How To Package And Ship Home Brew Beer

***(Below, I included the beer labels and an instruction sheet, which you can print and send out with your brews)…***

You brewed beer, turned out fantastic and you want to share it with your friends and family… the problem? they live 3,000 miles away and you can’t drive up to their place and deliver it yourself…

Well, I’m on the same boat…

Recently, I wanted to send a few of my home brews to a good friend out in Connecticut and had to figure out how to package and ship the brews over to him… I did a little bit of reading and came across some interesting information I would’ve never thought of myself…

So I put together this How-To Guide below…

Materials Needed…
Gallon Size ziplock bags
Bubble Wrap
Packing Tape
Shipping box
Stuffing (plastic bags, packing peanuts, etc.)
Home Brews 🙂

Step 1. Place Each Bottle In a Separate Ziplock Bag
Suppose you are shipping 6 bottles… one of them breaks and the box starts to leak… it doesn’t matter if there are still 5 other ones in the box, the box will be taken out of the shipping system and won’t get delivered…

Since our goal here is to get the box delivered, we want to prevent our box from leaking and that’s the reason why we place one bottle per ziplock bag… and make sure we get the air out of the bags…

I recommend getting the ones with the zipper which seem to have a stronger seal than the ones without… also, some bags are thicker than others which are also stronger in case a bottle explodes…

To make sure my friends know what they are going to be drinking, I slip in a beer label in each bag with each bottle (note, those are different beer labels than the ones I use to fancy up some bottles… see below for those labels). In it, I tell them the beer style, a brief description, best serving temperature and serving instructions as well as a link to the video on how to serve home brew beer…

Step 2. Wrap Each Ziplocked Bottle In Bubble Wrap
Keeping our shipping box dry is goal number one… but more important is to keep the bottles from breaking… the bubble wrap will cushion the bottles so they don’t clink against each other and shatter…

Normally I roll the bottle to wrap it and leave the top and bottom unfolded… This depends on the configuration and size of my shipping box.

Step 3. Stuff Your Shipping Box
Before you place our bottles in the box, you want to take any excess bubble wrap and make a blanket for extra cushioning. You may have to play around with the bottle configuration in the box… the goal is to keep the bottles from shifting throughout their journey, so place stuffing material wherever there is space to keep the bottles still which will prevent agitation and clinking of course…

Also, you don’t know what is going to be placed on top of your box so make sure it is well padded all around…

Step 4. Send It Out
The USPS does not allow alcoholic beverages to be shipped through their system. This means you have to go with either UPS or FedEx…

I chose UPS ground residential…

You can choose air if you want to get them there faster… the planes are pressurized so the bottles are safe and will actually have less vibration to stir up the bottles unlike ground…

It’s important to label your box as FRAGILE to make sure they don’t just throw the box when loading and unloading…

I like to make sure my friends get the best experience with my home brews so I also include a brief instruction sheet on how to serve and drink the home brew, which explains a little bit more on how to handle the beer… why they should refrigerate the beer a couple of days before drinking, etc.

That is pretty much it…

Do you have any suggestions on how to improve this method?

If you are looking for beer labels you can download a couple templates to make your own below: