I've had some good success sending beer in the mail on a few separate occasions over the past few years. One time after taking a trip to Portland, Oregon, I sent myself back about two dozen 22 oz bombers of a collection of beers that were unvailable on the East Coast. If memory serves me correctly, I did a terrible job of packing them and they still arrived safely.
More recently, a friend of mine was lucky enough to get a pack of Westvleteren 12 and as a surprise sent me one bottle for me to try (and no, I haven't actually tried it yet). He sent it by packing the bottle in five socks, and then put the socks in a shoebox. Again, it was successful, but likely not ideal.
So, what is the best way to send homebrew in the mail? I was poking around the HomebrewTalk forum the other day and ran into this thread which had some good advice for us amateurs.
There is a good step-by-step guide there, but the basics are simple. And yes, this would work for cider, wine, or anything really.
- Wrap your beer in bubble wrap, and then wrap it one more time.
- Put the beer bundle in a heavy duty pastic bag.
- Pack it in a box that is large enough to keep about 2-3 inches of bubble wrap, foam, peanuts, etc around all sides of the bottles (including the top and bottom).
- Make sure it is a tight-enough fit that the bottles won't move, but not so tight the sides bend.
It's as simple as that. One plus to using bubble wrap over socks is the weight savings, though the weight of the liquid probobly makes that savings moot. Bubble wrap is definitely more sanitary though, so it has that going for it!
photo credit: LibAmanda via photopin cc
