[NeoBrew]

I did this recently. There are a few good threads about how to pack beer. I used FedEx. I don't remember all the details, but UPS has a strict policy against it. If I recall FedEx is a little less clear.

I wrapped the hell out of mine. I did a double layer of bubble wrap on each bottle, wrapped that in the saran wrap style packing tape. Then lined the box with a double layer of plastic garbage bag in case something broke. Then I put that box into a second box with packing peanuts around it to protect the whole thing in case a corner got beaten in en-route.

I've heard that if the bottles break and liquid is coming out of the box they will likely dispose of the package. The plastic garbage bags were there to catch the liquid if a bottle broke.

My 9 bottles made it across the country without breaking. I did have to endure some teasing for "over packing" my beer!

 

[billspudley]

Thanks, I'll give this a try.

 

[WayFrae]

An easy loophole to get around the "No Alcohol" restriction is to just say you are shipping yeast samples in solution.

 

[hezagenius]

I thought it was USPS that prohibited alcohol?

I'm pretty sure UPS allows it. FedEx allows it as well. But if you state that you are shipping alcohol, you have to jump through extra hoops. I just pack the hell out of everything (bubble wrap around the bottles/cans and then stuff the box full of packing peanuts so nothing can move around at all) and use FedEx and don't say a word.

 

[1977Brewer]

Yeah, just pack the snot out of it, and do whatver you can to prevent leakage. 12 oz. bottles fit in gallon storage baggies quite nicely. Wet boxes get opened for inspection, and "destroyed". My maintenance guy here at work worked as an inspector at UPS also. He went home with a ton of free booze.