Do they have home brew beer kits in Switzerland and is it legal? If so then what are the good kits and what are the ones to avoid?

www.brauundrauchshop.ch sells them. It is legal. http://www.brauundrauchshop.ch/asset...ch/index2.html

Thanks muze7! I was only thinking about starting some rhubarb wine at the weekend and wondering where to get the yeast.

Can you get supplies for beer easily? I want to bring my equipment over, but it is a lot of stuff to move and store if it is hard to find extract and yeast in home brew sizes. Thanks in advance.

I think you can find them in the Coop store, or Migros??? I know I saw them somewhere.
Why would it be illegal?

Not that I asked it, but it was an interesting question. In the U.S. in many states brewing your own beer and making your own wine was illegal. (The local home brew club is called the Covert Hops Society for that very reason.) In Georgia, I think it was a combination of "Blue Laws" and the government not getting the tax revenue. You are still not legally able to make your own spirits here.

I don't think it's legal in Switzerland either (to make your own spirits) but it is widely ignored by those doing it and by the police (my uncle gives a bottle of his finest "Damassine" to the local cop...)

It's legal to brew wine and beer. Those who produce more beer than they need for personal use, and sell it, have to pay a beer tax.

A license is required to produce spirits, but it is obtained easily, especially for peasants. I think the imporant criterion is that you produce your own fruits (or potatoes, or whatever) for the spirit. There are about 10'000 licensed distilleries in Switzerland.

You're talking about a lot of beer there....any quantities ?

dave

You sound like a man with ambitions!

Beer tax is 0.2475 Fr./litre and you have to pay it as soon as you start selling.
Spirit tax is 29 Fr./litre of pure alcohol and you have to pay it as soon as you start distributing it to others. Apple and pear based spirits are excluded from the tax.

Yet another question for the homebrewers out there. Where can one purchase a CO2 tank for a corney keg system? Is there a deposit and return system here? Can one do it over the internet, or is there a shop in the Zurich area?

I've used the brau & rauchshop mentioned earlier in this string to purchase the ingredients. They sell a complete kegging kit, but I don't see where you can get just the tank.

I have the kegs, hoses, taps and regulators (brought over from the U.S.), so all I think I need is the tank. I am hoping that the fittings are the same and I don't have to buy a new regulator.

Thanks,

Thanks for the link. Do you know of any home Brew stores in the Geneva area? If not Geneva, are there any that are easily reached by train?

Try a welding supply shop (Schweissgeräte / Schweisszubehör), that's where I got my CO2 cylinders for kegging back in the US of A.

As a follow up to my question.. the answer on kegging system.

What I had to do at the end of the day was replace the my U.S. regulator with a Swiss one. The hoses from the rest of the rig could simply be hooked to the new regulator. I went to the brau and rauch shop (mentioned in this string) and they helped make the connection and made sure it all worked.

I picked up my CO2 from an outlet in Zurich. www.carbagas.ch It took me a little bit to find the location that could help me. I picked up the tank at

-M

You can brew 400L a year before you draw the interest of The Man.

Actually the tax varies according to the strength of the beer. For light beers of around 3.5% abv it's 16.88 chf per 100 litres, for up to about 6.5% abv it's 25.32 per 100 litres, and above that it's a whopping 33.76 per 100 litres (UK producers eat your hearts out).

If you are a micro like me producing less than 5500000 litres then you get a reduction on the above in stages. We get 40% off . I love this country.

Don't forget MwsT though, which is also payable after the usual threashold and that you need to conform to the food health regulations at federal and Kantonal level if you go above the personal use rates (even if you only give it away).

And finally a plug for another supplier closer to home for some: http://www.sios.ch

I am interested in this also. Did you manage to find any store in Geneva?

right now the grapes are ripening - it's time to start thinking about making some wine in the basement (just for fun, we're no professionals, and also aren't too picky).
i suppose we could buy a bundle of grapes from migros or coop and stomp them 'i love lucy'-style on the balcony, or we could buy bottled grape juice from the shelves, but we'd much rather buy already pressed (fresh!) grapes for the experiment. (it really doesn't matter which kind of grapes, we're flexible.)
we're using the site mentioned above for equipment, but we don't know anyone with a vineyard. would any experienced wine-making types care to share their source for freshly-pressed juice for making wine?