Was wondering what the best thing to do if I want to purchase beers from the states as I live in Victoria BC..
How do you mean? Will you be traveling to the US? Or were you looking at ordering on line? Are you just looking for American beers available in BC? If you are traveling, it is pretty simple. Just buy, declare and and go on about your business (after paying any duties and taxes due). Buying on-line is more difficult as I believe there are few if any services that will ship to Canada. This is a legal issue if I am not mistaken, and can only result in headaches. I may be incorrect, and call for anyone who has successfully done this to chime in. As for available US beers in BC, I would have to defer to those people who live there.
Yeah going across the border and bringing beer back is easy enough, you just deal with normal duty rules. Most people I know who order online in BC have it shipped to a PO box/service in Blaine or Bellingham (there might be a closer spot from Victoria). That quells any legal issues, but then you're stuck dealing with duty. If you're just driving across the border and immediately back, you don't get any duty allowance on beer, so you have to pay a pretty high duty rate on *all* of your beer. Whereas if you stay 2+ days in the US, you can bring back 8.5L of beer duty free. Shipping into Canada is risky. It's doable through private couriers like UPS and FedEx, but they almost always have a no-liquor policy, so you risk having your shipment confiscated.
I'd recommend making a weekend trip out of it. Head to Bellingham or Seattle for a few nights, enjoy the local bars, pick up what you want and head back up. as @Kump said you can bring back 8.5L duty free (per person).
