Shipping Beer to homebrew competitions

This is our first year sending our homebrew to competitions out of state. We just sent our beers to the National Homebrew Competition(NHC) and received notice that our beers arrived at the destination in Colorado. We have also shipped our beers to competitions in Ohio and Oregon. Our bottles of beer made it to the competitions, and we shipped the beers in different ways to each. Since this is all new to us, we thought we would share our process with you in the hopes it will give you the confidence to send your brews to competitions.

​How to find a competition

The AHA website has a list of all of the AHA sponsored competitions available. We started with picking competitions that fit beers that we had recently brewed.

Categories

Our first competition that required shipping was for British Beers. We mailed in our Basic Bitch Brown Ale and our Mouth Mittens Imperial Red. We were told that Mouth Mittens was "too hoppy" for a red ale, and we moved the category to "Specialty IPA/Red IPA). The second competition we shipped beers to was in Oregon, and we sent our Haleiwa Island Lager and our Pippy Hopstocking IPA. We changed Hailewa's category from Lager to IPA after the competition.

​We currently entered the NHC and sent 8 beers--4 under each of our names. After the first competitions, we found we needed to change the categories for some of our beers. The best thing to do is to read through the list of categories and then try and match your beers. While creativity is what I like in beers, it isn't what necessarily wins competitions. Make sure you give the judges information you need for them to correctly judge your beers. We made sure that our Tijuana Facelift Lager lists the base beer as a Mexican lager and includes that it is infused with both 5 types of peppers and blood orange. For Haleiwa IPA, we listed it as a Cold IPA that is brewed with jasmine rice and fermented with lager yeast. Last, pay attention to which version of the BJCP they are using for the judging. The categories can sometimes be numbered differently from one year to the next, so you'll want to make sure you follow each competition's category information for submissions. 

The beers we officially entered into the NHC:
1. Pippy Hopstocking-18a: Specialty IPA (21B)
2. Haleiwa-18a: Specialty IPA (21B)
3. Mouth Mittens-18a: Specialty IPA (21B)
4. Basic Bitch Brown Ale-13b: Brown Brit Beer: Brit Brown Ale (13B)
5. Makani Lager-02a: Pale Euro (2A)
6. Tongue Hug Tropical Stout-14c: British Stout: Trop Stout (16C)
7. Tijuana Facelift-29: Spiced Beer: Spice/Herb/Veg Beer (30A)
8. Salute Italian Pilsner-34e: Spec Beer: Mixed Style (34B)

There is a max of 7 beers per entrant. However, we entered the first beer under my name with Mike as a co-brewer and the beers 5-8 under Mike's name with me as a co-brewer. Beers 4-8 are new recipes and the first version of each of the beers. 

Bottling/Canning

Make sure you pay attention to the details related to bottling and canning beer. Some contests specify which color the beer caps must be (typically black); if you do not follow the rules for bottling and canning, your entry may not be judged. Also, many contests do not allow beer bottles with any identifying markings in the glass. The safest method is to buy new bottles specifically for competition. For cans, double check what size of can may be used in the competition. Some only allow 12oz cans. Also, I’d recommend double checking your seaming specs prior to shipping to ensure the tops of the cans are secure. 

We used bottles for competition this year. While we do have an Oktober canning machine, we had the impression that cans weren't as well accepted at competitions since they are newly allowed in competitions. Because of this, we opted to bottle beers for the competitions we enter. Also, we ordered cans with labels pre-applied and decided to purchase bottles for competition use only. We bottled for our first contest using Northern Brewer’s Last Straw and bottled for the NHC using the Boel iTap Bottle Filler. By far, the Boel iTap was our preferred method and there was minimal beer loss when bottling. The most important aspect for competition is to ensure that you sanitize your cans/bottles and purge as much oxygen out as possible. A bench capper is a great and inexpensive way to make the capping process easier and safer...if you've never had a bottle slip with a bottle capper, you are lucky. It's no fun.

We bought some 6 pack bottle holders on Amazon and put each bottle into a labeled holder. The holders are reusable for more competitions. This allowed us to ensure that we did not mislabel any bottles when filling. After filling each bottle, we proceeded to add the labels to each and begin packing them for shipping. We found this method to be an easy and stress free way to bottle up our 8 beers without getting them confused. Also, we could then focus on bottling and shipping on different days so that we weren’t as stressed. 

