I'll be visiting Vermont soon and plan on making some beer purchases during the trip. I was wondering if FedEx retail stores in the state are allowed to ship bottles of beer to California.
While you may not be able to get away with shipping beer, I'm sure if you packed up some yeast samples suspended in solution you could mail them to CA from VT. Just make sure they are packed very well.
It's against both fedex and ups policy; it's illegal with USPS (though that is changing, I believe). And yet, beer is traded and shipped all the time. Pack it very well (see the various trading forums for links to tips on this), and – as you've seen above – if they ask, have a plausible answer that does not put the retail store counter person in the unfortunate position of declining to ship a package they really don't care about.
If you ship beer to or from Vermont, you'll most likely go to jail. In fact just by posting this you're probably on some list - lawyer up buddy.
I think VT is part of Canada so you'll have to pay international shipping. Kidding! I've got a friend in Montpelier who I ship beers to from time to time. The UPS stores don't typically ask what's in the box, but if they did I say homemade salsa and hot sauce.
