July 14th, 2015
Spirited Shipper – Sending Beer to a Buddy
On Friday, we’re off to the 6th Annual Beer Bloggers Conference, in Asheville, NC. Here’s a quick nod to one of the 2014 sponsors!
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Last year at the Beer Bloggers Conference, Spirited Shipper (sponsor) provide us with a beer shipping box designed for a dozen 12 oz. beers. After the conference, it took a while before we had the opportunity to test it out, but needless to say, we sent it on a voyage from Massachusetts to Oregon.
According to the Spirited Shipper website, they have been operating for almost 30 years. They created and patented shipping materials during times when it was difficult to find reliable and sturdy packaging to ship delicate items.
I wouldn’t say I was skeptical about shipping beer to a friend (more paranoid that despite all my attempts at packing the beer with the utmost care would still result in broken dreams). Once I worked up the courage to ship the box, I gathered a menagerie of my favorite New England Beers to ship out west. I even grabbed a 2007 Redhook Treble Hook from my basement for a surprise.
Assembling and packing the box was quite easy and nearly effortless. The A-B-C directions printed on the cardboard was easy to follow. Although I was nervous that each of the bottle inserts had an opening towards the bottom of one of the sides that exposed a portion of the glass, I followed the instructions (please inform my wife).
When the packaging job was complete, I brought the box to the local shipping store. I quickly discovered that the Spirited Shipper logo on the side of the box was an albatross and may prevent me from shipping my suds from that location (store policy was not to ship alcohol of any sort). Frustration was building and I refused to be defeated. So I purchased some brown paper, wrapped the box and went to an alternate shipping facility where no questions were asked about the contents of my package (other than my declaration that it was in fact a gift).
Five days later, I received confirmation that the box had arrived in Oregon, safe and sound looking brand new. SUCCESS!! The souvenir bottles arrived safely.
I look forward to shipping more beer with the Spirited Shipper in the future. I am thinking about purchasing a few of the smaller/wine boxes, which support 22 oz. bombers as opposed to shipping a dozen 12 oz. beers at a time.
On to the next journey!
– Ryan