4C
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 2016
PARTING SHOT FROM JOSHUA BESSEX
A weekly snapshot from The Daily Astorian and Chinook Observer photographers
Elk sit in a field near Neawanna Creek in Seaside in January.
ODDITY
Bend with
a brew
By KELLI KENNEDY
Associated Press
And they both have a little bit of a
social aspect, you know. And it’s a
very relaxing place to do yoga. So,
you know, very unpretentious,” Ja-
son Crafts, 43-year-old IT project
manager, said after a recent class
at Raleigh Brewing Co. in Raleigh,
North Carolina.
MIAMI — Call it detox and re-
tox: Around the country, yogis are
jumping up from savasana and hop-
ping onto a barstool as yoga classes
are making their way into brewer-
ies.
While the teaching is traditional,
the classes tend to attract newbies,
especially men, says Beth Cosi,
found of Bendy Brewski in Charles-
ton, South Carolina and Memphis.
“We get the men in the door
mostly because it’s in a brewery and
they get a beer afterward. That’s the
carrot. A lot of them come with girl-
friends, wives, sisters,” Cosi said.
Her $15 classes are 45 minutes,
compared to a typical 90-minute
class. The room isn’t heated to near
100-degree temperature and the
partnering breweries typically of-
fer a tour of the facility after or the
FKDQFH WR GULQN D ÀLJKW RI VHYHUDO
beers.
“They both lead to relaxation.
While traditional yoga tends to
encourage a navel-gazing focus on
oneself, individual breathing and
controlling one’s thoughts, the yoga
beer classes are all about communi-
ty.
“This gives you the opportuni-
ty to come to your mat, to connect
with yourself ... and then to social-
ize after class and get to know peo-
ple,” said Mikki Trowbridge, whose
free classes in the Salem, Oregon
area draw between 75 and 150 peo-
ple two or three times a month.
Trowbridge’s business plan
wasn’t calculated. She and her hus-
band just liked a strong, sweaty
yoga class and a nice craft beer and
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“(Beer) is part of our culture
here. We have breweries every-
where and so breweries are where
we gather for social time,” she
said.
Yoga classes and
craft breweries
blend balance, buzz
Socialize after class
Tony Dejak/AP Photo
Participants practiced yoga in December at the Platform Beer Co. in Cleveland. Craft breweries are partner-
ing up with yoga studios around the country as more breweries are hosting classes to attract a new crowd
to the bars and yoga studios are using the beer to get more men to try yoga.
The trend has caught on quick-
ly with yoga-beer partnerships
throughout Florida, New York
and California. Cosi has been
mentoring yoga teachers across
the country looking to host beer
yoga events. Beer maker Dogfish
Head created a Namaste beer, Bel-
gian-style white with dried organic
orange flesh and fresh-cut lemon-
grass; and Lululemon, the athletic
apparel line, partnered with Stan-
ley Park Brewing on a limited-edi-
tion style with Chinook and Le-
mondrop hops.
Not just namaste
The classes also offer a friend-
lier environment than yoga studios
where many run out after namaste
without talking to anyone.
“There’s a lot of (single) people
that come in with the goal of talking to
someone new and they already know
they have beer and yoga in common,”
said Melissa Klimo-Major, who start-
ed teaching yoga classes in breweries
around Cleveland in 2014.
Trowbridge and Klimt drew no-
table crowds after hosting two beer
yoga events in New York City over
the summer. The duo, who met on
Instagram, is taking their business
on the road with a west coast tour
planned for the spring and several
Midwest stops over the summer.
Breweries say the collaborations
are also offering up a bonus for
them.
“The majority of our yogis are
usually girls and the majority of
people in the brewery are men so it’s
kind of helped crossed that chasm
of getting girls into craft beer,” said
Chris Gove president of the SaltWa-
ter Brewery in Delray Beach.
Tony Dejak/AP Photo
Tony Dejak/AP Photo
Reed Patterson practices yoga in December while holding onto his beer at the Platform
Beer Co., in Cleveland.
Lauren Kaluza, center, practices yoga in December at the Platform Beer Co., in Cleve-
land.