Tracing Bhutan’s Brewed History to the Craft Beer Scene
If you told me a few years ago that I’d be exploring the artisanal beer scene in the mystical, high-altitude Kingdom of Bhutan, I might have just spilled my pint. Bhutan is known for soaring peaks, ancient monasteries, and its guiding philosophy of Gross National Happiness (GNH). But good beers? That was a beautiful surprise.
My journey took me deep into the country to discover how Bhutan’s craft breweries are not just emulating foreign styles, but actively connecting with Bhutan’s deeply rooted, centuries-old traditions of fermentation. I was able to visit four artisanal breweries spread across central Bhutan that define the country’s craft landscape: Namgay Artisanal Brewery, Ser Bhum Brewery, Mircula Meadery and Brewery, and Red Panda Brewery.
But first, a bit of historical context.
Bhutan’s Ancestral Brews
To understand Bhutanese beer, you have to look back thousands of years. Fermentation here isn’t a hobby; it’s an ancient cultural and religious necessity. Alcohol has been part of Bhutanese culture since time immemorial, dating back to the 8th century when it was adopted into tantric rituals as sacred elixirs.
In traditional Bhutanese homes, alcohol is essential for hospitality: welcoming guests (Joen-chang), entertaining them (Tsokchang), and bidding them farewell (Lamchang).
The original, traditional homebrew is called chang. This is an unhopped, often milky beer that has historically been the responsibility of the women of the family, known as the brewsters. The beauty of chang lies in its diversity; it utilizes whatever local grains are available, such as barley, wheat, millet, or rice, and sometimes even starchy tubers like yams or taro, reflecting the diverse agricultural landscape.
The traditional brewster doesn’t use industrial yeast or malt, but rather special cakes called phab. These cakes, made from cooked grains mixed with powders derived from various wild mountain plants, contain the necessary fungi and wild yeasts to convert raw starch into sugar and alcohol simultaneously. This results in a thick, nourishing, tangy, and grainy beverage—liquid bread, as some describe it—often served lukewarm.
Distillation also has a long history here. Ara is the local distilled spirit, which is essentially distilled chang. While chang and ara still play social and religious roles, modern life often increasingly favors industrial beers and spirits. The traditional drinks are not sold commercially, but must be gifted.
Mass Market Beers in Bhutan
The big and only player in industrial beers in Bhutan is Bhutan Brewery, located in the south on the border with India. Their beers were easy to find everywhere I traveled and they are widely consumed by locals. Druk 11000, known for its high alcohol content (around 8% ABV) is the brewery’s flagship offering. Strong beers like this are the most popular in the local market.
Bhutanese Artisanal Brews: Modernity Meets Tradition
The pioneering Bhutanese craft brewers honor local heritage while bringing in modern techniques, each taking their own distinctive approach.
Namgay Artisanal Brewery (NAB)
The idea for Namgay, opened in 2018, was born when founder Dorji Gyeltshen traveled through Europe and saw the varied beer culture there. He wanted to create something unique back home, using Bhutanese ingredients, rather than just brewing the commercial lager styles everyone knew.
Namgay’s flagship Red Rice Lager utilizes Bhutan’s famous red rice. They are also creatively sourcing ingredients, like using discarded, burnt barley husks—re-roasted—for their Dark Ale, and even local yogurt for their sour beers. Dorji Gyeltshen views his modern enterprise as a continuation of this deep cultural connection:
“Many don’t know that brewing has always been part of Bhutanese culture. Traditional brewing was done by the ladies of the house after the harvest using wild yeast. The local brew is called sing chang.”
Namgay is also consciously aligning with GNH values by creating a symbiotic relationship with local farmers, giving them spent grains for feed, and aiming for full sustainability by recycling their glass bottles.
“There is still a lot more to do in terms of what we can do to tie into the GNH values but for now it’s a small step at a time.”
“Our vision has always been to brew a 100% Bhutanese beer using only local ingredients and as for what drives our business is my love for beers and the endless possibility to create a unique beer that can capture our beautiful country in a bottle.”
Ser Bhum Brewery
Ser Bhum, a family business, faced an uphill battle just to get started; the clearance and licensing process took seven years before approval was granted in 2013. They launched their flagship beers, the Bhutan Glory Amber Ale and their Dragon Stout, in 2016.
The founders recognizes the difficulty in changing local palates, which are accustomed to traditional, strong alcohol like ara or high ABV industrial lagers. Ser Bhum owner Sonam Lhaden explains the challenge:
“The craft beer concept is very new to Bhutanese customers, so it is a challenge to convince them to choose our beers instead of the traditional ara and other strong beers.”
Despite this, Ser Bhum has carved out a niche as a premium beer celebrated during special occasions. Although they must import malts, their dedication to quality shines through their use of local flavorings like ginger, turmeric, lemon, honey, and chamomile. What truly sets Ser Bhum apart is the foundation of their product: their spring water, which contributes significantly to the crisp flavor profile and quality due to its purity and mineral qualities.
“Our recipes are developed keeping mind the locally available ingredients to flavor our beer. However, the malts have to be imported. The local yeast cakes (used to make chang and ara) could be used for brewing beer, however the yeast strain needs to be better understood before we take the risk to try them. This is something we would like to venture into in the future.
“All our staff are Bhutanese youths, who are trained to brew, contributing to employment generation and sustainability.”
