I promised my brother, who lives in Texas (I’m in Ma) that I would ship him a couple of beers when this recent batch finishes up.
It will be kegged so I’m wondering if I can use a 2 liter plastic soda bottle with a screw cap or should I go with glass beer bottles ?
Also not sure about regulations but I figure Fed-Ex / UPS can help with that and packaging requirements.
Either plastic or glass will ship fine as long as it is packed tightly with a lot of bubble wrap and/or packing peanuts. And with respect to the shipping authorities… you are not shipping beer, but rather “yeast samples for analysis” in case anyone asks, which they won’t. Don’t ask, don’t tell.
Don’t even say yeast samples.
I would go the plastic bottle route. Next to impossible for it to break. Place them inside a freezer bag just in case there is an problem.
Use any of the shippers online label/payment systems. Then drop it off at a collection point. If you employer uses a particular shipper, just leave it with the mail room.
I just shipped my brother a 12 pack of glass bottles from Illinois to South Carolina. I went to the FedEx Office by my work and bought a 50ft roll of bubble wrap & the appropriate sized box (I think it was 8x8x12). I wrapped each bottle individually with bubble wrap & then jammed the box as full as I could with the remaining bubble wrap. I ended up using a little more than half of the roll. I took it back to FedEx the next day, asked her to throw some “Fragile” stickers on there and that was that. I shipped it on a Tuesday and he was drinking it on Friday. I spent more on bubble wrap & the box than I did on actual shipping cost. Total cost was under $30 and was totally worth it to share two of my best home brews with my brother who lives so far away.
Don’t ask don’t tell is the best policy when it comes to shipping home brew.
