Local Breweries Are Not Really All That New To The El Paso Area

El Paso has a number of local breweries to brag about but they are not a "new" thing to Borderland beer fans.

The last few years have seen quite a bit of activity in the beer brewing world but El Paso has had local breweries since the turn of the century.

In 1904, the El Paso Brewing Company was born though some believe that a brewery was in operation prior to that. Prohibition would force a "time-out" around 1920. In the early 30's, it was Tannhauser Brewing for about a year or so. In 1935, after the repeal of prohibition, Harry Mitchell bought the brewery and started brewing his beer.

The Mitchell Brewing Company operated for about 20 years until it was sold to Falstaff Brewing in the mid - 50's. In turn, the Falstaff Brewery operated for about 12 years until 1967.

The building that housed the brewery, aka "The Brewhouse", was built in 1903 and still stands at 3801 Frutas. (Below the spaghetti bowl, between I-10 and Alameda.) It is now home to artists and other businesses. At one point lofts were available and a friend of mine, former KLAQ DJ "Magic" Mike Ramsey, once lived in the building.

While many El Paso brewers are serving up some tasty stuff these days at places like Deadbeach, Blazing Tree, El Paso Brewing Company and others, they are not as new of a thing to El Paso as some might think.

The art of crafting tasty beer has a long history around here. While there may have been a lull in brewing activity for a minute, thanks to the above local breweries, "the brews are back".