Gary, is there anything being done about being able to ship through FedEx or UPS without violating their policies or state laws?
We have tried getting FedEx and UPS to change their policies, but those discussions never got very far. We briefly were able to get DHL to say they would accept shipments of homebrew, but that was short lived.
The AHA is working through the Brewers Association on shipping homebrew for competitions at the federal level. I can't go into any more detail than that at this point.
State shipping laws are primarily aimed at ensuring the state collects tax revenue on alcohol purchases and preventing alcohol from being shipped to minors. Homebrew shipped for competitions doesn't fall under either of those two issues. We have not yet seen any state shipping laws being interpreted to ban shipment of homebrew for organized affairs, like competitions. That could happen, but is unlikely, unless homebrew ends up in the hands of minors or gets serve to the public or something along those lines.
Changing state alcohol shipping laws would be very complicated - I think much more so than legalizing homebrewing or adjusting state laws to allow for club meetings and competitions. For now, the AHA is focusing it's attention on legislation aimed at legalizing homebrewing in Alabama and Mississippi and addressing issues that arise around homebrewing rights like serving homebrew at club meetings and at competitions.