Nova Scotia putting a stop to 'U brew'

shrike · Post by **shrike** » Tue Jan 15, 2013 4:44 pm

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/video/2096159441001

Swampale · Post by **Swampale** » Tue Jan 15, 2013 5:46 pm

I wonder what the stats are for exactly how much money they are taking away from the province? I bet it hardly scratches the surface. Doesn't UBrews pay taxes to the gov't? Bastards...

cattersley · Post by **cattersley** » Tue Jan 15, 2013 7:34 pm

This is insane.

JeffPorter · Post by **JeffPorter** » Tue Jan 15, 2013 7:52 pm

This is stupid, but The Sun is also stupid.

Just to clarify, though, this isn't some NDP conspiracy to shut down these stores - this is action taken by the NSLC. The NDP, gave them the power to clamp down on liquor laws, and when your laws are from the 20s - well...

I wonder if our LC would do the same thing if those laws were written on the books.

The government should try to intervene here, but the Sun only seemed to mention the political party, instead of the NSLC, because it's such a commie thing to do I assume.

toweringpine · Post by **toweringpine** » Tue Jan 15, 2013 9:52 pm

U brews aren't allowed in Alberta either. I just assumed that it was an old law that would get fixed eventually. It is disturbing to see more places going backwards rather than moving forwards!

Belgian · Post by **Belgian** » Tue Jan 15, 2013 10:47 pm

The bald guy is funny.

Is the NSLC is so greedy and stupid that third-rate U-Brew Shiraz is seen as a threat to their fat lazy profits? I hope it backfires & drives beer and wine-making underground into a kind of 'club' culture of garage brewers sort of working together and sharing information. It would eventually improve the product because U-Brew shop owners seem to only care about the profit margin, not what goes into tha batch. I swear some of them must cut their grape juice with sugar water to cheat the yield (but not the taste).

Now once everyone brewing at home buy & control their own ingredients 100%, the beer and wine quality should go way up, don't you think? Then NSLC will be so much more screwed. Clearly the worst U-Brew plonk is putting them out of money already, so let's hope far more respectable & increasingly popular home-brew will kill them.

rejtable · Post by **rejtable** » Wed Jan 16, 2013 12:15 pm

Belgian wrote:Is the NSLC is so greedy and stupid that third-rate U-Brew Shiraz is seen as a threat to their fat lazy profits?

Ummm, yes.

The big NSLC wharehouse-type store in Chain Lake park used to have those fill yer boots wine taps at the back of the store. I don't recall seeing those taps in the newer store they built across the street, but if they still do I can see that they were at least aware of the possibility of competing against that.

Recall that their cousins in NB once used some trumped up excuse about cheap Québec beer flooding their market to launch they own NBLC branded beer.

And we complain when the LCBO refuses to let us buy a single out of an open six pack. Could be worse!

Belgian · Post by **Belgian** » Wed Jan 16, 2013 1:33 pm

I think that when essentially corrupt economics become part of the state system, this invites people to disobey and undermine the rules. In Parkdale it is known that rummies can buy home-brew wine out of people's basements in plastic bottles.

Extreme example but this sort of unlicensed activity is probably what the provinces are afraid of becoming widespread - all us respectful folks making our own good-quality beer and wine at home, helping each other make it, sharing it, and even slipping the brewer some cash to offset the trouble and expense. That's not good for tax revenue!

cattersley · Post by **cattersley** » Wed Jan 16, 2013 2:38 pm

Wouldn't that be wino's then? LOL.

rejtable · Post by **rejtable** » Wed Jan 16, 2013 3:05 pm

Didn't/doesn't ON have some kind of restriction on these brew-on-premises things? About 10 years ago a few of us got together to order a Grolsh clone from a brew-it-themselves place, and one of us had to go down one night to make a show of dumping the yeast into the carboy/fermenter/thigamajig. We did nothing else but that, but I thought we HAD to at least do something, that it was illegal for us to just pay someone to brew the beer 100% themselves.

No??

Cagiva650 · Post by **Cagiva650** » Wed Jan 16, 2013 4:31 pm

I posted in the "Canadian Beer Talk" section about this.
http://www.bartowel.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=8637
Feel free to vote in the CBC's poll. 94.52% in favour of the U-brews.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scot ... e-kit.html

The NSLC seems to have stirred up a hornet's nest

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scot ... anges.html

Swampale · Post by **Swampale** » Wed Jan 16, 2013 6:29 pm

I have been homebrewing for 30 years and I must owe the gov't thousands of dollars in tax revenue. Too bad for them, they don't deserve it.

ErkLR · Post by **ErkLR** » Wed Jan 16, 2013 11:57 pm

rejtable wrote:for us to just pay someone to brew the beer 100% themselves.

I think that's called a brewery

It's not illegal, just a different license.

In seriousness, it's my understanding (which can be wrong) that if you pitch the yeast, then that's you brewing it, and they are just letting you use their fermenters and bottling machines (since you bought the wort from them).

It's one of those wink-and-a-nudge legal hair-splittings that for once goes the way of your average person... excluding NS.

Belgian · Post by **Belgian** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 12:10 am

ErkLR wrote:
rejtable wrote:for us to just pay someone to brew the beer 100% themselves.
I think that's called a brewery It's not illegal, just a different license.

In seriousness, it's my understanding that if you pitch the yeast, then that's you brewing it, and they are just letting you use their fermenters and bottling machines (si....

Right, it's a work-around to the tax man.

But I've heard of U-brew places pitching the yeast for people, just because nobody is really looking.