Shipping Your HomeBrew Competition Entries

So you’ve decided to enter a homebrewing competition – either for fun or to get some really great feedback on your home brew.  What now?  How do you get your beer to the competition site?  How do I make sure everything arrives in one piece? And be sure it won’t get disqualified?  It can be a bit dizzying, so let’s break it down to 3 basic steps.

Step 1 – Bottle Prep

If you keg your home brew and need an easy way to fill a few bottles for competition – try this method.  If you bottle condition you’re probably already set.

Either way, make sure your beer is bottled in a 10-12 ounce bottle – brown glass is preferable (and sometimes required).  If you’re re-using bottles some of the commercial varieties (like Sam Adams) have raised lettering on them.  This usually isn’t a problem – but check the fine print – or email the contact person to verify.

To keep the judging fair there are strict requirements on how the bottles are submitted.  These are the generally accepted directions for labeling your bottles – but you will want to double check the entry form to be sure there are no special requirements.

Generally you won’t end up paying for disqualified entries – but you’ll still be out the shipping cost – and getting disqualified over something silly kind of sucks.

When you fill out the entry form you should also be directed to print out labels for each bottle you will submit. Verify the number of bottles you need to submit for each sub-category you want to enter – usually 1-3 and print out the necessary bottle labels.

Sometimes the bottle labels will be pre-filled out with the correct information for you – others you might have to write in manually.  Be sure you enter the correct category and sub-category for each entry.

Cut apart the labels and then locate your bottles.  To avoid confusing the contents of each bottle, you might want to work with one entry at a time.  Remember that your bottles need to be free of any identifying marks.

Make sure any old label material has been removed and your bottles are capped with either a gold or silver cap. If you’ve used a cap with another design – black it out with a sharpie.

Hold your bottle label against the bottle and put 1 rubber band around the bottle to hold the label in place. Don’t use tape or glue.

Once all of your bottles are labeled it’s time to move on to part 2 – packaging.

Step 2 – Packaging

Don’t count on the shipping company being particularly “friendly” to your package. So let’s make sure everything arrives in one piece.

Start by locating an appropriately sized box. You want just enough room for your bottles and a little packaging material. We’re going to package them so that they can’t move around – so don’t use a box that is too large.  If you have several entries you might want to use multiple boxes to keep them from getting too heavy.

Give each bottle a wrap one time around with bubble wrap and use a small piece of tape to hold it in place.  Some poor volunteer will have to unwrap each bottle – don’t make it a pain for them.

Line the box with a trash bag or other seal-able plastic bag – to contain any leaks – just in case.

Make sure the bottles can’t contact the walls of the box – you might want to line the box with bubble wrap.

To keep the bottles from shifting around in transit – try putting them in a 6-pack carrier – it will probably be a tight fit once they are all wrapped up.

Before you seal the box – make sure that any entry forms and your check are inside – if required!

Close up the opening of the bag and tape the box shut. Make sure the bottles don’t rattle or make any glass on glass noises – or any other suspicious sounds for that matter.

All done?  On to step 3 – dealing with the shipping company!

Step 3 – Shipping

This is possibly the most difficult part of entering a competition – but use these tips to make it a breeze.

First – don’t use the US Postal Service to ship alcohol – it’s technically illegal.  The other major carriers will give you a hard time about it – and do sometimes reject shipments if you identify the contents as alcohol.

The clerk at the shipping store is likely to ask you about the contents when you fill out the shipping label.  Some people will recommend identifying the contents as “yeast samples” or “glass figures” or something like that.

I find the best way is to avoid the conversation altogether.  Register for an account at either Fedex or UPS.  The account is completely free – you only have to pay for actual shipments.

Once you have an account – you can print your own shipping labels at home.  You don’t need any special printing equipment or labels.  Just print them on plain paper and tape them to the box.  Cover the label completely with clear packaging tape to keep it from getting wet.  Make sure there are no wrinkles on the barcode so that the tracking equipment can read it easily.

Now you can just drop your box off at the shipping counter with minimal interaction.  By using your own account and pre-printing your labels you’ll be treated more like a business customer.

Step 4 – Win!

So there you have it.  Now its time for you to enter – and win – some competitions.  If you’d like to take the experience further – try helping out at one as well.  You don’t need to be a judge – there are plenty of other people needed to put on a sucessful competition.

Find a competition in your area and ask the organizer if they need volunteers (they always do).  Or join a home brewing club and help out through them!

Tagged as: bjcp, bottles, competition, how-to, packaging, shipping