Photo: Newschoolbeer.com
Uh, did somebody just create complete nirvana? If you’re a lover of fine beer, then yes, someone did. And that someone is Sally Champa, a massage therapist from Sisters, Oregon who recently opened Hop in the Spa in the small town 30 minutes northwest of Bend. Champa has traveled extensively in Europe, where these places really do exist, and had friends at Deschutes Brewery, part of Bend’s rich fraternity of craft beer makers.
So Champa went with the idea. And it’s selling (she started just before Valentines and was booked for the holiday). Clients start with a cold one in the lounge area before heading in to the cedar tubs where they soak their bodies in an actual brew of hops made minutes before they arrive. Hops does wonders for dry skin while malt works for exfoliation and is loaded with Vitamin C. The brew is mixed in water with other herbs to release stress, anxiety, insomnia sore muscles and inflammation.
“We’re not so ‘fluffy’,” Champa said. “We are more therapeutic and medicinal. We want you to walk away with an experience that doesn’t just last 90 minutes, but (one) that lasts for the rest of the day, and hopefully the next day (too).”
After their soak, clients head to the massage table for work from Champa, then finish their stay with more of Oregon’s finest craft brew.
And Hop in the Spa is hitting the merch trail hard: its line of products include Hop in the Cup (hops-infused coffee) and Hop in the Bath (bath products like hops and malt shampoo).
Definitely a version of heaven for beer lovers everywhere.
