After a hard day's work or a grueling week at the office, you just want to relax. You can always throw back a cold one or just enjoy a reinvigorating day at the spa. In a new spa that has opened in Oregon, you can do both. The beer spa has come to the land of the free.
Hop in the Spa is America's first beer spa. Owner Mike Boyle has set up shop in Sisters, Oregon. Oregon is the home to some of the best craft beers around the country so it's only apt that a beer bath movement starts from there too. Mike tells Vice that initially, he was a wine drinker rather than a beer drinker. He tells them that his inspiration for opening the spa all started from to a vehicular accident he was involved in. He states "I had a bruised ego but I didn't get hurt."
Mike provides "... my doctor suggested that I go to a massage therapist. I found one on Craigslist and during the massage, she was talking to me about marketing-which is my background-and asked if I could help her develop a product to sell for her clients." A week after having the discussion with his masseuse, he went to Scandinavia for a business trip and a friend of his who just went to a beer spa in Prague brought him back a brochure. Mike learned about the medicinal properties of hops and from here on, he went around hop farms around the Northwest learning to drink beer. He adds "I pitched it to Deschutes (a brewery in Portland) and now I have a strategic alliance with them."
Beer spas are quite normal in Czech Republic. It should not come as a surprise since the Czech not only invented the pilsner; they also have a very strong beer culture. The most famous beer spa in Prague is by Chodovar brewery. The bath and beer on tap costs somewhere around £80 (around $110) per person.
According to Mike, "[a] standard, hour-long soak session is $75 per person." They also offer a couple's soak that's inclusive of your choice of drink and appetizers for $295. They also allow you to choose the hop varietal you can soak in. Here are other available services that Hop in the Spa offers.
