I know that the USPS will not ship beer. I am pretty sure FedEx and UPS only ship beer if you are a company that specifically signs a contract with them. As far as I know, the only way to ship home brew is to lie about what is being shipped.
Does anyone out there have a way to legally get your beer shipped without breaking the law? Maybe some other less known shipping company?
:o
It is not illegal to ship beer to most states with FedEx or UPS, just against their policy. Call it “yeast samples” or “gifts” or something like that.
I don’t know of any shipper that has a policy of knowingly taking beer from individuals.
Agreed.
I use UPS regularly and I tell them that I am shipping glassware.
I setup a personal UPS account, print my label at home, and bring the box into the office for the daily UPS pickup…no issues ever.
Yeah, they don’t even ask any questions, so there’s no reason to lie. You can create an account on-line and use a drop off point, like a local office supply store.
Hey Tom, I shipped my beer UPS last year for the Cascade Brewer’s Cup. Told the guy what was and everything. His only comment: Good luck.
Yeah, you occasionally find people at the counter who don’t know or don’t care about the UPS policy.
I prefer using FedEx for shipping beer. I have an account that allows me to be billed or pre-pay, print labels at the office or home. I ship beer all the time either to friends & family, contests or beer trading. No problems, so long as its packed well. Legality? Don’t care. :-X
I go with the printable UPS shipping labels from my computer as well. Nobody has ever even inquired about the contents when I drop them off at the shipping store.
I ship USPS flat rate. What they don’t know won’t hurt any of us.
It’ll hurt you if they find out and decide to press charges.
Anyone in the Indiana or Chicago area want to send me some Gumballhead??? Been wanting to try that one for a while now. I’ll take my chances with UPS.
Brings up a good point…have you (or anyone on this forum) ever heard of this actually happening to someone? I haven’t and I’ve been doing it for years.
I shipped three cases of beer from a monastery I wont name in three different boxes back from Belgium this year and a fourth box full of beer from Paris. All via USPS, once it was stateside, and all arrived at my local post office. Only one box was damaged so bad that a few of the bottles broke. When I picked it up, they’d wrapped it in plastic and it smelled horrible. They kept asking what it was so I finally said something about cooking supplies, vinegar, etc. The spine was busted on another box and was so bad that you could actually reach in and pull out a bottle; surprisingly, they were all accounted for, though! Anyways, no issues at all. For the record, the Belgian post all but gave me their blessing, however, the French were freaking out because I didn’t have a French return address…eventually, they let me ship it after a bunch of dirty looks. Not once did they question what was in it, they just wanted to make sure it said something on the forms; I used “Souvaniers/Personal Purchases.” I will say that a worker at a different Paris post office than the one I used told me specifically that they would ship wine/beer to anywhere in the world…except the USA. They even have special boxes for it. The price to have shipped all that back internationally with UPS or Fedex was completely prohibitive; their prices were astronomical compared to standard post.
I’ve also shipped plenty of beers nationally to competitions and never had an issue. Really, who has?
It’s much like the states that don’t allow home brewing. those that want to, do. I’ve never heard of anyone getting busted for that nor shipping beer by the USPS. I’m sure there are some instances, but they may also be myths.
I also don’t drive 55.
They are getting your business. I’m sure they don’t really care all that much what you are shipping…
It is a bit sad that there seems no technically legit way to ship home-made alcohol in the United States. This means that each time we do so, we are prepared to lie about it.
Like esheppy, I’d like to know of a way to ship homebrew without having to tell a lie. This brings to mind something that’s easy to forget. It really wasn’t that long ago that homebrewing was illegal in the US.
I don’t know if that realization should make me feel grateful or pissed off. Appreciation of the merits of homebrewing has come a long way in public consciousness, but unfortunately we still have to ship in secret.
No, like folks have already said, just set yourself up a free account at UPS or FedEx and create your own shipment and shipping label. Then just take it to one of their dropoffs. Nowhere during the shipment creation process does it ask you what you’re shipping. Nor have, in all the times I’ve dropped shipments off, anyone asked what I’m shipping. So absolutely no need to lie about anything.
Exactly. They’re only asking because the computer prompts them to. The online label creator does not.
I have the luxury of having a shipping department at work. Not only do I know the guy shipping my brew but it also costs a lot less because we ship so much.
I have been to a UPS store and they asked if there was anything liquid in the box, I just say no and they don’t care. Just make sure to wrap the bottles with newspaper, put newspaper between the bottles. I add a garbage bag to keep the liquids in if they break. Never had that happen but can’t be too careful.
Either way don’t sweat it. It will get to where you want it to go, with no issues.
I concur! I was just asked this yesterday by a FedEx employee and was turned away. There should a legal way to ship beer to competitions without having to compromise your morals. How do we get the AHA to work on this issue and get FedEx/UPS to permit shipping for analysis at homebrew competitions?