Customs regulations

Ale Belly · Post by **Ale Belly** » Wed Feb 24, 2010 8:59 pm

I'm honeymooning in Europe this June- Belgium, Paris, Germany- and I'm interested (obviously) in brining some good beer home to share with friends and fam. Is anyone familiar with international customs regulations? The Border Services website lists the common exemption rules that I'm familiar with from travelling to the US by car- 24 cans or bottles tax free- but do these same rules apply to international air travel? Apart from the tax emptions, I don't see any other limits for importing alcohol, does that mean that I can bring back any amount of beer that I want as long as I pay tax after the first 24 bottles? I won't be brining back more than 24 bottles anyway, I'm just curious.. Any body have any experience or insight?

Ale Belly · Post by **Ale Belly** » Wed Feb 24, 2010 9:06 pm

Just realised that I posted this in the 'LCBO and Beer Store' forum. Whoops. As I'm posting Team Canada is up 7-3 and I'm three homebrews and two Welly County Ale's deep.. guess I got a little excited!

Sanchex · Post by **Sanchex** » Wed Feb 24, 2010 11:23 pm

that's about right. i travel quite bit to the US and routinely bring back at least the equivalent of a 24 if not more. i haven't had to pay taxes on anything yet (knock on wood). the only response i've gotten is amazement that i can fit so much beer in my luggage without breaking. make sure you pack your suitcase tight and line the outside with cardboard. works everytime.

Ale Belly · Post by **Ale Belly** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 6:39 am

Does it go in your carry-on bag or can it be checked with your stowed luggage?

icemachine · Post by **icemachine** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 7:35 am

Ale Belly wrote:Does it go in your carry-on bag or can it be checked with your stowed luggage?

It's got to be checked, I recall watching another couple have to put aside wine when returning from Greece. Silly 3x100ml rules. Although once you are in duty free you can buy bottles.

JerCraigs · Post by **JerCraigs** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 9:39 am

I'm pretty sure the limits are the same for international as for the US. My Belgian haul was limited more by weight than legalities - I actually bought a second suitcase in Brussels to bring it all home in.

phirleh · Post by **phirleh** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:14 am

Sanchex wrote:that's about right. i travel quite bit to the US and routinely bring back at least the equivalent of a 24 if not more. i haven't had to pay taxes on anything yet (knock on wood). the only response i've gotten is amazement that i can fit so much beer in my luggage without breaking. make sure you pack your suitcase tight and line the outside with cardboard. works everytime.

When I went to New York last year, I had a 12 bottle foam wine shipper that I trimmed down to an 8 bottle shipper, it took up half my suitcase. I ended up bringing about 10 bombers back and it put my luggage at almost the maximum at 66 lbs (max on porter is about 70). They didn't charge me for the extra weight but it would have resulted in about $50 extra. It worked very well though.

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sstackho · Post by **sstackho** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:32 am

Yup, same rules for importing regardless of where you are coming from. However, you could be subject to another province's import rules if you weren't landing in Ontario.

Assuming you are landing in Ontario, you can bring in up to 45 litres of booze (over 5 cases of beer) if you are willing to pay the taxes - and willing to haul it all around!

Happy honeymooning.

inertiaboy · Post by **inertiaboy** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:52 am

sstackho wrote:Assuming you are landing in Ontario, you can bring in up to 45 litres of booze (over 5 cases of beer) if you are willing to pay the taxes - and willing to haul it all around!

If you land in Quebec, you can bring in 1 case duty-free and 1 case with duty. This is especially important when you are returning from the US by car and have a choice of routes.

Ale Belly · Post by **Ale Belly** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 11:27 am

Thanks for the info. I can start planning my haul.

Next question - I'm quite familiar with Germany and it's beer offerings and Paris is mostly for the new bride, but I need some tips on Belgium. I'm staying in Bruge and I'll probably get an afternoon or two to drag the wife to a couple of breweries- any suggestions to which are best to see? Any reccomendations for pubs or resturants? Any suggestions for beers to sample and/or return with?

kwjd · Post by **kwjd** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 11:27 am

When I was flying back from Portland I had 13 bombers in my suitcase. Each bottle was in a sock, then I wrapped those around my other clothes. Total weight of my suitcase was 57 pounds and the limit for United was 50 pounds. I put some stuff from the suit case to my carry on and was able to get it down to about 54 pounds. I tell the guy that it is the beer in my suit case that has all the weight and I really wanted to bring it back to Toronto because we can't get any of them there. He seemed to understand my issue and just accepted 54 pounds as being <= 50 pounds. I love Portland.

inertiaboy · Post by **inertiaboy** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 11:50 am

Ale Belly wrote:Thanks for the info. I can start planning my haul.

Next question - I'm quite familiar with Germany and it's beer offerings and Paris is mostly for the new bride, but I need some tips on Belgium. I'm staying in Bruge and I'll probably get an afternoon or two to drag the wife to a couple of breweries- any suggestions to which are best to see? Any reccomendations for pubs or resturants? Any suggestions for beers to sample and/or return with?

Here is the thread for recommendations for Belgium

The_Jester · Post by **The_Jester** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:54 pm

phirleh wrote:...When I went to New York last year, I had a 12 bottle foam wine shipper that I trimmed down to an 8 bottle shipper...

Pray tell, where would one find the aforementioned foam wine shippers? Please and thank-you.

phirleh · Post by **phirleh** » Fri Feb 26, 2010 5:12 am

The_Jester wrote:
phirleh wrote:...When I went to New York last year, I had a 12 bottle foam wine shipper that I trimmed down to an 8 bottle shipper...
Pray tell, where would one find the aforementioned foam wine shippers? Please and thank-you.

I'm lucky, the company across the hall from me is a wine importer so they had tons of them, but I remember seeing in another thread that you could get them from Uhaul in their shipping supplies

Belgian · Post by **Belgian** » Fri Feb 26, 2010 3:11 pm

kwjd wrote:When I was flying back from Portland I had 13 bombers in my suitcase. Each bottle was in a sock, then I wrapped those around my other clothes.

Ziplok bags on each bottle are good in case one breaks.