Brasserie Rancho El Paso

After visits to Tokachi Beer and the Tokachi Beer Factory, we made a brief stop here, at Rancho El Paso, really only 5 or 10 minutes by car from "downtown" Obihiro. I wish we had made it our first stop though.

The main building had whitewashed exterior a la hacienda, and the inside had an eclectic collection of decorations covering the walls, reminding of the SW USA or Mexico, like guitars, posters, skeletons (as my memory serves me..). There was also a large photograph of their pigs.

They had maybe 10 of their beers on tap, which I thought was impressive. They didn't seem to stick to an ethnic theme in their brewing, which is welcome in the land of pils-alt-weizen only breweries. Their trademark is using beet juice in their beers, and other adjuncts have included enoki mushrooms and a bitter tasting wild "mountain" vegetable. Acorns planned for the Fall, apparently.

Didn't get a chance to try the food, but the menu was large. And we observed someone making tortillas in a smaller building in the back. I bought some of their sausages as gifts and got excellent feedback.

After we sat for awhile and were leaving, I purchased a large quantity of their beer and was inquiring about where they brew, etc., and the woman decided she would just call the brewmaster over. Once he came, he decided to give us a tour of the adjacent buildings, where they brew. Very interesting. And mostly everything was designed by themselves. They also grow part of their own hop crop and grow most of their own grains as well.

Definitely one of the best places to visit, in terms of uniqueness, atmosphere, and quality, if in Hokkaido, along with Sky Beer, Kairinmaru, Susukino Ji-Beer, Yuiga Doxon, and Abashiri.

That was a great and unexpected finding in Obihiro, after the two more traditional brewpubs that are the Tokachi beer and the Tokachi beer factory. The Brasserie Rancho El Paso has a huge Mexican dude (he has a Mexican hat) on a horse or maybe a donkey on the entrance wall. Everything inside looks more or less Mexican, with a cute cheesiness: they have ridiculous posters on the wall, they sell a few CDs in the restaurant's room. Probably a great atmosphere when the place gets crowded; we were there in the afternoon... There's a small stage for musical performances. The bar is in the back, close to the bathroom. They serve Corona, but at a higher price than their brews, that are quite original and interesting: mushroom beer, moutain vegetable beer... They go a bit further than the traditional German styles Japanese brewpubs tend to prefer. They also have a porter that I couldn't try. They offer their beers in different sizes of glass, which helped me to try a few of them. We met the brewmaster who showed us his installation. He learned his stuff at breweries in Belgium and Germany, works mostly alone, and grows his own hops and some of his grains. A very nice person. I also thought the waitress was very cute, and I am glad I got my picture with her, thanks to the generosity of my friend who bought lots of beers and sausages there. They also make sausages. Everything looks home made there, and people who work at El Paso seemed very happy: there was a tortillero next to the brewing facility, and there were non finished constructions all over the place. A great place.