Yoga And....Beer?

by Andrea Blumenstein

Yoga and… beer? It’s (still) a Thing.

Thankfully, two of the friendliest communities around – the craft beer lovers and the yogis – are not parting ways. However, despite a bunch of press suggesting global prominence, “beer yoga” hasn’t taken over the United States quite the same way that Goat Yoga has, and they might pee on you! (But, I mean… baby goats!)
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Since making a debut at Burning Man and then growing international attention thanks to some beer-savvy yogis in Berlin, “Beer Yoga” has gone flat in the United States. Beer Yoga (the order of words is key) involves drinking beer while practicing yoga, and even uses the bottle as a prop. The phenomenon was picked up by male-oriented outlets like GQ in 2017 and Draft Magazine and later covered by Business Insider, Lonely Planet and Huff Post to name a few, but, my feed has been void of any such invitations. And I teach yoga. And I like beer!

What is pretty rockin’ is the yoga, and then beer. Beer, or not beer, if you’d prefer temperance, is all over the place. A quick search of “yoga and beer near me” and you will find that tons of breweries are pairing up with awesome yoga teachers around the country to utilize the massive amount of open space that these places have.  It seems the yoga and beer communities are forever linked thanks to resurgence in community.

The yoga community is well-known for uniting its people. But what about newcomers? For the last few years, yoga has been popping up at non-traditional locations and by doing so, inviting a new wave of practitioners to the ancient art. Yoga, as many people are finding out, is one of the best remedies – and even better preventer – of ailments resultant from a lot of sitting and a lot of scrolling. Before I started teaching yoga, I wrote an article for Paste Magazine, yoga was among the suggestions for preventing and curing lower back pain.

I’m all about lifting spirits the natural way, breath and movement, but no one says you can’t do both. A little bit of booze plus some awesome people in a great space? Many spirits lifted! Did you hear that Mary Poppins is back with another spoon full of sugar to make the medicine go down? She’s back but only for the Banks’ residents so for the rest of us, a little Namaste with a side of hops sounds like a nice cure for the winter blues.

You can check out Beer Yoga and Neshaminy Creek Brewing's upcoming Yoga and Beer Event in January 2019 here.

photo credit Neshaminy Creek Brewing via Facebook