I Did Yoga in a Brewery. Really.

Husband and I went to a craft beer tasting.

This is the excuse we use to visit the owner’s dog Pinky. Because dogs.

Say hi to Pinky! @PalmersBeverageCtr 's most popular security system #dog

A photo posted by Lisa (@condoblues) on Oct 19, 2012 at 12:56pm PDT

We usually buy an interesting and new to us microbrew to try later at home. One of the things I like about craft beer is since they are small brew houses, they often get creative and make small batches of, “Hey, I bet these ingredients will taste good together.” The small breweries usually give the beer an offbeat name and clever labeling  to draw the customer’s eye in the store since they can’t afford massive advertising campaigns like the big brands.

That’s how we recently ended up with Dogfish Head Namaste beer. I saw Namaste on the carton and wanted to try what I called “yoga beer.” Actually the beer doesn’t have anything to do with yoga other than being named Namaste although it has a cool story.

The Dogfish Head folks brewed dried organic orange slices, lemongrass, and coriander into a light and crisp Belgian style witbier. Dogfish Head made it an Italian brewer in mind. The Dogfish Head owner met the Italian brewer and thought he was was a cool guy and made great beer. The Italian brewery lost 1/3 of their production in an accident in 2009. Dogfish Head gave the Italian brewery a portion of Namaste sales at the time to basically help a competitor get through a financial crisis.

Brewing a beer and giving a portion of the sales to competitor in need? Wow. You won’t see the Big American Beer Brands doing that. The story made us want to try Namaste even more.

But first I had to have a little fun while Husband and I waited for our purchase to chill in the fridge.  
Beer yoga!

Beer Warrior Two asana inspired by @DogFishbeer Namaste. #craft #beer #craftbeer #yoga #yogaeverydamnday #yogalove #yogaeverywhere #craftbeerporn #craftbeerlife

A photo posted by Lisa (@condoblues) on Aug 21, 2015 at 7:49pm PDT

Of course I had to put it on the Internet or it didn’t happen. Follow me @condoblues on Instagram for more food, projects, and adventures like this one!

Later, through the power of social media, I found out Beer Yoga, sometimes called Brewga, is a thing.

What kind of craft beer and yoga freak blogger would I be if I didn’t check it out?

 Nirvana? I’m not so sure about that but it was fun to tell my friends I started my day by doing yoga in a brewery!

The Brewga class at Zauber Brewing Company is  a regular Hatha yoga class like the Hatha yoga classes I already take. Instead of being in a studio they are held in a big room that also has brew tanks and fermenters in it.


It was a good yoga class. If my schedule permits, I’d like to go again because it is nice to have options if I miss my regular class. The people are friendly and many of the folks were there to cross train to help them in their primary sport of running. Columbus is a big running town.

I’m sure the Yoga Police frown on such a thing. According to one Yoga Police person I am not really doing yoga because I take classes at a YMCA and not for some higher purpose. For what higher purpose I don’t know exactly. As for not being a real class, my aching quads disagree.

Way to be a wet blanket Yoga Police because you know what?  From the positive reaction I got from both yoga people and beer people after I posted that photo it sounds like holding exercise classes in unusual places might be the incentive some folks need to get them off of the couch and into a sport.
It worked for me.

The lovely pint of freshly brewed porter with my classmates afterward isn’t so bad either.


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