Moving to Australia - no taxes on homebrew?

[hirschb]

It looks like we're probably moving to Townsville from the US in early 2016. I'm currently sitting on ~30gal of Flanders red and faux-Lambic beer that needs quite a bit more time aging. I was looking up what the tax rate is for importing beer to Australia, and my god it's expensive! I also read on another site that homebrew is not charged a customs fee. Is this true? I'd hate to dump 30gal of ~1 year old beer or pay a small fortune in customs fees.
Other questions:
Do you use the same fittings for propane tanks in Australia that we do in the States? I use a Blichman burner, and I hope it's easy to get propane refills in Australia.
Are there certain items/ingredients that are hard to find in Australia? I'm already planning on bringing over several yeast samples from boutique yeast companies in the US (The Yeast Bay and East Coast Yeast), but I'm wondering if there is anything else that I should bring that is difficult/hard to find in Australia?
Thank in advance for any help/advice.

 

[Pogierob]

I doubt you would get the beer through without paying a small fortune,
I would suggest you start inviting people over on the weekend to assist in the beers consumption, since you only have 6 months to go.

I think you will find that we have most ingredients that you might require, you might have to be more specific as to which ingredients you are concerned about.

Welcome and happy brewing

 

[Spiesy]

I think the freight (and tax) on brining in that quantity of beer would far outweigh any possible pro's of importation.

Gas fittings are different here.

And as Rob mentioned, you shouldn't have any issue acquiring most ingredients locally - check out some of the local homebrew shops online, that will give you some idea.

 

[tiprya]

I think our propane (gas) tanks use a different fitting. So probably best to leave your old tank and get a new one here - you can get a new fitting for your burner to fit our tanks I think.

Barleyman is the only supplier of yeast bay in australia, and we have no way of getting ECY. In terms of other ingredients, you shouldnt have any problems, unles syou want US malt - we don't get much of that, but lots of UK/German (and local) stuff.

I wouldn't bother bringing the beer, I'd bottle it and store it for the times you visit the US

 

[Liam_snorkel]

White Labs, Wyeast and The Yeast Bay are all available in Aus. I'm not sure about East Coast Yeast.

 

[sp0rk]

As the others have said, gas fittings are different, but you should be able to get the required pieces from your local gas fitter
And again, many US ingredients aren't available here, I've searched high and low for Honey Malt, but it just doesn't exist here

Most ingredients are quite a bit more expensive as well, plus finding bulk liquid malt can be hard in places (if you use it)

 

[hirschb]

Nice that TYB is available in Australia! Some friends just just brewed a killer IPA with the TYB Funktown blend, so I'll take the recipe with me!
ECY is difficult to buy in the US, so I cannot imagine that many/anybody has used it in Australia.
OK, so the consensus is that I do have to pay taxes on homebrew? Does anyone know for sure? I saw one website that claimed it wasn't taxable.
Yeah, I'd try to consume the beer now, but it's not ready to drink, and will not be ready for at least another 6-18 months (sour beers made using pedio/brett/lacto need a long time to age).

 

[hirschb]

OK, I'll leave my propane tanks in the US (I can imagine that the shipping company would not be happy shipping those anyway).
I imagine that finding a new fitting for my burner shouldn't be too hard.

 

[wynnum1]

Are you bringing a vehicle they sell US converted for Australia for big money in Australia .

 

[hirschb]

No, not bringing a car. I cannot imagine that my Honda Fit would sell for big bucks.....

 

[Bribie G]

Welcome to the forum, a few links that you may find useful:

Propane is widely used and there's a national network of "swap n go" places where you own your current bottle but when it's empty you just swap for the cost of the gas (around $AUD 22 for a 9 kilo bottle) then you legally own that new bottle.
Initially you buy your brand new empty bottle from a hardware store for about $AUD 35.

I use either Masters (same as Lowes in the USA) or go to a large camping store where they will actually refill you on the spot for around $AUD 20.
If you go to a good plumbing / gasfitting store they will advise on adaptor, or whether your burner can be modified.

For a comprehensive idea of what ingredients are available visit the sponsors such as Craftbrewer and National Home Brew who are both in Queensland.
North Queensland members would be able to advise of local suppliers in Townsville.

Also, a bit of friendly advice ... become absolutely familiar with our system of weights and measures, Not just for home brewing, we haven't used Imperial for about 40 years and you'll need it for shopping, buying fuel, driving, etc. If you talk about pounds, ounces, gallons etc it would be a bit like me coming to California and asking for a Macedonian cubit of barley and fifteen shillings worth of hops, actually make that a guinea that should give me a tekel's worth. I would rightly get strange looks :lol:

Home brew made in Australia is not taxable but if you imported it, it would be treated exactly the same as you importing Bud or SNPA.

Edit: If you want another Honda Fit (sold here as Honda Jazz) they are all over the place. I was going to buy one but the Honda Dealer was too far away so I bought a Mazda2. However my next car will def. be a Jazz.

 

[Liam_snorkel]

I use a Jazz for commuting, great car, so much room and very cheap on fuel

 

[hirschb]

Big thanks Bribie G!
Crap, I read this: https://www.ato.gov.au/Business/Excise-and-excise-equivalent-goods/Excise/Excise-rates/
and interpreted it to mean no excise taxes on homebrew (regardless of origin).
......and yeah, imperial measurment is a habit that dies hard. I'm a scientist, so I use metric regularly enough that it will not be a problem (except for Celsius, I still can't get my head around that).

 

[Bribie G]

When I lived near Brisbane, one of my club members was from the US, mining engineer and well heeled, he brought a shitload of Blichmann gear with him. It was Blichmann from grain to brain, and he didn't seem to have encountered any problems.

Current weather in Townsville is 24 degrees, same as Los Angeles at the moment. So don't bring your ear muffs, just your swimmers :lol:

 

[Liam_snorkel]

just try not to get eaten by a saltie or stung by one of these h34r:

 

[hirschb]

Yeah, as I stated, I'm a scientist, so am far far off from being "well heeled." My burner is the only piece of Blichmann equipment I have.... but it's been worth every penny. That burner is a beast.
Yeah, I'll need to buy a used fridge or freezer to convert into a fermentation chamber. Otherwise I would have to brew all saisons in the Townsville heat (which to be honest, wouldn't be the end of the world).

 

[fraser_john]

Don't bother bringing ANYTHING electrical with you, unless it is a laptop or something that has a built in switch mode transformer. They just won't work properly, well some things do, others don't, even on a transformer. I brought out my kitchen aid which works fine, but a really nice front loader was a dismal disaster, I would have been better bringing home my Suzuki 500c four wheeler! I think the problem was if it has a built in timer than runs off the frequency of the electric supply!

 

[Mardoo]

I'm a scientist, so I use metric regularly enough that it will not be a problem (except for Celsius, I still can't get my head around that).

As one yank to another, you'll get your head around celsius once it hits 44 degrees at 70% humidity :blink:

 

[Bribie G]

Aussie voltage is 230v 50 Hz, as opposed to USA with 120v 60 Hz. so you'd have a hard time getting a lot of things to run.

Funny, I always thought we were 240v - but I grew up in the UK.

 

[hirschb]

Hehe, I love all the "moving to Australia" advice!
We're planning on keeping the electronics/appliances to a minimum (although my espresso machine has to come with).
....and yeah, I'm used to 40C+ ~90% humidity from my Argentina fieldwork years..... at least Townsville is dry.