Moving with beer

Pods are not insulated and transported outside of temperature control. Depending on time, resources, and how much you care about your bottles I would use a van that myself or a friend drove. Pricier, but not necessarily pricier compared to losing bottles due to temp and rough transport.

 

I shipped my stuff from the Northeast to Central America. Packed everything tightly, no temp control. Was in transport for 2 weeks and sat in customs for an additional week or so. Everything tastes fine, I wouldn't worry.

 

if youre really concerned, move it yourself.

 

i would just ship to yourself...CHEERS

 

It doesn't get that cold in December. You would need sustained temperatures of lower than 20. I would be more concerned with heat in general.

Where and when are you going specifically?

 

in my recent(ish) move from the southeast to new england, my cellar and home brews rode in the air conditioned car, and then were brought into hotel rooms for consumption and baby sitting. worked great!

 

If you pack it well enough to prevent accidental breakage around the bottle carriers then I'd guess that the packing materials would provide good insulation to help prevent wide temp swings. The ambient temp inside a POD with all of your other possessions is not likely to swing that much anyway. I think you'll be okay, especially since it's not January and most of the route will probably be in southern states.

 

Good thing its not the summer!! I would wrap each bottle in thick paper then bubble wrap each bottle, finally I would box them up, I don't see it getting extremely hot but that's just my opinion!!

 

I'd recommend just taking it with you if that's doable (if you are driving). Moved from the mid-west to the east coast over the summer, and except for two animals and a suitcase of clothes that didn't go into the moving truck, my entire car was filled with beer. Made things much easier than worrying about sending them in a hot truck, and I didn't have to do as good a job of packing. Though my car was very visibly weighed down...Depending on how much is in your cellar, shipping could be prohibitively costly. That said, if you're married or moving with an S.O. there may be some anger when informing them that none of their stuff will be coming in the car because your beer will be taking all of the space. That said, its definitely the way to go and they get over it fast. Hope you don't have a long walk outside from your current place or into the new one, because that was by far the worst part of moving all the beer. Get a bunch of case boxes from liquor stores as well, that will help significantly.

 

Not sure on pricing and it depends how big your collection is, but temperature controlled moving companies can guarantee what you are looking for.

 

Pretty good chance I am moving out of NYC in the next month or two. Here are my plans. Step 1 already in progress.

1) Drink/share most everything that will not benefit from more aging (Bonus: I haven't bought beer in weeks)
2) Buy a few 12 bottle shippers. Pack in to well protected boxes myself.
3) The ones I really care about will be in the car with me along with other items I won't trust to the movers.

 

drink your cellar down down down

 

Send yourself a package.

 

Or if you can't send it to yourself find a local BA to send it to. I'm sure someone would be kind enough to hang onto it for a couple days for you. Moving is a pain in the ass no matter what so stopping by UPS the day you leave might not be in the cards. Also this option could get pricey.

Maybe bring a couple extra checked bags with beer? US Air charges $25 a bag but it's cheaper than shipping so I've done that a few times.

 

If you're moving from the north-east to the south-west in the south, I'd just stick them in the POD. I'd box them up in styrofoam bottle shippers with newspaper padding. They'll be treated much better than boxes that get thrown around by FedEx/UPS employees, and people trade their whalezzzzz in December all the time.