How to Package Beer for Shipping: 8 Great Tips You Should Know

Alcoholic drinks like beer, wine, and spirits require extra care when it comes to packaging and shipping. As a brewery or distributor, your main responsibility is to ensure that your shipment is flawless. Otherwise, your alcoholic beverages could get damaged or spoiled, negatively impacting your business. 

To prevent that from happening, you need to rethink your packaging and shipping ways. Our advice is to start things off by learning how to package beer for shipping properly. 

How to Package Beer for Shipping

1. Use Thick-Walled Boxes

Choosing the right box is the first step toward good beer packaging. This is where you will place the bottled or canned beverages and it should be sturdy enough to prevent any damage during shipment. When it comes to this, the best choice is to use double-wall boxes; these provide great cushion and padding that will keep your beers in good condition. 

While single-wall boxes are cheaper than double-walls, the extra price you pay for the latter can go a long way. 

2. Make Use of Bottle Shippers

Now that you have the container settled, the next thing you need to worry about is how you can place beer inside the box. Packing canned beers is easy because you can group them in one case pack. On the other hand, bottled beers can be challenging to wrap since they can easily break.

With bottle shippers, you can worry less about having broken bottles inside your boxes! These come in different shapes, sizes, and textures. Some are made out of egg cartons, while others use cardboard. Either way, both hold the shape of a bottle well and provide good padding too.

3. Add Plenty of Packaging Fillers

Shipping beer is safer when you add packaging fillers inside your boxes. They come in the form of bubble wrap, styrofoam chips, or crumpled paper and fill up the void surrounding the bottles and cans, which in turn add a layer of protection against drops or collisions. Packaging fillers prevent your products from piercing or tearing through your boxes, and as a result, keeps your product in great condition. 

4. Secure Your Packages With a Lot of Tape

After ensuring that the contents of your boxes are secured, it is time to bring out the tape. For this part, make sure to use packaging tape specifically because it lasts a long time and also keeps your boxes safe throughout the shipping process. Besides that, taping is a crucial part of packing since it targets the weak points of a box. By doing so, you can prevent it from ripping due to friction.

Additionally, don’t forget to attach a fragile sticker to your beer and alcohol packages! These are indicators that your parcels should be handled with care.

Tips on Shipping Beer the Right Way

After securely packaging your product, the next thing you need to do is ship your beer and alcohol. Here are some things to keep in mind:

1. Use Corner Protectors on Skids

Skids are wooden pallets where you put your boxes during shipping. These don’t have a bottom deck, which makes them easy to drag around. While these are convenient, their mobile nature can cause damage to your beer bottles due to unexpected drops. With that said, the best way to mitigate this problem is to add corner protectors.

Corner protectors are thick cardboards that stabilize your boxes on top of skids and are shaped to fit the corners of your packages. Attaching these to the edges of your parcels can prevent them from falling while in transit.

2. Learn How to Stack Boxes of Beers Correctly

One thing you should know about shipping beer is the correct stacking method. Depending on the skid size you are using, it is designed to hold a certain amount of weight. Exceeding that will prompt your stacks to lose balance, shift, and fall. That is why you should follow the correct indications to prevent this problem. 

When it comes to stacking, remember to place the heaviest load at the bottom. From there, follow the base outline and place boxes on top of each other. Make sure that none are protruding as a way to prevent shifting.

3. Strap and Secure Your Boxes With Strapping and Plastic

Before you ship your beer or alcohol, make sure to strap the stacks with a heavy-duty polyester strapping first. This is to ensure that none of the boxes will fall while in transit. 

The next thing you need to do is to add another layer of security by wrapping your stacks with shrink-wrap plastic. This holds your boxes in place since the material takes the shape and form of your shipment. 

4. Choose the Right Freight Type

Once your packages of beer and alcohol are secured, it is time to select a freight type. When shipping beer, there are five kinds:

• Truckload;
• Less than truckload;
• Dry van;
• Reefer; and
• Rail. 

When choosing, make sure to take note of each freight type’s specifications. Their lengths and weight capacities will give you an idea of how much beer you can ship from one point to another. Additionally, each freight type has its pros and cons, such as shipping period and costs.

Shipping Beer Is Better When You Choose Brew Movers

If you are looking for the safest solution for shipping beer, Brew Movers is here to help you out! Having two decades of logistics experience, you can rest assured that your shipment will arrive at its destination unscathed.

Contact us now to get a quote for the service you need.