Anyone up for beer trades?

Rolanddeschain

Im thinking local craft beers and a few 'bodyguards':)

Smoothsticks

I'm nervous about shipping beer... how do you ship it safely? I would be down but I gotta know how to ship it!!!

Usaf06

Lots of bubble wrap Jeremy. I ship in large flat rates with lots of bubble wrap

Rolanddeschain

+1 on the bubble wrap. I use FedEx and I haven't had any problem. It's illegal to ship beer using usps.

Smoothsticks

Let's do it Dave what kinda beer you drink?

Rolanddeschain

Just about anything but I do love my IPAs. How about you?

Patrickbrick

Put each one in a ziplock bag and shrink wrap it, before lots of bubble wrap.  If one does break it does not pour into the box alerting the usps that there is beer in the box.

jgibv

yep.  what these fellas said. 

easiest solution is to skip the bottles and only ship cans. cans are much less likely to cause problems, compared to glass bottles.
if you're gonna ship cans, i'd suggest putting them inside of a ziploc bag so if they do leak it's contained in the bag and doesn't saturate the box. 
bubble wrap around the ziploc bag and put it in a box. easy peasy.


but if you need to ship bottles....
wrap each bottle individually in bubble wrap. 
then put 3 (standard size, 12oz) bubble-wrapped bottles inside of a gallon-size ziploc bag. 
then wrap the ziploc bag in more bubble wrap and tape it up. 
place that inside of a box with packing materials. 

also, the "fuller" the box, the better.  empty space will allow things to shift around and cause problems so fill all the voids with packing materials (bubble wrap, packing peanuts, newspaper, etc.) 


then just box everything up, select your preferred shipping service, and away you go. 

bandyt09

If you are planning on shipping 12oz bottles go get packing tubes and cut them to size, put bubble wrap in the bottom, drop the bottle in and then bubble wrap around the neck. You can get 5 into a Large Flat Rate box.

Or at least, this is what I've been told 

jgibv

bandyt09 said:

If you are planning on shipping 12oz bottles go get packing tubes and cut them to size, put bubble wrap in the bottom, drop the bottle in and then bubble wrap around the neck. You can get 5 into a Large Flat Rate box.

Or at least, this is what I've been told 

of course todd @bandyt09 ; comes out of the woodwork for a beer thread......

hi todd!

Smoothsticks

Great ideas guys. I think I have a few things for you Dave. I am a fan of IPAs, wheats, blondes, recently tried the peanut butter stout from belching beaver that was good. Anything really. I'll work on my shipping technique and try and get you something out beginning of the week?

Rolanddeschain

Sounds good. Shall we say a 6er of different beer?

Smoothsticks

We shall

Rolanddeschain

Your package should be going out tomorrow. A sampling of what Wisconsin has to offer:)

Smoothsticks

Sounds good Dave I'm gonna pack something up for ya tomorrow as well

Bigshizza

It's a breeze.. you just lie!

Bigshizza

bandyt09 said:

If you are planning on shipping 12oz bottles go get packing tubes and cut them to size, put bubble wrap in the bottom, drop the bottle in and then bubble wrap around the neck. You can get 5 into a Large Flat Rate box.

Or at least, this is what I've been told 

Sayeth the Master beer connoisseur 

jlmarta

I thought about you guys not long ago when I had lunch at a local craft brewery. I'm pretty ignorant regarding beer (and lots of other things) but they have an IPA that I think is outstanding. 

I asked about whether they bottle or can their beer thinking I could maybe get some to some of you but was told that the only way they sell it to take out is in what they call a 'growler'. That didn't sound too practical to me in terms of shipping it to anyone. Particularly since I think they charge a deposit on growlers so they can get 'em back. 

So, I'm sorry. You'll just have to take the word of an ignorant beer drinker as to how good the beer is from this brewery. I was thinking about ya, though.... 

Rolanddeschain

@jlmarta some places do 'crowlers' which are like 32oz cans. Those ship well but I know many places don't have the machine just yet. 

jlmarta

Thanks for that, @Rolanddeschain, I'll keep it in mind. 

I'll have lunch there periodically and will try to find out more about how it's done. Here's a link to their beer list:

http://sutterbuttesbrewing.com/beer.php

The beer I referred to above is the Franklin IPA..... 

jlmarta

Well, all this talk about beer and lunch got to me - so I took my child bride there for a late lunch this afternoon. I learned a couple things -

The food is pretty darned good but that's not the point of this thread. As for the beer and growlers and such, as I said earlier, the only way to buy beer to take with you is to buy a growler to put it in. They don't yet can or bottle their beers but they plan to in the future.

 Their growlers are 64oz and cost $12. I thought a person could put a deposit on one and get your money back when you return it but I was wrong. If you buy it, it's yours. 

So, all things considered, I don't think it's very practical to buy it this way unless someone is quite anxious to try one of their beers. Sorry I opened up this line of thought but I figured I was onto something. 

A useless endeavor by the oldfart. I'll try to be more careful..... 

Smoothsticks

Usually growers are a local thing. You buy a growler and get it fill with your local favorite to have at the house.

jlmarta

Right. I was under the impression that their growlers were only 32oz and that I could put a deposit on one. That way, I could ship a growler to a BOTL and he/she could return the empty growler to me to have my deposit refunded. But it doesn't work that way and I think 64oz would be impractical to try to ship. 

Smoothsticks

Fingers crossed!
9405511899564984840010

Rolanddeschain

Mine goes out after work today, I'll post the tracking then.

Smoothsticks

Sounds good!

Rolanddeschain

785417054830

i hope there's something in there you like:)

Wylaff

@jlmarta Total wine and Bevmo both sell half growlers for less than $5. A local homebrewing show would have them as well. They also seal up tighter than a bottlecap, which would be great for shipping.

jlmarta

Ooooh. Cool. So, I take it a half growler would be only 32oz?  I'll look into that. Maybe I could ship to curious BOTLs after all. 

Thanks, Wayne @Wylaff. 

Rolanddeschain

Ok... @Smoothsticks
Dude, you nailed the packaging! 
I received a great selection of beers, a jar of Apple Pie(shine?), some pistachios and a great set of bodyguards!!
I hope my package finds you as well as this one! 

Jay6

Damn homemade shine? Solid bomb bub!