We are doing my bachelor party up in Montreal and driving up and making a stop in Vermont to get some HT and probably stopping at HF too. Can I get any suggestions for great beer bars in Montreal? We love IPAs Belgians and sours. Any help is very much appreciated.
Dieu Du Ciel! Also, if you are picking up beer in the US and bringing it to Canada, you can only bring one case per person without having to pay duty. Keep your receipts just to be safe.
Thanks for the heads up on the bringin beer in...I'd be just buying it on the way up to take home. I will scope out all the places suggested.
Biremes et Compagnie - huge beer list, Canadian craft, Belgian lambics , and good food...google for the menu and address
Can someone clarify exactly what can be brought up 24* 12oz? Or is there a volume limit?, 8.5 liters per person? (Potential Montreal visitor scoping Ip trading) and going out same limits 8.5 liters per person? If they charge duty how bad is it?
I had my bachelor party there as well, but I can't remember what was on tap at Wanda's. It's such a great town, I'm sure you'll have a blast no matter what. Just make sure to have one morning after meal at Schwartz's.
It is a volume limit of 8.5L (which is equivalent to 24-12 oz bottles). Duty is BAD but they often screw up the calculation. When they don't screw it up, it amounts to approximately 30% of the cost of the beer.
thanks for that info, its what I thought but assumptions are not a good start in a discussion with a border guard.
I usually just say how many bottles I have, without specifying volume. The border guards tend to assume everything is a 12oz bottle and I've never had them check. Obviously I wouldn't try to use this strategy with 24 750ml bottles, but I've done so with a mixture of bottle sizes. In any case, they're generally too lazy to try to figure out what the total volume is unless you're clearly over the limit, and the mixture of metric and imperial volumes confuses the heck out of them.
Just be aware that the rules are different when you go into Quebec from the US then other provinces are vise versa - and my understanding was that you are only allowed to bring a case of beer *8.5 litres into Quebec at any time regardless of duty etc (unlike Ontario where you can bring one duty free and then up to 45 litres of beer and pay duty).
If you spend more than 48 hours in the US back into Québec you are allowed to bring a case of beer *8.5 litres taxfree + a case of beer *8.5 litres that you need to pay taxes on
That's not a risk I am willing to take, but I know many people who do (like you). The downside risk is just too big IMO because if they do check and find the 24 bombers, you risk them seizing the beer. I'd rather just pay duty to avoid that risk. There are creative ways to minimize your duty
I'm always honest about the number of bottles, and they're certainly welcome to calculate the total volume and charge me the appropriate duty. I just don't actively work out the precise number of litres beforehand or volunteer the info that I might be a bit over the limit. Invariably it's growlers that put me over, and I'm not even sure how they'd calculate duty on those; there's no way to verify the contents and I could claim it's homebrew or something. But yeah, I wouldn't try to sneak through 24 bombers or a 30L keg.
