The UK is set to welcome its first beer spa in June 2024 at The Norfolk Mead, a boutique hotel located in the east of England. The establishment offers wooden hot tubs filled with a mixture of malt, hops, and mineral salts, purportedly rich in vitamins and renowned for their detoxifying properties.
Advocates of beer bathing claim that it can effectively eliminate toxins from the body while enhancing blood circulation. The Norfolk boutique hotel asserts on its website that the treatment provides supportive benefits for joints and muscles, resulting in stress reduction.
Guests can enjoy the full experience with a personal beer tap, allowing them to indulge in a refreshing brew while soaking in the beer-filled tubs.
The concept of beer bathing is not new and has roots dating back centuries in Eastern Europe. The first recorded instance dates back to 921 AD, when King Wenceslas, the Duke of Bohemia, indulged in cold brewery baths prepared by his servants using wort from nearby abbeys.
Today, the tradition lives on in various forms across Europe. Budapest’s Thermal Beer Spa in Hungary, for instance, offers a similar treatment, incorporating hops, malt, yeast, and beer salt into wooden bathtubs filled with medicinal water.
In Croatia, the San Servolo beer spa, founded in 2013, combines fresh water from the Sveti Ivan spring with dry roasted malt, hops, and yeast for a rejuvenating experience.
Beer spas are also popular in Prague, Czech Republic, where treatments are offered in handmade whirlpool tubs crafted from Royal Oak. After soaking, guests can relax on beds made from pure wheat straw while enjoying beer bread.
Notably, the beer spa experience often includes drinking beer as part of the treatment. Scientific studies have suggested that consuming moderate amounts of beer may benefit gut health and immunity by stimulating microbiota diversity. Researchers in Belgium, China, Portugal, Romania, and Spain have contributed to scientific publications supporting the idea of beer’s potential benefits for the gut microbiome.
