Craft Beer & Yoga - the Ultimate Gen-X Workout

Yoga and craft beer - it was only a matter of time until two of our best ways to embrace "lifestyle over career" would come together. These days across the country, craft breweries are creating the ultimate reflective experience by opening their doors to yoga classes followed by a nice beverage. Noting that yoga is traditionally an inwardly reflective experience, the tendency of Generation X to emphasize community in their practices has led to a merge of two perfectly artisan expeiences.

Call it detox and retox: Around the country, yogis are jumping up from savasana and hopping onto a barstool as yoga classes are making their way into breweries. While the teaching is traditional, the classes tend to attract newbies, especially men, says Beth Cosi, found of Bendy Brewski in Charleston, 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 girlfriends, 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 offer a tour of the facility after or the chance to drink a flight of several beers.

As part of a larger after-workout beer trend, brewhouse yoga is hopping at Colorado's craft breweries, said Andy Sparhawk of the Brewers Association. For some breweries, it could also make good marketing sense, he said via email. "Both here and around the country, breweries are looking for unique ways to invite new customers into their breweries; brewhouse yoga specifically caters to a niche group that may not have considered a tap room as a great place to practice." Like a craft brewery's seasonal menu, Colorado's brewery yoga options are always in flux — one ends, but another's brewing somewhere. Here's a sampling of what's available this winter on the Front Range: