I recently received a trade with the caps wrapped in electrical tape. First time I've seen someone do that. Is it something people do often and does it help? What are some other extra precautions other then the typical stuff you take to make sure the beer arrives safely?
I started doing it early on once I heard back from a trading partner that a bottle had leaked through the sealed cap. Haven't had a problem since. Tape is especially necessary for growlers. Any shifting during transit has the risk of causing flip tops to open and screw tops to unscrew. If I'm shipping into cold weather, I'll put everything in ziploc bags and wrap the entire lot of bottle up in a trashbag. This is of course after first getting confirmation from your trading partner that they're OK with the risk of shipping into the cold. I see the box within a box from time to time.
Sealing the bottles is an excellent precaution IMHO, but electrical tape can leave a sticky residue behind. Instead use self-fusing rubber tape -- seals better and leaves nothing behind when you take it off.
Really a nice touch on our last trade. No residue and I think the rubber tape is good to avoid an accidental bumpt that may loosen the cap.
I electrical tape every bottle I send out unless it has tons of wax on it. Some bottles have very thin wax coating like the New Glarus bombers and I still tape the hell out of them. It's just added security just like taping a box extra well. Kind of lazy not to do it.
I tape the heck out of cork/cage tops (i.e. if a cork could pop due to temp changes), and of course growlers. I don't tape regular capped bottles. The precaution is nice, but in my experience it's completely unnecessary.
I can understand your reasoning as most bottles don't leak but I have received bottles that leaked and 1/3 of the beer was lost due to what was likely a cap that was not as tight as most caps. This happened in typical summer conditions so no freezing was involved. It was an extra so no big deal anyway but I have a feeling if the bottle cap was taped it would not have leaked. While it might not be necessary 99% of the time, if I can prevent one of the bottles I send from leaking and potentially giving the carrier a reason to scrap the box it's worth it to me. Better safe than sorry as some boxes sent out aren't cheap to replace.
I wax all of my bottles with Paraffin before sending them. Then I give them a layer of bubble wrap, followed by a plastic grocery bag taped shut. The idea is that if the bottle breaks, there's an extra, sealed barrier between it and the rest of the box. Plus wax looks cool as hell.
I always electrical tape my bottles, leaving a little tab at the end to make removal a little easier. After reading your post, I am going to look into the tape you use at the local hardware store. Thanks!
