I finally finished my rye amber ale and bottled two more entries for the National Homebrew Competition. Now on to the packing. I'd been reading up on the best ways to ship bottles, and came up with what I think is an excellent packing method. Here's how I packed my eight bottles for shipment to Austin.
The Supplies
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| NHC entries and shipping supplies |
It takes a lot to pack eight bottles of beer to fly (more on that later). I used:
I'll explain my materials choices as I go through my steps. I already had most of this stuff on hand. The only things I bought specifically for this shipment were the Fragile and This End Up labels.
The Bottles
I put my entries in clean bottles with no raised glass or labels. I tried to use different caps for each entry to keep them straight, but I only had two colors of blank caps. I cut out the labels and placed each one in a fold-top sandwich bag, then attached it with a rubber band.
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| Entry labels wrapped and banded |
The bag will keep the label dry in case a bottle leaks. Some people recommend putting the label in a zip-top bag, but that seemed like overkill ... and I had a bunch of fold-top bags to get rid of.
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| Entries wrapped in zip-top bags |
Each bottle was then placed in a gallon zip-top storage bag. I forced out the air to make boxing easier. This will contain any leaks/breakage, helps the stewards find which bottle is leaking and provides a teeny bit of padding. Some other folks recommend freezer bags or even heat-sealed bags, but again I think that's overkill.
The Box
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| Newspaper lining the bottom of the box |
It just so happens that the box Petco ships my cat food in will fit eight 12oz bottles easily, maybe 10 if you're careful. I kept one that didn't get too beat up bringing CellarCat her tins of Fancy Feast. I took one section of the local paper and placed it in the bottom. I just laid the section in flat rather than crumple it up. This might not be truly necessary, but I felt better having put in some extra cushioning.
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| Kitchen bag liner |
Next, I added a kitchen bag. This is to prevent any leaks from getting to the box itself, which can weaken it and/or draw the attention/ire/wrath of the carrier.
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| Bottles separated by newspaper |
Now, the bottles go in. I then wrapped a folded length of newspaper in a serpentine fashion around the bottles. Two pieces are in a sort of U-shape around six bottles, while a third is simply folded to fit between the two bottles on the far right. This way I can prevent glass-on-glass contact while using a minimum of material. (The stewards really appreciate that.) It looks loose at this point, but that's fine. We'll use other packing material to tighten things up.
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| Wrapping up the liner... |
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| ... and inserting the bubble wrap. |
I loosely wrapped up the top of the liner bag, then slipped the bubble wrap between the bag and the box wall. I had saved up a durable bubble-wrap that used relatively long and narrow bubbles. It slid in to place easily and snugged up the contents. I then placed a few larger bubble-wrap "pillows" on top to fill space. You want the inside to be overfilled, but only slightly.
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| Filler "pillows" on top |
I folded the top flaps down and they didn't close completely, which is how I knew I had filled the space properly. A little light pressure closed the box up neatly.
Taping it Up
I prefer to use reinforced kraft-paper tape for shipping. Plastic tape is fine, but if paper tape is good enough for the likes of Amazon and Petco, it's good enough for me. This tape uses a water-activated glue, and a few sprays of water from a bottle does the trick. It's a bit harder to work with since it doesn't stick immediately, but the adhesive sets up strong. You're effectively gluing the box shut.
If you're reusing a box, make sure it doesn't have any holes or ripped edges. Smaller holes can be patched and flap creases can be repaired, but it's not worth the effort to completely rebuild a box. This box is in great shape, but I added some reinforcing to the short edge along the bottom.
The Weigh-In
The AHA recommends paying for UPS or FedEx shipping online then dropping off the package, probably to avoid uncomfortable questions about what you're shipping. To do that, you need the box dimensions and weight. I put the box on my kitchen scale and it came out to 11.3 pounds. I guesstimated around 10 pounds, so not too far off.
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| 11.3 pounds |
I plugged the data in to FedEx and shipping would be ... $78 for 2 Day Air. Yikes. Unfortunately, life got in the way and it was too late to ship via ground. That would've been maybe $15. So, if you're shipping entries, plan ahead!
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| All dressed up and ready to ship! |
I put the shipping label on top (using plastic shipping tape) and slapped on five Fragile labels and two This End Up labels. I also wrote "Samples for Evaluation" on the shipping label, as recommended by AHA.
As I picked up the box, I gave it a little shake to see how well I packed it. Nothing moved or clinked. It also felt a little bottom-heavy, which makes it more likely to ship right-side up.
I dropped the box off with FedEx without incident on Monday afternoon. The box arrived at Austin Homebrewing just after 8am Wednesday, easily beating the AHA deadline and FedEx's own 4:30pm service guarantee. Nobody has called me about broken bottles, so it seems all eight made it just fine.
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