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Does anyone know about the laws when it comes to shipping beers to individual states?

I am from Kentucky, which does not allow an individual to have alcohol shipped directly to their home address.

Is there a way around this? Are the states doing anything that may legalize this?

I would love to start being able to participate in beer of the month clubs.

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  • There will be dozens of laws around the country depending on the state and perhaps even the county. This is too broad. – wax eagle Jan 30 '14 at 17:55
  • This is pertaining to the United States. I understand that each state is different, but I didn't know if there were any work arounds. – JLott Jan 30 '14 at 17:57
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    I'm confused about these "in the U.S." questions. They're always gonna be closed because "it depends on the state." But then I've seen questions closed because, "if we allow this, we'd have to allow an identical question for every state (or country)." Which is it? Personally, I think it's perfectly okay to ask about a country, and for someone to answer based on several states and say something like, "It depends on the state—for example, in New York [...] but in California [...]—so check for similar clauses in your state/municipal laws." – Andrew Cheong Jan 30 '14 at 18:03
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    To preserver this comment thread for posterity, how about posting in meta.beer.stackexchange.com/questions/51/us-law-questions ? – Fishtoaster Jan 30 '14 at 18:47
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    @object88 worth a suggestion in the meta discussion. It's certainly an option. Not necessarily a good one. (Simply because it may lack the specificity to speak to a specific situation) – wax eagle Jan 30 '14 at 21:56
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I'm not sure about Kentucky, but it seems to be legal here in NY. I've never ordered beer online as the shipping prices are astronomical and I've got a pretty decent beer distributor down the block with a large selection.

With that said, the way it seems to work is that the delivery person (whether it be UPS, FedEx, DHL, USPS, etc) ID's you at the door when you sign for the package. I've got a big dog (Neapolitan Mastiff) though, so my package carriers usually just sign for me and run for the hills when they have the displeasure of delivering something to my house haha. So I'm not sure if they'd bother checking my ID if I ever bought beer online. I'm perfectly legal drinking age though, so it doesn't matter.

With that said, you'd probably be best off looking through your local laws and maybe start a petition to have it legalized. I don't think its in the best interests of this community to be discussing loopholes in the law (despite how much I hate the government). I say start a petition, maybe it'll become a proposition and be placed on the ballot come election day. The only other option would be to have it shipped to another address in a border state if you live near the border. No online beer distributor is going to violate the law or tamper with it to make a buck, there's too much liability; they could lose their license and be put out of business.

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