Attention all Canadians!

I ordered some o-rings for my kegs the other day and this is the message I got after the order went through:

Dan,

Thank you for your order. Unfortunately, due to the ever increasing complexity of United States export regulations, McMaster-Carr can only process orders from a few long-established customers in Canada. We sincerely regret any inconvenience this causes you.
Please be assured that your credit card has not been charged.

Kelli
McMaster-Carr Supply Company
330-342-6126

Isn't that special? Alternative Beverage sent both myself and Fly Guy a full kegging system complete with CO2 cannister but an organization like McMaster-Carr can't handle o-rings. I order things from the US all the time and while the customer service at Alternative Beverage had to overcome border resistance, the same can't be said about any of my other orders. I guess it's probably for the best anyway. I don't think I would want to do business with a company that's so complacent about their customer base anyway.

So, does anyone know of any GOOD companies that can fulfill an o-ring order? Yeesh!

i don't keg but have you checked
www.paddockwood.com

And then there's this:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2004/10/29/patriotact_bc041029.html

I'll keep an eye on that site for homebrew supplies, Rod, but they're not that good for o-rings. They don't sell the big ones for the lid. Those are the harder ones to get. The smaller ones can be had at any automotive supply shop.

Thanks for the tip!

Kinda getting stupid, isn't it OlllllO? The terrorists were nothing more than a catalyst for the butterfly effect. Canadians now need a passport to fly into the US and next year we'll need a passport even at land crossings. You'll need one to get back into your country if you visit us too. I guess if I don't go this year, I'll likely never visit your wonderful country again.

try this one - they list lid o-rings
http://ca.wrs.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0geum...tp://wineandbeerfactory.com/en-ca/dept_3.html

Fingers said:

Kinda getting stupid, isn't it OlllllO? The terrorists were nothing more than a catalyst for the butterfly effect. Canadians now need a passport to fly into the US and next year we'll need a passport even at land crossings. You'll need one to get back into your country if you visit us too. I guess if I don't go this year, I'll likely never visit your wonderful country again.

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Sorry for the hi-jack (no pun), but yeah. It's a little nuts.

I got this from Boingboing:
FBI: terrorists might drive school-buses, but they probably won't

Bruce Schneier notes that the FBI has sent out an "informational bulletin" about the possibility that terrorists might try to become school bus drivers. The FBI notes that they have no reason to believe that this is actually happening, though -- it's just something someone there thought of.

On the subject of "scary-story-but-nothing-to-worry-about," here are a couple from me:
* Osama bin Laden might recruit suicide bombers who fill their colons with Semtex and undetectable shards of broken glass. These anus-bombers might blow up airplanes with their explosive ********, killing everyone on board. We should all get a thorough, deep rectal exam prior to boarding, starting right now.
* Terrorists might use rigged laptop batteries to trigger massive inflight lithium explosions. All laptops should henceforth travel in unpadded, unlocked bags. No battery-powered devices of any kind (digital watches, hearing aids, iPods, phones) should ever be allowed on airplanes. People with pacemakers should walk. Or stay put.
* Terrorists might start animal shelters and use them to recruit stray animals that can be trained to serve as superbug vectors, tearing through our cities, spreading weaponized Ebola. No living creatures -- other than (some) humans should be allowed within the city limits of any settlement bigger than 400 people.
* Terrorists could infiltrate the world's car companies and manufacture large, fuel-inefficient vehicles like Hummers. Once America has gone all SUV, the resulting carbon emissions would contribute to polar melting and global warming, causing devastating hurricanes through the southwest, killing and displacing millions of Americans. Ban car companies now, or the terrorists have won. Link

You're chock full of good sites, Rod. I find their prices a bit steep though. There's a place in Winnipeg that advertises kegging supplies. I think I'll try them this weekend.

Good one, OllllO! Heh. Not too far fetched either. Used to be that Canada and the US were the best of friends. We didn't have to worry about illegal immigration from each other because we loved to visit, but went home when we were done our vacation. What's happening now is like asking your best buddy for ID when he comes over for a beer. Eventually you wouldn't have any friends anymore.

