Sending beer from US to Canada

[HMS_Irruncible]

I want to send some home-brewed beer to friends in Vancouver as a gift, about 4 to 8 liters of ale, through UPS or Fedex. Can someone give me a summary of the customs/import requirements or point me to a good, concise site on this?

I’ve googled it and the results were a large volume of unrelated regulations that I’m having trouble sifting through, mainly relating to commercial vendors. I hope that as a small-volume gift shipment the customs and import barriers wouldn’t be great, and I’m not trying to evade the excise tax. I just want to fill out a couple of forms, pay a little money, and send my friends some good beer.

[Common_Tater]

Technically, you cannot legally send alcohol this way. Not to say it isn’t done. Wrap it well and double box it.

[Cerowyn]

According to the Canada Border Service Agency, you can bring in up to eight litres of beer, but I don’t know what the limit is for sending it. However, from that site:

If you have any other questions, contact the Border Information Service (BIS) line. This is a 24-hour telephone service that automatically answers all incoming calls and provides general border services information. You can access BIS free of charge throughout Canada by calling 1-800-461-9999. If you are calling from outside Canada, you can access BIS by calling 204-983-3500 or 506-636-5064 (long-distance charges will apply). If you call during regular business hours (8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. local time, Monday to Friday, except holidays), you can speak directly to an agent by pressing “0” at any time.

Area code 204 is Manitoba, so Central time zone. Area code 506 is New Brunswick, which is the Atlantic time zone (one hour later than Eastern).

[samclem]

@Common Tater

Technically, you cannot legally send alcohol this way. Not to say it isn’t done. Wrap it well and double box it.

Common Tater Encouraging someone to break the law is frowned upon here. Don’t do this again.

samclem GQ moderator

PS–since you assert it’s against the law, could you offer a cite for why? That may help the OP to determine if there’s any legal way to do it.

[HMS_Irruncible]

@samclem

Could you offer a cite for why? That may help the OP to determine if there’s any legal way to do it.

I’m scratching my head envisioning a Customs agent opening a box only to find a second box, shrugging his shoulders, and saying “well, it’s double-boxed, I guess we have to let it in without inspecting it. Hope it’s not a bomb or anything.”

Thanks to Cerowyn for that handy 800 number, I’ll give them a call tomorrow.

[silenus]

@samclem

PS–since you assert it’s against the law, could you offer a cite for why? That may help the OP to determine if there’s any legal way to do it.

It’s against the law to ship alcohol to people in the US if you don’t have a license. When I ship beer to homebrew contests, we say “For Evaluative Purposes” which is one of the legal loopholes.

[Common_Tater]

Double boxing is the preferred method of sending fragile items, the suggestion has nothing to do with foiling the customs man. In no way was I encouraging anyone to break the law, just encouraging them not to break the bottles! Sorry, I’ll go stand in the corner now.

[MannyL]

@silenus

It’s against the law to ship alcohol to people in the US if you don’t have a license. When I ship beer to homebrew contests, we say “For Evaluative Purposes” which is one of the legal loopholes.

the OP is going from US to Canada

[silenus]

It’s starting in the US, which means it’s subject to US law as well as Canadian law.