Beer traveling / shipping experiences / advice

I bought one of these. Works great http://www.thewinecheck.com/ I take it with me on beer trips.

I have done all the options you listed. If I plan on buying more than 12 bottles I normally ship the rest back to myself. It depends on how much it is to check bags, etc... There are plenty of other posts about this if you search around the forums or just google it.

 

You won't find shippers in the state of massachusetts just so you know. Best option if you're planning on a lot of beer is to go to uhaul and buy 4 12 bottle shippers and a roll of tape. It comes out to about $52 and gives you free shipping (on any purchase over $50)

You can check shippers as well (great if you're flying on Southwest) just don't claim beer just say it's fragile and individually wrapped in styrofoam shippers

 

I usually buy 12 bottle shippers and ship them empty to the hotel I will be at, fill them up and ship them back. I grab an extra FedEx plastic sleeve and pre-print my shipping label and bring it in my bag. I usually order the boxes online. They are pricey, but it beats trying to pack and wrap in a hotel room.

 

Brian, whatever you do, do not calculate the extra expense of all of these options and then factor that into the cost per beer. You will not be able to sleep at night if you do.

 

Provided it isn't a large amount of beer, I usually just pack light and fill up the rest of the suitcase with the beer I'm bringing back. I use the ballpark of
12oz bottle = 1 lb
22oz bomber = 2 lbs
750ml bottle= 3 lbs

Take note of your baggage weight when you check in (or weigh it before leaving the house) to get an estiamte of how much you can bring home.
Cheers!

 

Luggage fine for a few things, well packed with bubble wrap but for a sig quantity, it is the worst option. Breakage, inspection, stealing, weight--just a hassle.

Shipping seems best but my zeal for it has just plummetted. Find some rarities you really, really like and send a case back--just enjoy it there as much as possible.

 

In addition to the advice above, I'd recommend putting each bottle into a Ziploc. I flew home with 36 bottles of New Glarus Cran-bic recently and 6-7 of the bottles leaked - no breakage, no caps popped off, the beer just leaked through the caps. I had packed with clothes so it didn't make too big of a mess and luckily my luggage wasn't held up even though I could smell that something had gone wrong even before opening the suitcases. Easily could have been an issue if it hadn't been a nonstop flight. Anyhow, in the future I'm going to always use Ziplocs - 1 gallon bags work for 12 oz bottles but you'll need to get 2 gallon bags for bombers and 750ml bottles.

 

The only way to go is a road trip. See the world, brother!

 

If you are going the suitcase route, wear all the clothes you have packed onto the plain and when your coming home do roughly the same and use the space for beer...

Seriously though, I wouldn't travel with more than a couple bottle in the suitcase. I would just grab some boxes and ship it home to myself to lessen the loss of either theft or explosion.

 

Pack a smaller suitcase in your regular suitcase on the way there, put a letter in there explaining to TSA that you plan on bringing a bunch of things back with you.

 

I travel for work every other week and typically bring back beer with me every time in my checked luggage.

Flying Southwest makes this a pretty reasonable endeavor.

Inside of my roller bad I always keep a few wine sleeves and a piece of cardboard the size of the bad that has two pieces of foam attached to it running lengthwise creating channels. With 2-3 days of clothing I can typically take 6-8 bottles and still stay under the 50 pound limit. If I am tight on space I can move clothing over to my backpack which usually only has my laptop as I don't feel comfortable checking that.

As for larger hauls when I am on vacation I typically pack everything up like it where a trade and check the box.

I've easily transported 500 bottles these ways and only once had a cap loosen. It's a risk I'm willing to take.

 

I remember flying to and from DLD this year being super paranoid about how my bottles would fare in a hard side suitcase. Everything made it there ok, but on the return trip the TSA took a can of beer out and scratched off the wax top on one of the Dark Lord bottles. If I didn't get free checked bags I would almost rather deal with mailing the beer back to myself.

 

You can pack the cans in the 12 bottle shipper too - just stack two per slot and there is no problem. If the cans are 16oz ones then you need to break off some of the Styrofoam form from the top piece of the shipper in that slot so it still goes down flush. I have done this numerous times and it works perfectly : )

 

My beer flying experience: I checked a large bag with all my clothes, shoes, etc, plus 14 bottles of Westy 12 on a Delta flight from Munich to Florida. It all made the journey just fine. I had wrapped them individually in several layers of Saran wrap just in case, then wrapped each of them with clothes for cushion, and strategically positioned them to be away from the exterior of the soft walls of the luggage, but not immediately up against the hard interior ribs.

 

I'm sitting at the airport, headed back home right now and I'm trying both shipping beer back and flying with it in my checked luggage.

I purchased too much to fit all of it in my luggage, without paying a skyrocket extra weight fee so I split my it all up. Half of it is in the checked baggage....three 4-packs of tall cans.

The other half, two bombers and two 4-packs, I shipped out from a UPS shipper near my hotel. I haven't shipped beer before (usually trade local) and this is the first time I've flown with it so it will be interesting to see what happens.

 

Once when on travel, I found my favorite beer shortly before returning home. I had about enough time to wrap the six pack of bottles in dirty clothes and cram it in my checked luggage. Bad move - I did not individually wrap them, so three of them broke. I shared some of my beer with other travelers I'm sure, their bags were likely as soaked as mine. Ship yourself some boxes.

 

Trillium killed you this week didn't they haha

 

You could fly one way, then get a one-way car rental for your return trip and load it up.