Try these people too:

http://www.simgo.com/

They seemed to have everything EXCEPT o-rings on that site, Mikey. I couldn't find any at all!

I think we may be barking up the wrong tree here. All these sites are brewing sites so they are acting as the middleman and we would have to pay their markup. I think I'll look for a manufacturer of o-rings and such and see if I can buy a bunch there. There's always the option of buying a kit to make your own too.

I've placed a few orders from kegworks.com, they use a service of CanadaPost called Borderfree to help with customs. It's nice because your order at checkout has all the duties and whatnot calculated in already.

EDIT: Actually they don't have o-rings either. Paddockwood USED to carry the keg lid o-rings because I bought 2 of those, 4 dip tube o-rings, 4 post o-rings and 4 poppet valves from them in January. I've noticed their site is missing a bunch of things I used to buy.

I still couldn't find the o-rings, Brad. Am I just being a retard here or are we uncovering a hidden niche that needs to be filled?

Wow, I can't believe McMasterCarr is doing that ! I just sent that note to the CBC to get them to do a little investigative journalism. Everyone talks about open borders, but when stuff like that happens, they obviously aren't.

You can get a keg O ring at any good O Ring/Seal shop. Just take the keg in with you when you go.

Fingers said:

I still couldn't find the o-rings, Brad. Am I just being a retard here or are we uncovering a hidden niche that needs to be filled?

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Looks like you posted just before I edited my previous post. Check it out for my remarks.

If you find a good source for those lid o-rings please post for the rest of us. If Paddockwood doesn't carry them anymore I really don't want to order from the states.

Has anyone tried Dan's Homebrewing in Vancouver (http://www.beermaking.ca)? He carries keggins supplies, and I gather that he keeps a pretty good stock of items. I am thinking of making him my go to location, instead of Paddock Wood.

Je suis un idiot. I had a great experience ordering my kegging supplies from Alternative Beverage and here I don't even try them to order my o-rings. Duh.

So I ordered three complete sets of o-rings, six replacement poppet valves, and keg lube all for $30 US, shipping included. Done. Now I'll just relax, sit, and wait.

Whew.

I got a reply today from Alternative Beverage. I had asked if they remembered the type of keg they had sold me so they could verify that I had ordered the correct poppet valve. Jess, who mailed me personally last time I ordered, was concerned because he thought my kegs hadn't arrived. Wanted to know if I wanted to wait until they did so that I got the correct valves.

For those of you that don't know, there was considerable hassle at the border initially because of the CO2 tank and the positive pressure of CO2 in the kegs. Alternative Beverage managed to talk customs into letting my order through.

They don't keep records of who gets what so he couldn't tell me which ones to order. He then sent me another picture to try and help identify them. All this for a $30 order.

I think we have a winner here. I'll always be watching for something that falls into my lap, but I think I'll just skip the hunting from now on and order from these people. They have a great selection, good prices, and fair shipping. They clearly want to do business with Canadians and really go out of their way to help. I'll reward that attitude.

The people at alternative beverage are very customer oriented. I order all of my kegging supplies from them, and they are only a 1 day ship from Atlanta.

On the subject of the patriot act...It's complete bull****.

I was going through customs the last week and saw all of the visitors being fingerprinted, photographed, and compelled to give stool samples just to come to Atlanta. I felt like saying, "folks, I was born here, trust me your not missing anything!"

It's amazing to see the difference between the EU border control and the US.

On the US-Canada crossing I have not been so lucky. I usually travel to Canada for business and I carry a lot of equipment. It's no surprise that I get inspected on both sides of the border. The Canadians are ALWAYS polite, while the US side gives me thrid degrees about "what excatly does this machine do?" I'm thinking, yeah buddy you figured it out, I packed this in a box, carried it on an airplane, drove it into Canada, and now i'm coming back into the US to unleash the plague of locusts inside!

All for the illusion of safety,

Matt

Please excuse the rant

In case anyone in Canada is interested, I was successful at a McMaster Carr order. I just had it shipped to my work address, and paid for it with my personal credit card.

I ordered 100 dip tube and 100 post o-rings, and 30 lid o-rings. If anyone needs any, PM me and I will happily sell them to you at cost.