AHA Club Only Competition Suspended

Thanks for all the input. I did manage to get responses from the AHA, UPS, and FedEx. I really wanted to know why they wouldn't allow me to ship the beer. It would appear that the only way to keep shipping out is to try to discretely send the packages.

If we want to keep sending out the AHA club only brews, we may have to look into setting up an online account, and have the packages picked up from my office. It is a little less convenient for me to do that. I assume they're much less likely to ask questions when picking up than when they are in the store and the destination address says "beer" or "brew" in it.

AHA

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This scenario has occurred previously. While it is not against the law to ship your homebrew to a competition, some of the shippers have taken a hard line approach to this. To avoid being confronted as you were, it might be helpful to pay for your package online and then drop it off at the shipper as a prepaid package. If that doesn’t work, you might be able to ship it from your homebrew supply shop, or possibly even a local brewery; sending from either of those two places should not raise any eyebrows. If this doesn’t satisfy the shipping clerk, then it can be helpful to avoid talking about alcohol; I’ve heard of people having success describing the package contents as “yeast samples for analysis.” I hope this helps.

FedEx

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Only licensed entities holding a state and federal license or retailers holding a state license may ship alcohol with FedEx. Consumers may not ship alcohol. Shippers must enter into an approved FedEx Alcohol Shipping Agreement before shipping any alcohol with FedEx. For more information, go to fedex.com/us/wine or contact your FedEx account executive.

UPS

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UPS provides service for other alcoholic beverages (beer and alcohol) on a contract basis only. For shipments containing beer or alcohol, shippers must enter into an approved UPS agreement for the transportation of beer or alcohol as applicable, must be licensed and authorized under applicable law to ship beer and alcohol, and may ship only to licensed consignees. UPS does not accept shipments of beer or alcohol for delivery to consumers. UPS accepts shipments of beer or alcohol only among and between selected states.

i have used the live yeast for analysis, it work every time i have tried.

Hi, It is only illegal to ship alcohol thru the United States Post Office. The other shipping companies can ship alcohol if they choose to. Some do not. In Fargo we have generally not had any problem. Other cities seem to have a lot of problems in other states.

The AHA is working on getting a bill passed thru congress that allows shipping thru the USPS but I am not sure exactly where that is at the moment. They have tried to set up special accounts with UPS or Fed Ex and don't get anywhere since different states have different laws.

The UPS codes state that taxed alcohol can't be shipped unless there is state to state approval such as for the Beer of the Month clubs and Wine shipments - there are still some states that won't allow that - ND is not one of them although some states can't ship to ND. Since these laws all pertain to taxed alcohol they do not apply to homebrew and so it is NOT illegal to ship homebrew technically. In ND homebrew laws follow the federal laws that Jimmy Carter signed. Other states have different laws and in a couple it is still illegal to homebrew - thus those states it would be illegal to ship since homebrew is illegal. This is a very complicated issue and thus why the AHA is having such a hard time getting the laws changed. This is an issue that the AHA has been working on since I was elected to the Governing Committee (then Board of Advisors) in 2000.

For now you either need to ship as suggested below (not thru the USPS as that is illegal) or if you feel you would be breaking laws then just don't ship. Hope this helps a bit. Probably just confused more.

Cheers,
Susan

I asked the members of the PHC as we send out entries to all the club only and lots of other competitions and the reply I got was:
"I always send my beers thru the UPS store – package myself and mark as non-perishable food. They don’t really ask any questions then as non-perishable food is not insurable. Others have shipped as yeast samples. Shipping thru a work location usually works also."
"When asked what's in the box I have said "Yeast samples for analysis" . So far it has worked every time. However, I usually am not asked. "Liquid cookies" worked once too, but seems less accurate than my first answer."

There are also some tips from the beer trading websites:
http://alewatcher.blogspot.com/2010/11/new-trader-tips.html#Packaging

* Setup a shipping account with FedEx or UPS online. This lets you print you labels at home so you can just drop off the boxes. Also, a 10% discount from published rates is standard.

* The sloshing sound of liquid in bottles can be a problem-- two options: mask the sound or explain the sound. Some people drop pennies, rice, beans, tic-tacs, etc into the box to create a rattle sound and cover the sound of sloshing. Other people create fake businesses: Phil's Sno-Globe Emporium, Mike's Aquatic Supplies and pH Testing, Jeff's Vitamin Supply Shop, Bill's BBQ Sauce Co, Nate's Olive Oil, etc. These names being in the shipper info would certainly explain any sloshing sound to a nosy employee. Some people go so far as to order free business cards for their phony company to tape onto the outside of the box.

I did some reading about this a while back and it isn't legal, mainly due to taxes and the whole three tier distribution system, if I remember right. Like Mike mentioned some people just stick to the live yeast sample line. Do you go to a shining store or the main ups/FedEx office?

From now on, I guess we will just have to send "yeast samples" to competitions.

Clearly, another case of discrimination against homebrew.

I kid, though. I know it's really frustrating to Randi, and I don't blame her. Hopefully, we can get to the bottom of this.

I know, right! UPS said you can't even ship wine for Christmas. I've seen LOTS of wine shipped over Christmas. FedEx said you have to be a distributor, and UPS said you need a Liqour License. Pretty sure those are two different things. I've never had this problem before, so I'm not sure why it's such a big deal to them all of the sudden. It's hard to hide when the places you're sending to have 'beer' or 'brew' in the name.

I'm going to keep digging into this to see what you really need to do to be able to ship beer.

I've run into this before as well. How can they ship alcohol for the brew of the month club? I have friends in Bismarck who get that. Wine as well.

I am sorry to say that we have to suspend the AHA Club Only Competition until we can find a shipper. None of the shippers in Bismarck (UPS, FedEx, or USPS) will ship beer. I have shipped beer before, through both places, they usually don't ask what's being shipped but this last time they were very adamant about knowing what was in the box.

I've contacted the AHA to see if they know of a way around this, because I would assume we are not the only ones experiencing this.

I will keep everyone updated.