Anyone ship through MidWest last week?

I didn't ship last week. I'm not shipping this week. Next week looks iffy. I hope temps improve after the 19th. It's driving me nuts.

I've been in communication with the people I'm shipping to & they've been great. One actually had a box returned by fedex because a bottle froze & burst.

One box is low abv beers which are especially vulnerable. Another box contains beers I can't replace (& also some low abv beers). The last box is a mixture but headed to a cold place as well as from a cold place.

As they say, 'Iowa, it's a four letter word.' I hate winter. And snow, ice, wind, but most of all sub zero temps.​

 

I sent a box from Denver to Maryland that got there just fine on Friday.

 

I've sent out three trades from here in Chicago, nothing on either side of the trades has been ruined. Just be smart and tape the caps onto the bottles and package heavy and everything should be fine.

 

Anybody shipping when temps are at or approaching zero is asking for trouble & busted up bottles.

Why take the risk? I've sent/received 300+ boxes over too many years, & if the temp is going to fall into the single digits it's time for the "let's hold off for a bit" message to your trading partner. If the temp is at or below zero, do not ship, unless you have a high tolerance for risk & don't mind re-shipping boxes that freeze up.

Sure, everything might survive. YMMV, but I'm not going to send beers (especially hard-to-get or one-off beers) into the sausage grinder of a Minnesota cold front. Nobody gets hurt by waiting a week or two.

 

No. -30 with the windchill. Just no

 

Keep in mind wind chill has no effect on beer

 

Does the constant vibration of a traveling shipping truck help prevent ice crystals from forming in our beer? Kind of like river currents where the water is constantly moving.

 

I got a surprise box from someone that was dropped off on Thursday and we have been having some "great "weather here in Minnesota. Luckily everything made it safe.

 

Had one come and sent one up to, wait for it.....Alaska.

Ended well on both ends!

 

I sent a box to Chicago from the UP last week when it was -2 or so, he said it was fine although some bottles were "extra cold".

 

I've shipped through some horrible weather, I think problems really only come up when boxes sit outside after delivery. Generally, anyways. Still better safe than sorry so I have a couple trades I'm holding of on

 

Still 0 degrees if that...with or without wind chill.

 

I wouldn't ship into those temps. I shipped a box to my dad in pa and it was a holiday kinda box some beer/ wine other good stuff, the olive oil froze, the beer was really cold he drank one out of the box. I had a box in from Nj and those beers were ice cold, again right out of the box would have worked. Both were two day ships, interisting to see how things would have turned out if it was say an xtra day. Better safe than sorry, you ship into the teens your asking for trouble.

 

Had a box shipped from Colorado last Tuesday to me (northwest IL) and got here on Friday. The highs on Wednesday and Friday were in the low single digits with wind chill near -20F. All the bottles made it. The lowest ABV of the bunch was like 10.7% so that helped I'm sure. Boy were they cold though.

 

I shouldn´t have read this thread. I currently have a low abv box en route to Colorado....
Caps are taped up heavily but I´m wondering if that´s enough.

 

Oh dear, I just found this over on another site.
http://imgur.com/a/M2nXX

 

I shipped a growler of pte from Cali to Indy two weeks ago. When it arrived the beer was really cold but also very much in tact although it only sat on the porch for an hour. Also, last winter I set a bottle of hopslam out in my garage all season - including during the polar freaking vortex - it never froze. If it's decently high in abv you're fine. Cheers

 

Good post. Prettay,prettay,prettay,prettay good.