Boxes

The best line of defense to ensure your beer arrives safely is to ensure you are using a sturdy box. A double-walled box is best; however, you can double box as well. The trick is to ensure that everything in the box is tightly packed and nothing moves. We have packed our bottles both with bubble wrap and Crafty Shipping containers. We did notice a sloshing liquid sound with the Crafty Shipping. However, it is not illegal to send liquid via UPS, so we weren’t too worried. I preferred shipping with bottles wrapped with bubble wrap to the Crafty Shipping. However, I would try a method of shipping the bottles upright in a special container in the future. 

Some companies that have special shipping containers for beer:

1. Whale Pod Shipping: https://whalepodshipper.com/
2. Wine Shipping Boxes: https://www.wineshippingboxes.com/products/twelve-bottle-beer-shipper-kit
3. Crafty Shipping: https://www.craftyshipping.com/
4. UHaul: https://www.uhaul.com/MovingSupplies/Boxes/Kitchen-Moving-Boxes/Wine-Shipping-Kit-Six-Bottles/?mid=169&aid=3575&id=3571#reviewsPanel
5. Uline: https://www.uline.com/

Note: I have not used all of these companies for shipping. We did use the Crafty Shipping containers for NHC and our beers arrived safely. However, there was a slight sloshing sound you could hear because the beers were suspended in the molded container. We also bought boxes from Uline. We do try to be as truthful as possible, so I will share our personal experience with Uline...it was awful. I will never use their company again. They double charged me, refused to correct their double charge, charged me to return items from their mistake, and then sent an order to my house from another account. Their customer services was non existent. I'd rather pay more than deal with the headache from their company. 

Additional shipping supplies

-rubber bands
-trash bag
-ziploc bag (if requested for beer label)
-bubble wrap
-cardboard box
-fragile/this side up stickers
-packing tape
-UPS/FedEx label (we use a Munbyn thermal printer)
Note: DO NOT SHIP VIA USPS!! It is illegal to ship alcohol in the mail via USPS!
Pro tip: Save the air space that are included in Amazon packages for use when shipping bottles! These are great cushioning for your beer and will save you some money on packing materials.

Mailing

1. Plan ahead and make sure you follow the directions and gather all of your packing supplies. This may seem obvious, but give yourself time to ship! We think of shipping about a week out. This allows you to ship early in the week and avoid weekend travel times. Also, planning further out allows you to have cheaper rates and more options. 
2. Mailing with bubble wrap:
   1. Line your box with a trash bag. If a bottle breaks during shipping or a can leaks, the trash bag can help contain the liquid. I have heard that leaks are the number one reason boxes are returned to sender.
   2. Line the bottom of the box (inside the trash bag) with soft packing material.
   3. Wrap each bottle with 2 pieces of bubble wrap; affix with 2 rubber bands--one at the top and one at the bottom. 
   4. Lay each bottle in the box on it’s side and then ensure that the bottles do not move by placing packing material in between. 
   5. Put packing material on top of bottles. 
   6. Close the trash bag and then close the box for shipping.
3. Mailing with shippers:
   1. Line bottom of box with soft packing material. 
   2. Wrap bottle in bubble wrap and place in molded bottle holder. 
   3. Place packing material on top of bottles. 
   4. Close box for shipping. 
4. Put Fragile/This side up stickers on two sides of box. 
5. Weigh boxes and print out UPS/Fedex label and affix to top of box.
6. Drop off boxes at UPS/Fedex for shipping or have pickup scheduled for home. In our area, the home pickup costs more money. I have shipped out our boxes at the UPS store with little issue. I just drop the boxes on the counter.

Note: When you pay online for shipping, you will be asked what are the contents of your box. Typically, I say “glassware” since that is not lying. When sending cans, I will probably say “yeast samples” or “soda care package.”

Tracking

Make sure you get a tracking number for each box you send. When we shipped to the NHC location in Colorado, we shipped 48 total beers (8 entries at 6 beers a piece). We had smaller boxes and filled each box with 4 beers; we shipped out a total of 12 boxes. The total cost for shipping was $201.60 ($16.80 per box)! I’m not sure, but it may be cheaper to ship cans due to the weight of the glass. When we shipped our entries, I paid for all 12 entries at once and each label was under one main tracking number. This made keeping up to date on each entry easy. I’m not going to lie…the time from when we first ship our boxes until I receive a notice that the packages arrived safely is stressful! I’m a worry wort, so I am constantly sketching that something bad will happen in transit. As of today, I am happy to say all 12 of our boxes made it to the NHC for judging!

Now that we are done shipping, we wait to hear from the judges! We are excited to be attending Homebrew Con in Pittsburgh to hear the results! We wish everyone luck and hope that our entries are successful! Hopefully, we will get to meet some of the brewers we interact with online while we are there! 

Cheers! 
2JBC