From the USA.

Beer trading?

 

If you are posting from the US it is fraught with danger as US Postal Service does not allow the shipping of alcohol. I used to trade extensively with fellow BA's in the US and one way around it is to have the poster mark the package as "collectable glassware" or "yeast samples" this is a strategy that has worked for De Struise Browers for some time and worked for me too. Whatever you do, do not mark it as Beer because it will not make it here.

 

Posting costs are expensive and there are a select few beers that Americans are interested in trading for. Cantillon is one

 

Save all the money you spend on mediocre beer here and take a holiday. Works out about the same as having a dozen bottles sent over...

 

Trading. You would have to front the shipping costs for a trade in America to make it worthwhile. I think the highest trade currency in Australia would be Cantillon, since Australian craft beer, although good, hasn't gained too much traction in the already over saturated American craft beer market.

 

True, but then again the taxes on a whole lot of beer are not much at all really.
IIRC, beer up to 3% ABV gets taxed at $40.15/L of alcohol, >3% ABV at $46.76/L of alcohol.
Just to make it more confusing, (again IIRC) the tax is calculated on the % ABV the beer is above 1.15%.

Example: If you import 24 x 12oz bottles of a 7% IPA, this means that you have a total of 288oz (8.517L) of beer. This is then taxed at $46.76 times 8.517 times (7% - 1.15%) = $23.30

 

The brackets are <1.15%, 1.15-3%, 3%-3.5%, >3.5%, of which the latter two have the same excise rate.

If you change the example before to a 12%ABV beer, then the total excise would be $73.67. More expensive yes, but when you take the original price of the beer in the USA and ad $3 per bottle... I bet it is still cheaper (and fresher) than what you would get here (if you could find it).

The GST thing is a good point, I hadn't thought of that.

Or just bring your 'homebrew' - it's exempt from excise

 

I did the math based on imperial stouts and that sort of stuff with an assumed average of 12% ABV - it works out as about $80-100 in taxes (duty+GST) to bring in 2 6 packs vs free to bring in 1. Pretty big gap from my perspective (more than the extra 6 pack of beer costs - even if it is all goose island bourbon county!)

Also, the paperwork would be a hassle - I would miss my connecting flight if I got stuck in Sydney airport for an hour or so with a bunch of receipts for beer doing tax paperwork! Some of the beer I don't have receipts for (since it is from my cellar) and most of it comes in a 6 pack so you are going to have to explain all this to the customs guy...

Perhaps one year I might try and bring more, but only after a bit more careful planning (ie keeping receipts!) than I have done for this year!

 

Hi,
I have done this a many times,
I have found that if you provide the customs with a print out of all the beer details, inc vol and abv
they have always said "Yeh-Nah" don't worry bout it mate, mostly they are more interested in why you would want to bring beer in, and if you are bringing it in as it's not available in Australia,

also I noticed recently that beer is no longer listed on the inbound declaration card for Aus

 

(Apologies for the long-ass post)

I know this thread is old, but wanted to pass on my experience for bringing beers into AU from the US.

I recently visited the US and accumulated 27 mixed beers totaling 14.5L across two suitcases. Talking to some of the beer nerd locals here who do a lot of overseas travel, their advice was to "declare everything in detail and you'll likely be flagged through with no worries." Sure enough, that's exactly what happened and the customs official said "too hard, just go through". From those I spoke with, they usually bring back ~24 beers or ~14L total, and have only once had to fork out cash (AUD$100).

Back to the OPs topic, I found this other thread on BA that talks about trades and getting beer outside of the US:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...ar-beer-to-australia-looking-for-help.107911/

And in a similar vein to the OP, I have a contact in the US who's keen to hook me up with more awesome US beer by shipping direct to AU. I'm aiming to reciprocate with AU beers (not that there's any comparison!) It sounds like USPS might be the best method of shipping, although seems that marking the package as fragile / vinegar(?) may be the best approach. Worst case they open it and say "bullshit, this ain't no damn vinegar" and confiscate it; best case they just let it through.

The AU duty / taxes is an issue if you're bringing back a substantial amount for re-sale (commercial purposes), but either way I'm sure it's cheaper than a return flight, accommodation, transportation and additional luggage costs (most airlines will charge you for an extra bag or two unless you're a frequent flyer) to bring it back into the country.

Would love to hear from others who have gone through a similar process of trading internationally and how they went with shipping and customs.

Cheers,
Adam.

 

Shipping by post TO Australia is basically no problem. Declare it as BBQ sauce, collectable glassware, yeast samples, etc and it'll be fine. The worst I was ever hit was a quarantine inspection charge on a consignment on three cases.

Your problem will be shipping to the US. An acquaintance from the US who was in Australia tried shipping back a case of Cantillon. Once it was sent back from Australia Post, the second time it got to the US and was bounced back because it was alcohol. Finally, he just decided to sell it to me and cut his losses.

I think others may have had more success shipping to US but it is very hit and miss and can be full of expensive mistakes.

 

So just out of interest, how do traders on this forum manage to trade to/from Australia? Or maybe they don't?
Although I don't have anything that exciting to offer (being in Adelaide, Australia), I'd still love to get involved in trading and finding interesting ways to get hold of US and EU beers down here.

 

My understanding is that it is very limited. I'm not sure what methods they've used.

 

Adam,
There are many groups on Facebook that you can check out - ISO:FT, Barrel Aged and Sour groups etc, strike up a conversation and see who bites. But be careful that you get a honest trader, do some background checks if you can. I was lucky to find a couple of good guys and will use them exclusively, unfortunately I haven't met anyone on the West Coast yet!! And pack and wrap like a paranoid mf, if one bottle breaks, the jig is up and you lose money on freight, beer, the trade and trade respect!!!!

 

Thanks for the advice, CWB - I'll do some digging and see where things lead. I've got a new-found friend in San Jose (works at the bar ISO:beers) who is insisting he's going to ship me some brews at some point. I just have to co-ordinate with him and cough up some funds to get it shipped. I'll let you all know how I go if I get things off the ground

Adam.