The taxes on alcohol here make imbibing very costly. Liquor is strictly controlled for sale at provincially-run stores and at those licensed to sell off-site.When we were in California last month, I'd forgotten about the variety of beer and wine available in most supermarkets. I was also surprised by how cheap it was. A can of beer could be had for the price of cola. Surely, it was about half what we pay here.
This may be one reason that British Columbia allows u-brew stores. They are stores that make wine from kits. It's much easier than trying to become a brew master oneself for they do all the hard work. The customer must throw the yeast into the batch to start off the process and return after a month or two to help bottle the liquid. Before the fermentation process begins, one is simply buying foodstuffs so there's no tax at all. I've mentioned these facts here in the past.
What I've not mentioned is this new product which was introduced to me by friends last weekend. Click the link below to load a PDF file from the company's website.
The Big & Easy Bottle Brew
I brought the three varieties home yesterday and started a Premium Pilsner. It's such a simple process, quite literally one -- two -- three. Imagine, it's a more natural product at 2/3's the price of cheapest brew found at a BC Liquor store.