"Smuggling" hops

I am moving to Belgium from the US in a few months and I've got a stockpile of American hops that I don't think are easily available over there. I'd like to bring them along but wonder if that counts as bringing alien crops over. Anyone know about this?

you can always call, I'd bet if they are pellet hops you'll be fine not much going to live in them

Leave them with a family member and mail them to yourself and see what happens.

You are moving to Belgium? Lucky SOB.

As far as I know, its 100% legal to carry hops through customs (whole or pellet). I remember them talking about it on either Brew Strong or the Jamil Show when Jamil was going to Australia for their first national homebrewers conference. One of the guys wanted Jamil to bring some hops not available in Australia. He said no since he thought it would be illegal. Out of curiosity, he called after he got back. Sure enough, they said there would be absolutely no problems with hops.

There would be a problem with rhizomes, but not hops.

I think "processed" foods are not a problem for Customs. I would consider pellet hops "processed". Fresh foods are the problem because they can carry viruses and insects.

I have heard of people bring them to and from the US, no problem. I think I remeber on a Jamil show he said he called Customs and USDA and they said it is fine (that is for into the US).

There was a member here (uhhh huh huh... I said member) who was going to the UK (if I remember right) and he checked into it. No problem at all taking hops there, so Belgium might be the same. Just have to call and ask.

My suggestion to you, as it was to him, was to take leaf hops packed in unmarked baggies. If you want to make sure nothing happens to them in baggage claim, you should tape them to your body under your clothing.

ChshreCat said:

There was a member here (uhhh huh huh... I said member) who was going to the UK (if I remember right) and he checked into it. No problem at all taking hops there, so Belgium might be the same. Just have to call and ask.

My suggestion to you, as it was to him, was to take leaf hops packed in unmarked baggies. If you want to make sure nothing happens to them in baggage claim, you should tape them to your body under your clothing.

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that's way better than my original idea of swallowing a few hop-filled condoms.

gyllstromk said:

that's way better than my original idea of swallowing a few hop-filled condoms.

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Heh, that stirs images of the show locked up abroad.

I brought maybe a pound of hop plugs from America to Croatia earlier this year with no problem, in my checked bag. I have also ordered hops from Freshops, Steinbarts and Maryland homebrew to be delivered here and they all arrived with no trouble.

Also, there's a great online shop in Belgium for mail order. I order from them regularly. They have great hops, but only Cascade of the American ones, and those are expensive. But they have great Challenger, East Kent Goldings, Fuggles and some Hallertauer Hersbrucker for very cheap.

They're called Brouwland:

http://www.brouwland.com/en/

They also have lots of supplies that are useful: auto siphons, salts for brewing, iodophor, irish moss, litmus papers etc etc. I thank God that they're there. Makes my life easier.

Here's the links to the other places I've found in the States who will ship to Europe. Steinbarts are particularly friendly. I've placed a few smaller orders with them and they're willing to send it with the cheapest postage, which isn't so bad. It was $13 or something. Freshops and Maryland Homebrew were also willing to use this, so shipping for lighter things such as hops is not something you can't do.

Also, all of those orders took almost exactly two weeks to arrive from when they shipped. Belgium is probably quicker as I live out in the wilds of the Balkans.

;-)

With Brouwland, it always takes three weeks for me. But when I called them, they said it was because they ship stuff to my area all at once, so they're usually only doing it once or twice a month. If you're IN Belgium, it should be much faster. They're in Beverlo, so if you're near there, guess you could drive there.

http://www.fhsteinbart.com/about.html

Maryland Homebrew

http://www.freshops.com/#

And here's the postage calculator:

http://ircalc.usps.gov/default.aspx?Mode=Intl_Single&CID=10033

A "small flat rate box" using International Priority, that weighs one pound, going to Belgium, will cost you $13 in shipping. Not bad at all. I think when I ordered from Freshops it was twice that, ordering around 20 oz. But those whole hops are large.

Hope this helps.

Also, BTW, not a lot of places in the States will send to Europe. I ended up with these guys because they DO. And I know Steinbarts from my days in Portland, and Freshops too. Steinbarts has the Fermentis yeasts for $1.95 too. And Brouwland has some of the Wyeast yeasts.

MattHollingsworth - Great post, lots of good information there.

Glad to help.

Another thing: When I brought all of those hops in my bag, I ALSO brought 6 activator packs of Wyeast, packed with ice packs in the bag. And I brought an auto siphon, 300 bottle caps, a capper and a 25 pound electrical step down transformer (2000 watts) that looked like this:



I was at LAX. When I checked in, I TOLD them, "Look, I have some stuff in my baggage the looks pretty suspicious, so I wanted to tell you so that you don't think it's anything dangerous." That transformer looks sinister.

Anyway, they took me over to the security guys who search bags and those guys made me wait outside the area while they went through my bag. They okayed it and sent the bag on its way. And I saw them opening it and going through it and nothing bothered them.

Great info, thanks! Yes I found brouwland and was disappointed to see nothing but Cascade from the American side, but I'm happy they have everything else.

gyllstromk said:

Great info, thanks! Yes I found brouwland and was disappointed to see nothing but Cascade from the American side, but I'm happy they have everything else.

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You're welcome. Everything I've gotten from Brouwland has arrived safely. The iodophor is NOT non foaming though, so be aware. Foams like crazy. And the recommended 5ml per liter is 25 ppm, so you can cut it in half for no rinse. The iodine is 5% in there so you can calc yourself if you want. I had to call and ask the percentage, though, as the package doesn't say. If you use it at the recommended level, the foam really sticks to the side of carboy/demijohns and bottles. And it's not no rinse then anyway.

Yeah, bummer they don't have more American hops, but it's probably cheaper for ME to get them from America anyway. My *minimum* for shipping with them is 25 euros even if the package has 1 oz of hops (which I wouldn't do). The American hops are cheaper in America and they arrive after a couple of weeks anyway. And between Steinbart, Maryland Homebrew and Freshops, you have most of them covered. I got Amarillo, Palisades and Columbus from Maryland homebrew in pellet form, Crystal and Simcoe from Freshops.

I haven't used these guys, but they have a ton of hops there. They're in the UK, so the UK is well represented. But they also have Centennial, Liberty, Amarillo, Cascade, Mt Hood and Willamette. And some NZ hops too.

I might order from them one day, but the freezer is full of hops for now. I bought some Styrian Goldings from Slovenija when I went up there, and they only had 1 kg bags, so I have that then all the Brit and American hops filling up the freezer space.

http://www.hopandgrape.co.uk/

http://www.hopandgrape.co.uk/catalog/catalog.asp?catid=BRU2105161&pageno=1#items

Centennials say they're from the UK, though...

If these are commercially processed it might be fine. If these are homegrown, even if legal, I'd leave them home. You don't want to be the one to bring a new disease from the US to the hop fields of Europe.

Jamil mentioned that they wanted him to declare the hops IIRC.

philrose said:

Jamil mentioned that they wanted him to declare the hops IIRC.

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Most places I've landed when traveling, of course, want you to declare everything. There's always a red door and a green door to walk through, green for no declaring. And everywhere I travel, everyone just walks through the green door and you see them stop someone once in a while. Personally, I wouldn't declare anything unless you have to. Unless you want to spend some time while they're looking up hops in their book and can't figure out which category they go in and so on. Your call, naturally.

Just keep your glass pipes in a separate location...

Can't tell you how many times I've gotten looks when I have hops in a ziplock!