The Best Beer Spas Around the World
Beer spa tub at Pukmistr Carole Rosenblat
“You can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline,” rock musician Frank Zappa once said. In 2026, that might include a beer spa as well. They’re popping up everywhere.
Rooted historically in Bohemia (today western Czechia), beer spas have gone global — from Argentina to Iceland, from North Carolina to Oregon.
If you think a beer bath sounds icky, never fear. Nobody soaks in real beer. Not anymore, anyway. Instead, people relax in warm swirling water with hops, yeast, and barley stirred in.
But where did that idea come from?
History of Beer Spas
Tycho Brahe portrait, public domain
Bohemian royalty enjoyed the first recorded treatments as far back as 921.
Among commoners, brewer’s yeast earned a place in folk medicine, long prescribed as a cure-all by grandmothers. Catholic monks, known for side hustles as brewers, counted beer baths among their blessings at the monastery.
The godfathers of beer spas joined forces in Prague at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. On the recommendation of the alchemist/naturalist/physician Tadeáš Hájek of Hájek, the king invited the renowned Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe to move to what was perhaps Europe’s most effervescent intellectual hub. Back in Denmark, Tycho Brahe had gained a reputation as a cutting-edge herbalist.
His colleague Tadeáš Hájek of Hájek wrote what is considered to be the first scholarly text on beer. He was also a regular at the local Krušovice Brewery, which is still around.
In Prague Tycho absconded himself in a basement alchemy lab. He claimed to have discovered an ingredient in beer that brings relaxation and rejuvenation: Žatec hops. He proposed whirlpool baths with crushed hops and brewer’s yeast, all while sipping from a mug of Krušovice, topped off by a nap.
With a sprinkling of 21st-century sophistication tossed in, Tycho’s program remains the core recipe at beer spas.
But the practice took a long time to catch on commercially. Centuries worth of famous beer lovers, such as Karl Marx and Rudyard Kipling, frequented Bohemian spas. Yet neither the co-author of the Communist Manifesto nor the unofficial poet laureate of the British Empire ever took a beer bath.
Fast forward to 1981.
Prague was the capital of Czechoslovakia; that year, citizens went to the polls to vote on a single list of candidates proposed by the communist Popular Front. But change was in the air, even if another eight years would pass before the Velvet Revolution would oust the country’s Soviet-allied government.
Founded that year, the Prague-based Spa Beerland staked its claim as the first such establishment.
The beer-spa trend in Bohemia (now western Czechia) hit its stride after the peaceful split with Slovakia in 1993 and the Czech Republic's accession to the European Union (EU) in 2004. Founded in 1573, the Chodovar Brewery in Chodová Planá, 160 kilometers west of Prague, opened what it calls the first modern spa resort in 2006.
Beer spas helped catapult three towns of the West Bohemian spa triangle to UNESCO World Heritage status in 2021: Františkovy Lázně (Franzensbad), Karlovy Vary (Carlsdad), and Mariánské Lázně (Marienbad) all feature outposts of the Spa Beerland chain. While overlooked by UNESCO, the town of Pilsen has a style of beer named after it and features the Purkmistr Brewery spa.
What to Expect at a Beer Spa
Again, you won’t get dunked in beer.
There are variations between spas and menus of special treatments, but the basic beer spa experience is pretty standard and would look familiar to a 17th century alchemist.
Upon arrival, an attendant prepares your bath by adding brewer’s yeast, hops and barley malt to warm swirling water, generally in an oak tub. Meanwhile you change into your bathing suit, throwing over it the robe they gave you. Astride the tub is a tap. You are given a mug that you can fill to whenever you want. After 30-60 minutes, usually, it’s time to dry off and head to a chill space.
Health benefits of Beer Spas
Despite that groundbreaking work by grandmas, monks and alchemists, there is essentially no clinical evidence for benefits (or drawbacks) of beer spa treatments. Modern medical researchers remain on the whole disinterested. Ingredients in isolation sometimes get a thumbs up: brewer’s yeast is rich in B-vitamins and hops contain both antioxidants (good for longevity) and antibacterial qualities (good for the skin). There’s plenty of anecdotal testimony from spa patrons, including your correspondent. I never slept better than the night after an afternoon beer soak.
Our recommendations
Bohemia, of course, stands out as the epicenter of the beer spa boom. But there are plenty of good candidates beyond Purkmistr in the Czech and the Original Beer Spa, both in Prague. Here are a few standouts:
Bath & Barley, Brussels and Bruges, Belgium
Bath & Barley Beerspa cheers
No list of global beer-related activities would be complete without a representative from Belgium. Like the city itself, headquarters of the EU and home to over 35,000 continental bureaucrats, the Brussels site might best be described as functional. In contrast, the Bruges affiliate occupies a medieval cellar with a novel interior design featuring copper sheets as a reference to traditional brewing tanks. The city of Bruges boasts a unique political and natural history, dating to its 9th century founding as a Viking harbor town followed by a stretch as a medieval European trade and financial hub. After its channel to the sea silted up, Bruges fell into economic decline – thereby helping to preserve its historic urban layout. Make sure to watch the cult classic film In Bruges during your visit.
Oakwell Beer Spa, Denver and Highlands Ranch, Colorado
Oakwell Beer Spa in Colorado
Colorado’s beer culture dates to the saloons of the mid-19th century gold rush. A little more than a century later, a school teacher in Boulder named Charlie Papazian founded the American Homebrewers Association and later the Great American Beer Festival. Today Colorado is home to over 400 craft breweries. Of course the state boasts a leading beer spa. In addition to its version of the standard soak, Oakwell offers unique services such as an “infrared sauna” and “zero gravity massage.” If you want some reading material while you soak, pick up a copy of Brewed at Altitude: A Beer Lover's History of Colorado, published in 2025 by historians Samuel Bock and Jason L. Hanson.
Taaka Beer Spa, Strasbourg, France
Taaka Beer Spa, photo credit Taaka Beer Spa
Strasbourg sits less than five kilometers from the Rhine River, and thus France’s border with Germany. It is the historic capital of the Alsace region. Along with neighboring Lorraine, Alsace shifted between French and German rule for centuries. Germanic half-timber houses with steep roofs and gothic structures dot the landscape. The typical local dish is choucroute garnie (mostly sauerkraut and pork). Alsace grows most of France’s hops. The Taaka Beer Spa features the output of the rich array of local micro-breweries. Space is limited, so be sure to make a reservation.
Last but not least, at Starkenberger, a brewery in Tarrenz, Austria, visitors could once frolic in a swimming pool full of beer-based liquid snuggled inside a 14th-century castle. Tarrenz is about 60 kilometers east of Innsbruck, which you may know as a two-time host of the Winter Olympics.
A staunchly regional brewery, Starkenberger has been around for 200 years and sells 40,000 hectoliters of beer a year, mostly to the local market in its home Alpine state of Tyrol. Medieval fermentation pools were converted into swimming pools that were filled with the equivalent of 42,000 pints of beer –heated to 34 degrees centigrade. Today, the former beer-swimming pools are still part of the "BierMythos" museum and can be visited, but sadly swimming in beer is no longer possible.