Shipping beer by overnight air...

[MTate37]

Should it be done? Or will the differences in air pressure cause problems? I've done a lot of searching online and can't seem to find anything that answers this question.

My sister bought me a growler of some Arizona beer at an elevation of about 8,000 feet. She said that when they got down to under 2,000 feet they started smelling beer in the car and discovered that the growler had started leaking. She said the cap was tight when they bought it so they feel like the leak was air pressure related.

I'm shipping my first trade tomorrow and would prefer to ship by overnight or second day air as I get negotiated UPS rates.

Does anyone have any experience?

Thanks!

 

[mtnagel]

So are you shipping a growler or a bottle of beer?

If a capped bottle, then it should be fine. We travel with beer all the time in planes. Obviously the beer goes in the checked luggage. Assuming the pressure differences aren't that much different from the cargo hold of a passenger jet to a shipping plane, that is.

 

[Johnnyhitch1]

Ive done 15+ trades on here and have never had a problem with ground shipments, i tend to trade less in the summer due to heat and the packages sitting in brown trucks all day so that could be your advantage for next day but if its costing you more than 10-15$ i would say just go ground.

Since bottles are capped and permenatly sealed i dont think youll have any problems with altitude, i dont think that was the problem with the growler also.
If anything as altitude decreases so does pressure, i could see it possibly leaking going from 2 to 8k feet but not the other way around...
Many people "trade" full growlers also and dont have a problem.

Cheers!

 

[MTate37]

I will be shipping bottles. With the nasty heat we've been dealing with I would rather ship overnight. With negotiated rates I can ship overnight at a very reasonable rate.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Bear in mind that the less headspace you have, the less you have to worry about...

I had a growler that was sitting in ice in a cooler on a boat, and drank about half the growler while out on a cruise. That night, I had taken the half-full growler back home and put it in the fridge (where it warmed up), and when I tried to open it later that night I nearly lost the cap as the internal headspace pressure had gotten quite high. It wasn't an altitude issue; rather it was temperature that caused the pressure change.

That said, if there wasn't half-a-growler full of headspace in there, it wouldn't have done it.

 

[Xpertskir]

Ive flown with beer a lot.

Cabins and baggage compartments are pressurized to ~5000 feet.

Ive also driven beer from 10,500 ft down to sea level without issue, which is far more extreme an air pressure change than the plane example above.

Are you shipping a growler?

 

[MTate37]

Nope...just bottles.

The thought of shipping a growler has never crossed my mind. Do growlers really keep long enough to ship?

I recently bought a growler of Brooklyn's Blast IPA in Atlanta to bring home to Birmingham for a get together that night. Not realizing it was a 9% beer, I decided to wait a night so that I could be home when I drank it. There was a notable difference in the sample I tasted when I bought the growler and the beer the day after purchase.

Ive flown with beer a lot.

Cabins and baggage compartments are pressurized to ~5000 feet.

Ive also driven beer from 10,500 ft down to sea level without issue, which is far more extreme an air pressure change than the plane example above.

Are you shipping a growler?

 

[Xpertskir]

You have nothing to worry about with just bottles, ship away. Id personally be very happy to receive next day beers in our current weather. I'm not big into trading or buying mail order yeast in the summer.

Yes, people do ship growlers, especially the "grolsch top." Russian River has those style of growlers and they claim one month if unopened and refrigerated.

 

[MTate37]

Wow!!! That's good to know. I would love getting a growler from Russian River. I would even happily pay the shipping costs for that. I guess with enough freezer packs it shouldn't be too difficult keeping a growler cold for overnight shipping.

You have nothing to worry about with just bottles, ship away. Id personally be very happy to receive next day beers in our current weather. I'm not big into trading or buying mail order yeast in the summer.

Yes, people do ship growlers, especially the "grolsch top." Russian River has those style of growlers and they claim one month if unopened and refrigerated.