Beer Spas: The Czechs Raise A Mug To Beer & Wellness

The Czechs, arguably the producers (and consumers) of the best beer in the world, have always known that drinking beer is good for you. Now they are bathing in it. The Chodovar brewery, which has been making dark, non-pasteurized lager in the heart of the Bohemian Forest since 1537, also offers one of the world’s only ‘beer spas’!

In the vaulted cellars of the baroque brewery, you can soak in the Chodovar’s special ‘bathing beer’. The recipe, known only to the master brewer, includes thirteen local herbs steeped in the molasses-colored brew. A foaming mug full of live yeast, fresh from the brewery and full of B vitamins, is added to the tub to nourish the skin, hair, and nails. Crushed hops exfoliate and battle anxiety.

The sticky brew is diluted with water from the nearby Il Sano spring. Chock-full of iron and carbon dioxide bubbles, it increases circulation to the skin and intensifies the beneficial effect of the 34 degree water on aching joints. Legend says that the spring was discovered in the 10th century by an old dog named Albik, who used to soak his joints in the healing waters. Brewers believe that his spirit still guards the brewery and leave out a bowl of fresh beer for him every night.

While soaking, you will be asked to sip a mug full of fresh, non-pasteurized beer, to aid digestion. Proponents say that hot beer baths soothe psoriasis, cure acne, and ease pain in the joints.

After emerging from the tub, drained and steamy, you will be wrapped in sheepskins and left to sleep it off on a bed of barley hay. Once up, feeling refreshed, you can stroll through the adjoining English-style garden to the Lapidary Pub. Situated in an ancient cellar hewn into the granite massif under the brewery, it serves huge portions of traditional Czech ‘beer food’ washed down by Chodovar lager, of course. For more information visit www.chodovar.cz.