(Photo courtesy of Hop in the Spa)
Though the medicinal wonders of immersive beer experiences have been known for centuries in Europe, Hop in the Spa in Sisters is the nation’s first official Beer Spa, allowing guests to soak in cedar tubs topped off with warm beer, barley, essential minerals and herbs.
Hop in the Spa was founded by massage therapist Sally Champa and marketer Mike Boyle, offering a tempting menu of services ranging from a soothing 25-minute microbrew soak to improve skin tone and reduce stress, to a “hops on the body” treatment releasing toxins that features a comforting hop wrap provided by Deschutes Brewing.
“We launched officially on Valentines Day and were fully booked,” said Boyle. “New School of Beer did a story on us and within two weeks of that Time magazine’s Food and Wine and Travel and Leisure picked up the story and coined us as America’s First Beer Spa and it went viral at that point. We’ve had NBC Portland out here doing a live remote and we were in Men’s Journal and on Bravo TV.”
Champa is thrilled with the wild enthusiasm and interest shown by the media and the public.
“Mike’s a marketing guy and we thought about coming up with a product to take home after the benefits of a massage,” she said. “I’m a naturopath practitioner and we came up with the idea to produce an exclusive line of bath brews, a mixture of hops, essential oils and herbs and founded Oregon Bath and Brew.”
The current spa setup contains a main massage area with a signature blend of hop oils and there’s also a hop clay mask and a steam treatment. Currently they’re equipped with two, two-tub soaking suites and a single or doubles massage suite.
“Within two weeks there will be a Porter foot soak with a hops and body exfoliation, then we’ll pour warm beer into the tub followed by a massage using hop-infused oils,” explained Champa. “All of our treatments are based on hops and their therapeutic and medicinal qualities. The marketing guy at Deschutes Brewery is one of my clients and so they picked up the Bath Brew line and integrated their flavors of beers into them.”
To further research their product, Champa and Boyle took a trip around Oregon visiting various hop farms and learning about beer and hops and their renowned qualities.
“After we’d met and traveled, I had visited Scandinavia on business and a friend mentioned that he’d attended a beer spa in Prague and had great things to say about it,” Boyle said. “It’s engrained in the culture there and people come from all over the world to visit them.”
“People have been using beer as a medicinal since the Roman times. It was a unique thing and the research we found showed that there was room for a beer spa concept,” Champa said. “This space on Cascade Avenue was built 70 years ago and had been available for lease. We thought going from the bath brews to a beer spa was a natural progression and so we signed the lease, put up walls and started working hard to create a great atmosphere.”
Downstairs, Hop in the Spa brews 55-gallon drums at a time with hot water, hops, beer, additives and minerals and pump it right into the urethane-lined cedar tubs at 101-102 degrees.
“After a 20-25 minute soaking it cools down to between 99 and 100,” added Boyle. “Based on the research it’s getting it to the right temperature where your body can absorb and benefits from the mixtures. The whole process becomes a soothing experience, and the aromas of the hops and the essential oils, people just love the smell and the feeling. Everyone is very satisfied when they leave, you see a very relaxed look in their eyes.”
Hop in the Spa is currently offering an eclectic range of spa services like barley grain foot scrubs, hop oil wraps, or traditional beer soaks. Future plans include the addition of a traditional German beer garden outside serving beer, pretzels and sausages.
“It’s hard to explain all the attention and it just confirms that the interest is there and helps with our expansion plans into Bend,” said Boyle. “We’re in the right place, Central Oregon and Sisters and the strategic alliance with Deschutes helps a lot. We’re bringing people to Sisters!”
Hop in the Spa
371 West Cascade, downtown Sisters.
Prices start at $65 per person for a standard soak package.
541-633-4576
www.hopinthespa.com
