When traveling, I find it important to seek out items (beer) that may not be available in our great state of Ohio. Once you find some gems, you may not want to drink it all when you are away or you may want to bring some items back with you. With air travel on high alert these days, we know that liquids are extremely limited, so you have to stow any beer items in your checked luggage. That can be dangerous. In comes a couple of options in protecting your rare or limited distribution bottles as well as your luggage. WineSkin and VinniBag are a couple of options.
I recently used the WineSkins on a trip from Florida to carry back some Cigar City beers as well as some higher ABV Dogfish Head beers that aren’t distributed to Ohio. When I was scoping out all of the beers, I knew I had too many to drink in a weekend stay so I had to find some way to get some of the beer back to Cleveland with me. Touted as a waterproof product, I was able to convince my wife that everything in our checked luggage would be fine. The WineSkins worked out great and kept my bottles and luggage safe. I picked them up at Total Wine when I picked up the beers. They were about $4 for a two-pack. The only problem with WineSkins is that they are a one-use product.
Some of the places I hit down in Florida…
View FLA in a larger map
While flying down to our destination, I saw a product in the SkyMall that looked perfect. The VinniBag. The VinniBag looks like another nice product for shipping bottles in your luggage, but the price tag is a little higher. At $28 for the first bag, it is restrictive, but the bags are reusable. You also get a discount with more bags purchased.
Both products make it through security and TSA because they are transparent. For the long run, I think I may have to invest in the VinniBag. It is just a shame that both of these products have to skew their naming towards the wine products and not the beer. Snobs.
7 Comments
These are fabulous. My mom – a flight attendant and a big vine fan – will be glad to see this post!
I leave bubble-wrap, tape and small (kid sized) scissors in my largest (always checked)luggage. I also leave a couple of WineSkins. If you tape the bottom rather than using their seal, you can get multiple uses out of the product!
Thanks for the comments, Alicia and Renee. I am definitely going to reuse my WineSkins but it was nice to have the “waterproof” seal, at least to calm Erika’s thoughts that the bottles were going to break and get all over our clothes.
What DFH beers did you bring back? I have been planning a drive into Pennsylvania to find some World Wide Stout, Fort, and Olde School. I wish Ohio would get rid of their 12% ABV cap on beer!
Brian,
I picked up Fort and World Wide Stout to bring back home. Thinking of sitting on the WWS for a while and popping the Fort this spring. Ohio definitely needs to get rid of the ABV laws. Seriously.
Hi Kyle -
I have a VinniBag and I love it. Very useful for any bottled liquid, but I also use it for small breakables. It can hold a couple of different things and keeps them from moving around or smacking into each other. The one-time use thing really bothers me (cost but also landfills) and the VB is really durable and recyclable. Now, if they’d just make one that fit a six pack…
Chris, Thanks for the feedback. I am definitely going to reuse the WineSkins, but they won’t be waterproof anymore. Yes, a 6-pack version would rock.