Jack Curtin’s LIQUID DIET

Apparently, I discovered this morning, breweries can ship beer to beer writers in Pennsylvania via Federal Express if they do so through any depot except the one in King of Prussia.

Last evening, I received bottles of Michelob Dunkel Weisse and Michelob Pale Ale from St. Louis, via the Exton depot, three days after they were shipped, right on schedule.

This morning, I went online to discover that a shipment containing the new Budweiser American Ale, one I know that Don Russell has already received in Philadelphia because he wrote about it (his Beer Radar blog is currently blocked so I can’t link), was being returned to sender as improper (The Horror! The Horror!) via the KOP  depot. Talking with the supervisor there achieve nothing aside from raising my blood pressure.

Nobody, by the way, can explain what happened to the first shipment of Bud American Ale, which was reported delivered to me on August 2 but wasn’t.

I have received many shipments from AB with no problems for several years now. I will note that, early on, they got around any shipping issues by having cases of whatever they were promoting dropped off by a distributor sales rep or a delivery truck–you should have seen the expressions on the face of those guys, especially the first baffled sales rep who turned up at my front door after having been thoroughly lost for hours.

This ticks me off.

I have beer shipped to me all the time by a lot of breweries, some of them one-shot promos, others semi-ongoing. Since writing about beer is my profession, that service is very valuable in order for me to stay current with the market. I don’t like it one little bit when some dolt at some shipping depot decides that he will enforce a law nobody else seems to care about.

Still, it is the law that is the issue here. You know what we need? We need somebody to organize a protest about this and other failings of the PLCB.

Tags: Beer Writing, Commentary //