While on the surface, a brewery and a yoga studio may appear to have little in common, the owners of two neighbouring North Vancouver businesses beg to differ.
Black Kettle Brewing Company’s Bryan Lockhart and The Yoga Root’s Rachel Rozen have recently banded together for something a little out of the box, reflecting their shared interest in helping customers come together, and feel part of and connected to the wider North Shore community.
Last month the duo started offering weekly Brewga sessions, all-levels, slow-flowing yoga classes led by Rozen at the brewery, followed by a crisp, rewarding beer and a little conversation.
“Beer is a social thing. It’s Vancouver, it’s the culture nowadays, and so is yoga, so it was just partnering those two together,” says Rozen.
“Two of the fastest-growing industries,” adds Lockhart.
Black Kettle opened in the Harbourside area in January 2014 and Rozen launched her studio in August 2015, a stone’s throw away.
Feeling like the “new kid on the block,” she decided to stop by the brewery to introduce herself.
“It was basically a, ‘Hey let’s band together and connect small businesses in the community that are around this area, and create a little bit more of an awareness of the area,” she says.
The two entrepreneurs continued to brainstorm ways of working together and eventually the Brewga idea came into focus. Lockhart, a yoga newbie, had heard about similar initiatives being offered elsewhere, for example, the Whistler lululemon Forlise men’s store offers participants a beer at the end of weekly yoga classes.
In addition, during a recent trip to Mexico, he saw some local wine bars that also offered yoga classes.
“They were absolutely packed and it blew my mind having a whole bunch of local people doing yoga as well as having some drinks and having fun, and then everyone would go out and surf after. It was more of a community thing than it was going to a yoga class or going to a bar to have a beer. It was more of just all the people in the immediate area hanging out together, which made me come back and say that I think we should probably give this a go even though I thought it was the craziest thing in the world. It wasn’t until I got to see it with my own two eyes that I was like, ‘People actually do this,’” he says.
Rozen too had heard of Brewga classes being offered elsewhere, mainly in the United States, in cities like Portland, Ore., and they’re becoming increasingly popular on both sides of the border.
Launched last month, the inaugural North Vancouver class saw mainly women in attendance.
“The women that came were definitely beer drinkers, lovers of yoga, wanted to have a good time, they didn’t want it to be like a serious yoga practice, they wanted to have some fun with their yoga and drink a beer. And, they were mostly people that had never been to Black Kettle before,” says Rozen.
As the classes are continuing they’re seeing more men as well as an overall stronger mix of people with and without yoga and beer-drinking experience.
“It’s brought everybody together, which is cool. Afterwards everybody just socializes,” says Rozen.
“In a weird way it’s become a little bit of a networking thing,” adds Lockhart.
The weekly offerings cost $10, which includes the class, use of a mat and a beer. The low-price point was intended to make the event accessible to all as well as increase its appeal.
The non-traditional yoga setting is also intended to encourage people who have potentially been too intimidated to try a yoga class to finally do so, and increase their comfort and confidence levels to the point where they may decide to start going regularly to a studio, reaping the health benefits.
This speaks to Rozen’s purpose and goal with The Yoga Root, which is to help people truly feel that yoga can be for everyone.
“My whole thing is to make sure that everybody feels like they can do it. I think this is a really good way of segueing into that and having that continuation of what my dream and aspirations are for the studio. It’s a good offshoot of what I’m already doing in the studio, so it’s a great collaboration,” she says.
Black Kettle and The Yoga Root’s drop-in Brewga classes are offered Wednesdays at 7:15 p.m. Arrive early to get settled and sign a waiver, and beer drinking starts at 8 p.m.
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