Hey guys, So, a friend is currently in Belgium and he's arranging to have a case of 12 75cl bottles sent to me from Cantillon. I haven't had most of this stuff, so I thought I might ask here what you guys think I should get. Currently available they have: Classic Gueuze Classic Kriek Lou Pepe Rose de Gambrinus Mamouche Fo Fou Brouscella Grand Cru I have had the Fo Foue before, and liked it quite a bit, but my priority lies in trying new stuff. Also, I would think the Lou pepe trivializes the regular Kriek. So, I was thinking: 3 Lou Pepe 2 classic gueuze 3 Rose de Gambrinus 3 Mamouche 1 Grand Cru But I'd be willing to shuffle things around if any of these are so good in particular that it's better to stack up to the expense of others. Any advice would be well taken! Cheers!
My thought: Skip classic gueuze, rose de gambrinus, and grand cru as you won't have trouble acquiring them here in the states. If you don't find them in store at some point, you can trade for them relatively easy. Load up on the LP, Mam, and Fou!
Given that you haven´t had most of the bottles before I´d avoid the hoarder mentality and go with a selection. Your list is fine imo but fresh Fou Foune is hard to beat, I´d recommend swapping a Mamouche or Rose for one at least. Also don´t knock comparing the regular Kriek to the LPK, they´re completely different, a lambic drinking friend of mine swears by the younger Kriek over the LP. Maybe check a few reviews on Bruocsella (funky, unblended no carbonation) and Mamouche (elderflowers, floral & peppery) they are delicious but very distinctive beers and probably not to everybody´s taste. The only one you´re really missing is St. Lamvinus, lambic made with grapes, unfortunately not released until after xmas. Enjoy tasting them, hopefully not all the same day
I recently had a De Cam Oude Lambicke which was totally flat and I am not entirely happy with it. It was lovely, but it would have just been so much better with moderate carbonation. So, I guess the Bruocsella is flat. The Mamouche sounds spectacular though, so I will definitely stack on that. I've had the regular Kriek and absolutely loved it. Lou Pepe is a bit rarer, so I think I'd want to give those a few spins, or trade if I end up being unimpressed. But I'm still in the air... I haven't actually had their regular Gueuze. Do you think it's worth it, or are the others more interesting?
Lambic is ALWAYS flat... If you want carbonation you should buy gueuze. If you've never had Cantillon Gueuze, go for it!
Guys, so bumped into a problem: Shipping/customs might be hard. It's legal to bring up to five cases of booze into CA for personal consumption--but apparently you have to accompany it (i.e. bring it on the plane with you). This is not possible for my friend. you're also apparently not allowed to ship alcohol by USPS, which is what will end up happening if my sister sends via the National Post in Belgium. One prevailing strategy among beer drinkers seems to be just sending it without reporting that it's booze (saying it's liquid yeast samples or some shit) and hoping for the best. this is risky: if a bottle breaks, or the package gets inspected at customs for some other reason, at best my friend will get in trouble--at worst our Cantillon will be confiscated. Any advice?
I could have them mail it to London to a friend, and then have my friend fly from there with the case, but I don't know if shipping to London is any less troublesome.
Shipping to the UK will not cause you as many of the problems that you encounter with shipping to the US. There's no legal issue - shipping companies can transport alcohol. I posted a box of beer to myself from Belgium a few years back and it arrived safely. If you're worried about having a box sent to the states then this might be a better alternative....
I was wondering about the risks of just having it mailed to the U.S saying it's, I don't know, vinegar.
BPost has shipping costs tiered every 5kg. A 750ml Cantillon is about 1.8kg if you include a bottle shipper. So you can generally get 2 x 750ml + maybe a 375ml into 5kg. 5 x 750ml + maybe a 375ml into a 10kg box etc.
12x 750ml bottles is a heavy box that needs extremely solid packing and is still likely to be noticed by customs. I´d suck up the extra cost and break it into 2x 6 bottle boxes. Use plenty of bubble wrap and double box them, label as glassware/crystal and fingers crossed. It´s a big ask to get a friend to do this, let alone have them bring it over as luggage.
I might bail on this; it seems too problematic. I guess it's back to travelling to breweries to get tradeable stuff . Barrelworks, Alpine, SARA, and (though I don't like them) The Bruery's stuff. This hobby is getting too expensive.
A couple months ago I shipped some Trappist to a friend in the US (California), from Belgium and it went via USPS. It had tape on it saying "inspected by customs", so they had opened the box and strangely enough they just let it pass he received it without any problems. Even though the shipping label "contents" didn't correspond to the actual contents. I've sent several other boxes to the US, always with USPS, never labelled as beer and everything's always arrived fine. The worst that could happen is you lose the beer.
