Red Panda Brewery
Red Panda is a small brewery in Chamkhar, making an unfiltered wheat beer in small volumes. It was started in 2006 by Fritz Maurer, the Swiss cheesemaker behind the Swiss cheese factory next door, and it is run by his family. Allow 20–30 minutes — it is the same stop as the cheese. Ask us whether tours are running.
What makes it worth a stop
Bhutan’s beer is lager. Druk 11000 is a strong lager, Druk Lager is a lager, and they are made industrially in the south.
Red Panda is a wheat beer — cloudy, unfiltered, brewed in small volumes in a Himalayan valley by one family, with the banana-and-clove character wheat beers get from their yeast. Whether you like it is a matter of taste. That it is different from everything else brewed in the country is not, and that is the reason it is on this list.
It is often called Bhutan’s first brewery. We are not going to say that, because Bhutan Brewery at Pasakha was commissioned in December 2006 and Red Panda was established in 2006 as well, and nobody publishes which came first. What is beyond doubt is that it is the country’s original small-batch brewery in character.
Before you go
Ask us. This is a working family brewery, not a visitor attraction, and nothing about opening days, hours, tours or charges is published anywhere. If you have read elsewhere — including on this page until recently — that it opens Monday to Saturday and a tour costs five dollars, neither figure has a source we could find and we have taken both down.
Your guide checks whether anything is running that day and arranges it. That is the whole point of having one.
How it fits your day
Twenty minutes in Chamkhar, in the same building as the cheese factory and a few minutes from Bathpalathang Airport. It works at the end of a Choekor valley morning, or in the hour before a flight, and it is the one stop in Bumthang where you can buy something to take home that was made a hundred metres away.
See things to do in Bumthang for how it compares with the rest of the district.
Tours that visit Bumthang
Frequently asked questions
What is Red Panda beer?
An unfiltered wheat beer — a Hefeweizen — brewed in small volumes in Chamkhar. In a country whose other beers are industrial lagers, it is the one that tastes of a decision rather than a process.
Can you tour the Red Panda brewery?
Ask us. It is a small working brewery run by one family and nothing about tours, hours or charges is published anywhere. Your guide finds out and arranges it, which is more reliable than any figure we could put on this page.
Who started Red Panda?
Fritz Maurer, in 2006 — the same Swiss cheesemaker behind the Bumthang Swiss cheese factory next door, which he set up in the 1960s. The brewery is run by his family.
Is Red Panda Bhutan's first brewery?
It is often said to be, and we cannot stand behind it. Bhutan Brewery at Pasakha — the maker of Druk 11000 — was commissioned in December 2006, and Red Panda was established in 2006 as well. Nobody publishes the months. What is not in doubt is that Red Panda is Bhutan's original small-batch brewery in character.
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