Mixing beer with yoga might seem like a strange idea, but we can get on board with any kind of exercise that involves booze. This new trend started in Berlin with a company called BierYoga, which claims that people have been using both yoga and beer to relax their bodies and minds for centuries. Who are we to argue with history?
And BierYoga isn’t a newcomer – the Berlin operation started in 2015, but has recently gained a ton of attention thanks to events at a pub in Sydney, Australia a few weeks ago. (Can you imagine how cool those Instagram posts were?) Their website also reads that “BierYoga is fun but it’s no joke. We take the philosophies of yoga and pair it with the pleasure of beer-drinking to reach your highest level of consciousness.” Jhula, the founder, serves Radlers during her class – German shandies that are half beer, half lemonade. She incorporates the act of drinking into various yoga moves, so hopefully you’re pretty flexible.
There are a handful of craft breweries in the United States that offer yoga classes followed by a beer, but Jhula’s class is one of the first to really incorporate drinking into the actual yoga. According to one visitor, everyone is “pleasantly tipsy and limber after 20 minutes.” Something tells us that trying to do a handstand after imbibing an IPA is probably way more fun than attempting one sober.
The inspiration from Jhula’s class came from something she saw at California’s annual Burning Man festival. A camp called HomeBrau Haus offered Beer Yoga, a vinyasa-based practice designed to help festivalgoers detox from the previous night and retox for the day ahead. They promise that “you’ll leave feeling calm, centered, and a little more off balance than when you arrived.”
BierYoga has expanded their practice from Germany, and other yoga and beer enthusiasts have gotten behind the movement all over the world, including the U.S. Port City Brewery in Alexandria, Virginia has been offering beer yoga classes for over three years – and they’ve been selling out since it started. You’ll get a cold beer as a reward after making it through the class instead of getting buzzed mid-downward dog.
Bendy Brewski Yoga in Charleston, South Carolina was credited in 2014 as the first leading brewery to offer a frosty pint after a yoga session – owner Beth Cosi has been teaching this class since 2011. Cosi has partnered with two local breweries as well as a distilling company, where yogis finish the session with a cocktail.
So whether you’re a craft beer connoisseur or would rather say Namaste with a negroni in hand, these classes have got you covered.