“… economically, 90% of our production is currently targeted to huge Indian market and our export business benefits our local and national economy.”
Mircula Meadery and Brewery
Up in the Bumthang Valley, Mircula is taking a different path, focusing primarily on Specialty Meads (Braggots and Honey Wines). Founded by Jambay Johny, the brewery was established to solve a local agricultural problem: the valley’s bee farmers were producing an excess of honey, some of which had too high a water content for the normal market. Mircula provided a ready market for this surplus, directly enhancing rural income and the local economy.
For Jambay Johny, getting Mircula up and running has been a journey.
“The brewery was initially planned in 2015 but was made operational only in 2019 as the licensing process and the financing of the project took much longer than we expected.”
“The home brewing of Ara and Mircula brewery production adopt very similar approach and practice. Our brewery is family owned and we make sure that everything we do is focused on uniqueness and quality just like the care that the family takes to prepare and produce ara at their homes.”
“I am myself a bee farmer and over the years the production of honey became quite abundant that it was very hard for the farmers in our area to sell the honey quickly to turn into cash. It was then that I along with my cousin thought of establishing a microbrewery to produce Specialty Meads (Mircula Braggots and Honey wines) to absorb the excess honey in the valley.”
Mircula sources its main ingredients—high-altitude honey, herbs, and berries—locally, often from women farmers, making the business socially inclusive. They even suggest that their high-altitude ingredients impart medicinal properties to their products. Their operation also runs on renewable energy, demonstrating their commitment to environmental sustainability.
“Our products help add value to the local honey that benefits the farmers directly as it provides ready market for their honey. This helps enhance the rural income and the local economy. The products also help substitute alcohol imports that enables us to create local jobs and opportunities.”
Like everywhere, alcohol abuse can be a concern in Bhutan. Buddhism, as practiced in Bhutan, doesn’t forbid drinking on occasion or in moderation; however, Mr Johny told me:
“We believe in the Bhutanese saying ‘If you know how to eat, everything is medicine, if you do not know your limit even the mother’s milk can turn into poison’.”
Red Panda Brewery
While I didn’t get a chance to sit down with the team at Red Panda, their contribution completes the picture of the craft brewery scene in Bhutan. They are located not far from Mircula in the Bumthang Valley. As I understand it, Red Panda was the first artisanal brewery in Bhutan, founded in 2006. The founder, Fritz Maurer, is a Swiss national who, responding to an ad seeking a cheesemaker, came to Bhutan in the 1960s. He later became an honorary Bhutanese citizen, receiving the title of “Dasho” from the King.
Mr. Maurer initially moved to Bhutan to assist with the introduction of Brown Swiss cows to increase milk production. He later established a Swiss cheese factory (producing cheeses like Emmenthal and Gouda), which is right next door to where the brewery is today. Other projects were to introduce a new strain of bees to the area to increase production, establish an apple cidery, and introduce green technology, such as fuel-efficient, smokeless wood stoves, which are now widely used across Bhutan. Some say he started the brewery because he missed Swiss beers.
The brewery’s most famous product, Red Panda Beer, is an unfiltered Weiss Beer (Hefeweizen) brewed in the Swiss-style, made using pristine local water. It is served from the tap at the brewery taproom, and I saw it in bottled form throughout my travels in Bhutan.
Crafting Happiness: GNH and the Future of Bhutanese Beer
The craft brewing industry, like everything in Bhutan, is intrinsically linked to the national philosophy of Gross National Happiness, or GNH.
“Gross National Happiness (GNH) is a concept created in Bhutan to define national indicators on the following four axis: 1) Sustainable/fair development 2) Environmental protection 3) Promotion of culture 4) Good governance.”
The breweries actively contribute to key GNH pillars such as Sustainable/Fair Development and Environmental Protection. They create jobs for Bhutanese youth, enhance rural income by purchasing local agricultural products like red rice and honey, and help substitute alcohol imports.
The craft brewers recognize they are operating in a tough market, competing with international lager giants. But the focus isn’t on mass production; it’s on a niche segment—high-end tourists and locals who value unique ingredients and adherence to GNH values.
As urban Bhutanese become more adventurous with their tastes, seeking out styles like IPAs and Pilsners, and as tourism continues to grow, the market for unique, quality craft beers will likely expand. Brewers like Dorji Gyeltshen even envision building their own malting facilities and growing hops locally to create truly 100% Bhutanese beer.
Sip and Reflect
My journey confirmed that Bhutan is a place where brewing innovation and tradition don’t clash; they ferment together. From the ancient, wild yeast-driven chang brewed by the brewsters to modern stainless steel tanks crafting Red Rice Lager and high-altitude Honey Wine, Bhutan shows that a society deeply committed to cultural and environmental values can innovate and produce great beers.
Cheers, or as locals say, Kadrin Chey La!
Read more here about how to travel in Bhutan
Acknowledgements: Thank you to my wife Kris, a non-beer drinker for her patience in letting me make beer a part of our travels, to Galey Tenzin of Goodwill Journeys for planning an facilitating a fun and rewarding Bhutanese adventure and for his persistance in getting the attention of the breweries, and to our guide, Sonam Tshering for patiently finding and taking us to all of the breweries and on beer hikes I’ll write about soon. We consider Galey, his wife Kezang, and Sonam to be our friends now.
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