A new spa in Oregon has put a new twist on the traditional spa experience that’s been making Jacuzzi-sized waves in the news. Forget the calming music and scented candles – these guys have found an even better way to relax.
Oregon’s Hop in the Spa is America’s first “beer spa”. Customers begin by enjoying a beer or two in the lounge before moving in to the spa where they’ll actually be soaking in a tub of water, hops, and malts. Enticing as it sounds to bathe in beer, the spa owners point out that there are plenty of health benefits from the hops and malts. Malts are said to be excellent for nourishing dry skin and oils drawn from the hops open pores, improve blood circulation, detoxify, and are rumored to be a potent aphrodisiac. As if any of us needed more reasons to soak in beer.
While Hop in the Spa is the first of its kind in the North America, it turns out that Europeans have been enjoying beer spas since the Middle Ages, when I can only assume merry serfs would relax and drink their fill after a day’s toil. Many beer spas in Europe go as far to include yeast which has its own healing properties as well.
St. Bernard Spa in Prague is perhaps the world’s best-known beer spa, if not for its history than for its beer. In addition to dose of Saaz hops, each bath contains the grains and yeast that make up the award-winning St. Bernard Pilsner. That’s right, at St Bernard’s Spa you can literally bathe in beer. In addition to the effects of the hops, the activity of the grains and the yeast are said to stimulate digestion and metabolism.
As relaxing as it all sounds, you’ve got to wonder if the health benefits are enough to outweigh all the beer you’ll be drinking. Or as a food critic from the National Post puts it – can you really detoxify while intoxicating? Whatever the answer is, I’m just happy that I’ll finally be able to fulfill my teenage fantasy of swimming in a pool of beer.
– Dave Wheaton
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