Namgay Artisanal Brewery beer,

Bhutan’s Paro turns famed rice into beer

Travellers in Bhutan quickly get used to the dress code. Local women wear the ankle-length kira, woven by hand and regal in its drape. Men cut a dashing figure in gho, a cross between a dressing gown and a business suit. Denim-clad 80s rockers from Europe are rare in the Land of the Thunder Dragon, so the three foreigners sipping beer outside a pub in Paro cause me to do a double take.

This is not the first time I’ll see the trio but more of that later. Paro, nestled in a valley west of the capital, Thimphu, is famous for the four varieties of short fat red rice grown in its surrounds. The countryside is dotted with whitewashed, rammed-earth farmhouses, their vast eaves creating the perfect roof space for drying straw gathered from the paddies that line the valley floor. Bhutanese consume red rice in astounding quantities and now, happily for tourists and locals alike, it’s being used to make beer.

I am already in love with the fresh and crisp local lager so it’s exciting to learn there is a new microbrewery in town. I’m on a mission to pay a visit, but first I take a morning climb up to Bhutan’s most famous landmark, Tiger’s Nest monastery, a gravity-defying structure clinging to the cliffs of the Himalayan range. Legend has it Guru Rinpoche, also known as the second Buddha, flew there on the back of a tigress and blessed the site. My guide, Namgay, tells me that when a person dies, the god of death will ask if they have visited the monastery, so most Bhutanese ensure they make the trek at least once. It’s there I have a second sighting of the Euro rockers, already on their descent.

Bhutan has a long tradition of farmhouse brewing, and as a predominantly agrarian society there are thousands of Bhutanese brewing their own ale, using whatever grain is available, from wheat, barley and millet to rice and maize. Farmhouse beer is not like commercial drops. It’s cloudy, with little fizz and produced in small batches. In a country with only two craft breweries, Namgay Artisanal Brewery is a welcome third addition.

It’s a few weeks until Dorji Gyeltshen, 33, will open his premises, including a restaurant, but he welcomes me into the brewery to […]

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