How many bottles is too many to ship?

First trade, go easy. 14 bottles in one shipment is a lot. Make sure you can send 4 or 5 bottles successfully before 14.

 

Sounds fine to me.

What I do is take out each individual bottle in the six packs, wrap it in bubble wrap, then jam it back into the cardboard holder. This'll protect the bottles & assure they don't move, clank, & bash into one another.

The Pliny-size bottles I'd bubble wrap & toss in individual plastic bags.

IMHO, it's not the amount of bottles, but the total weight that has the potential for trouble. I know people send out monster boxes, but my rule of thumb is no more than 25 lbs. I just don't trust cardboard past that point.

 

I just sent a 35 lb monster in a 20 inch cubed box. I wrap 12oz bottles in four feet of bubble wrap and bombers in 6 feet. I use crumbled up newspaper on the bottom and sides. I lay my bottles laterally and stuff the box with more newspaper until its difficult to close. The trick is stuffing as much newspaper as you can. This prevents all movement. I use fed ex boxes which are rated to 60 lbs.

 

Wrapped right, 14 bottles can fit using box in box. See how here

how to do it

 

I had a guy send me a whole case of ZD, in a small box all arrived intact. Really a marvel.

 

Yeah i don't know I see almost no point in sending small boxes. Its expensive anyway so why send only three or four bottles? Just secure the hell out of it.

 

Bubble wrap. That's really it.

 

That's not too much. I've shipped a couple 50 pound + boxes. Just make sure it's packed tight. Shake it, make sure there is no movement within the box. if there is, stuff it with more paper.

 

I only ship in professional grade wine shippers and never feel comfortable shipping more than 12 bottles. I sent 14 this past week with no issues. Was nervous as hell all week.

...but sent 12 about a year ago and one broke and had a 12 bottle box sent to me a few weeks ago and one broke. Ideally I don't like to send more than 9 bottles in any given box.

 

I try to mostly ship twelve bottle shippers of almost all 750mls. The average weight is about 32 lbs.

 

I've had 24 22-oz bottles sent to me in one box. That's an extreme, but 14-18 isn't unusual. If you're talking smaller bottles, then 24 is pretty easy. The concepts of sending 5 bottles is the same as 20. Pack to prevent glass on glass contact and any movement in the box, then make sure there's at least 2 inches between glass and the wall of the box. Obviously, a 50 pound box needs to be stronger than a 5 pound box. But if you're careful and pack well, the number of bottles is really only constrained to the size of the box. Of course, you're trading off the cost of shipping against the total possible loss if there's a catastrophic problem in shipment.

 

Box in a box in a box with reinforced taping!!

 

I wouldnt ship more than 20 bottles, rarely should more than 12 bottles be sent in a single shipment -- once you approach 12, just use a bottle shipper.

 

Just make sure you use a heavy duty box, or use a double box method. I fuckin hate Walmart, but its the best place to buy shipping supplies. You can get heavy duty boxes in various sizes for less than $2 a box. You should be able to fit those bottles into a 16x16x15 HD box. I've found the key to avoid breakage is making sure your bottles have at minimum an inch of protective material between them and every wall of the box. And that's after you wrap bottles with at least two layers of bubble wrap. If everything is well wrapped, properly positioned, and secure against movement, about the only thing that will take out a box is a forklift through the side. I also always use a trash bag to hold all contents.

 

14 bottles is totally fine as long as you approach it correctly. I'm new to the site but have been sending beer back and forth to friends for over a decade in different parts of the county and never had an issue. My recommendation would be:

1) Always double box (surround inner box with peanuts or like material). This gives a buffer zone to absorb some shock if the box is bumped on the side.
2) Never use packing tape for wrapping the bottles or material inside the inner box - always use masking tape. Packing tape ruins the packing material. Masking tape peels right off and will allow the recipient to reuse the packing material.
3) Place each bottle inside a ziplock bag and seal it.
4) Wrap each bottle individually in bubble wrap making sure the entire bottle is covered.
5) Make sure in the inner box there is bubble wrap on all sides of the bottles - bottom, sides, etc. Basically you have a little bubble wrap enclosed space inside the inner box for placing your bottles in.
6) Bottles can be stacked horizontally to decrease sloshing but is not necessary if you follow step 8
7) Seal the inner box
7a) You can also wrap a large garbage bag around the inner box and tape it up really good if you want to get extra protection for breakage but usually the zip lock is enough.
8) If you have an empty prescription bottle place a couple pennies inside that and place 2 of those inside the area between the inner box and outer box. This creates a loud rattling noise if anyone shakes the box so they don't hear beer sloshing around. I've experimented with dozens of different shakers and I find the pennies in the prescription bottle to work the best.
9) Ship via Fedex

Also, go to Fedex and create an account. You will save like $10 on shipping for a large box like that. You can also print out labels, etc at home with an account.

Now, some might say what I mentioned above is overkill but I've probably sent several hundred boxes back and forth over the years and I've never had a broken bottle. So, stick with what works.