Beer shipping containers

[bwarbiany]

Hey guys... I'm going to be shipping some homebrew within the next week or two, and wondering where those of you who regularly ship get your shipping containers? I've looked as some online, but spending twice as much as the cost of the boxes/packing to have them shipped to me doesn't seem too smart.

These will only be 12oz bottles... Looking for boxes that will hold 12 each.

Is there anyone locally that carries these?

[lexuschris]

The few times I ship homebrew (for contests, etc.) I always wrap them in bubble wrap, and pad the box pretty well. I've never sent 12 at once, and would be concerned over breakage by packing them so densely.

You may be best off just getting a somewhat larger box, fill it a bit with packing popcorn, then wrap the bottles individually, and pack them loosly with lots of popcorn.

Most common shippers (USPS, FedEx, UPS, etc.) don't really handle one box differently from another. (e.g. not sure if marking it 'fragile' will even help) Might be worth asking about special handling at the UPS center...

Anyways, not much of a help to your original post. I've never found anything like a 12-pack box, other than buying a 12-pack of something and re-using the box.
--LexusChris

[backhousebrew]

Here are some ideas from a Google search
https://www.google.com/search?q=12+bott ... 63&bih=707

[DrDually]

Look for wine shipping boxes...we have shipped wine from New York to CA with no damage
Each bottle is seperated by cardboard dividers...however I would suggest addding popcorn and bubble wrap as noted by Chris above

[Marotte Brewery]

I received a gift of "Beer of the Month" last year for Christmas. The 12 packs of 12oz bottles came in this shipper.

12oz shipper

IMG_0235.JPG (30.83 KiB) Viewed 5529 times

I also shipped beer to Colorado a few years ago (4 cases of 12oz bottles) in similiar shippers that were designed for 375ml wine bottles, made from styrafoam. (the first picture in the google search referenced above)

No issues with any breakage.

One note: These shipments were sent through authorized companies and were marked as alcohol, so UPS may handle those differently...

[dhempy]

Which shipping companies are those? Any marking on the cardboard as to which company makes 'em?

Dan

[Marotte Brewery]

Unfortunately, I threw them out a while back (I moved). I can find out about the 375ml shippers.

The 4 cases I sent to Colorado were shipped via Safe Haven Wine Services in Paso Robles. They ship wine clubs for Wineries to most of the contiguous 48 states. He shipped the beer to CO for my wedding (as I married his daughter).

[bwarbiany]

Thanks guys... I'd love to know if there's someplace local to get the 12-bottle shippers Jeremy mentioned, or the styrofoam one in the google image search?

I just want to avoid shipping empty boxes at equal or higher shipping cost than the boxes themselves.

On the other point, I've spent time loading trucks for UPS back in the day, and while UPS employees are not wantonly reckless with packages, it's generally assumed that you should be packing things well if you hand them over to either them or FedEx

[Marotte Brewery]

This place is in Brea:

http://www.boxvendor.com/wineandbeershi ... esbox.aspx

Box Vendor
(866) 725-9463
1220 Pioneer Street
Brea, CA 92823

$8.47 for a 12 pack shipper

[dhempy]

I am wondering if there is a group buy possibility here somewhere .. especially for those that compete and want to share over a distance. I would think it would need to be a combination of 6 and 12 capacity (because not everyone submits 6 entries per competition Brad!) I did see a container size of 6 on the website (but strangely no break for quantity).

Just throwing it out there to see what sticks.

Dan

[bwarbiany]

This place is in Brea:

http://www.boxvendor.com/wineandbeershi ... esbox.aspx

Box Vendor
(866) 725-9463
1220 Pioneer Street
Brea, CA 92823

$8.47 for a 12 pack shipper

Awesome! Thanks!

[bwarbiany]

I was on the road today to visit a customer so I headed up here to get some boxes. First-rate service, and I'd definitely recommend the guy if you're looking for beer/wine shipping containers. It saves quite a bit over shipping them...

First: call ahead, as it seems to be a small operation, so you want to make sure someone is going to be there.
Second: They're at 1220 Pioneer in Suite K, which is hard to know up front -- no real signage at the entrance.