I woke up earlier than normal on a Saturday morning and headed down to , to check out their offering of beer yoga. It’s popping up in breweries all across America, and I had to investigate. I had purchased tickets ahead of time for about $15, which included one hour of yoga and three craft beers of your choice to be redeemed any time that day.
Upon entering the brewery, the first question you’re asked is, “What kind of beer would you like?” OK, I thought, maybe I can get used to this. I picked the Agave Davida, a nice honey-and-berry blend to get this morning started off right.
The brewery provided the yoga mats, and the eight other craft beer lovers and I got on the floor and began bonding over beer. To be clear, I had never done yoga before but I stay in pretty decent shape, so I figured yoga wouldn’t be too bad. We started off with some easy stretches with intentional pauses to sip your beer. We moved into more difficult poses, and the sweat began to form. At certain points, I was pretty sure I was sweating out the beer faster than I was drinking it.
There was plenty of opportunity to grab a sip your beer during the yoga poses. In fact, they encouraged it during the session. Whenever you got low, a server would come around and ask which beer you wanted next. They had a solid selection with some unique beers that included different berry blends, cucumber, pickle and even a mango habanero one.
By the time they brought me my second beer, we had gotten into my now favorite yoga pose—the warrior! Then I transitioned to the warrior II pose, and it happened. I spilled some beer. There was no jeering. There was no applause. This had obviously happened before. They quickly wiped the small spill off the brewery floor and the class seamlessly moved on.
The instructor, Nate Dog, had great awareness about when we needed to drink and ensured everyone had fun while enjoying their beers during the session. At the conclusion of the class, we all clapped it up and then migrated to the bar to finish our beers and build upon the friendships that were formed on the brewery floor.
Beer yoga continues to grow in popularity and after a morning filled with great beer and better people, I understood why this craze was sweeping the nation. I encourage you to look up your local brewery and sign up for the next beer yoga class. You’ll meet some good people, have one-of-a-kind craft beer, get some exercise and, who knows, you may even see me working on perfecting the warrior pose without spilling a drop.
