Tue 12/30 @ 6pm
Throughout history, there have been many monumental meetings that have changed the way we live our lives. There’s peanut butter meeting jelly, Simon meeting Garfunkel, and Jeff meeting Flash.
For Melissa Klimo-Major, a certain merging of two somewhat foreign entities or worlds has been her mission for years. Recently the Willoughby resident combined her passions – yoga and craft beer – into the mind-bending Brews & Balance affairs, which are safe environments where yoga mats and yoga pants cross paths with hops and barley without fear or judgment.
CoolCleveland talked to Klimo-Major about the next Brews & Balance, which takes place Tue 12/30 at the Market Garden Brewery.
CoolCleveland: First of all, what exactly is a Brews & Balance event?
Melissa Klimo-Major: It’s beer events that combine yoga and beer. So we go into a brewery and do an hour-long yoga practice, and then we take the brewery tour with a brewmaster and enjoy a beer. It becomes kind of like a community gathering of like-minded people.
How exactly did you land on the Brews & Balance idea?
I have been a yoga teacher for three years now, and I was doing yoga and beer workshops at the studio but I wanted to take it somewhere different so that people who are maybe intimidated by a yoga studio can have a chance to practice in a different location. People who are really intimated by the craft beer community can have a little introduction to see how it’s made, why it’s done and why we do it the way we do it.
It’s odd but it seems like the notion of yoga and beer in the same sentence is oxymoronic.
Which is kind of what appealed to me. Yoga kind of has the reputation of being a little bit stuffier in the studios so this makes it a little bit more casual. And it’s for people who get nervous going to their first yoga class. If you know you’re going to have a beer afterwards, that kind of calms your nerves down and breaks down some walls so you start talking and socializing and finding things you have in common.
Ah, so it’s nothing more than a carrot dangling in front of our faces.
Exactly. Also, yoga too, it doesn’t have to be where you sit and you meditate every day and you go to the studio and you only eat raw food. I think it needs to be something that can balance throughout your whole life. So we bring that approach to it as well.
How has Brews & Balance been received?
It was much bigger than I expected. It’s something that is fairly unpaved. I had no idea how many people would actually show up but we almost sold out all of them. People were very receptive to it. I want to expand to more breweries and perhaps beyond Cleveland. Yoga and craft beer are my two passions, so I see it just growing off of those two things.
Stereotypically-speaking about the craft-beer folks, does the event find plenty of bearded hipsters humming Mumford & Sons?
Yes, but we’re getting a very varied crowd age-wise and people who are there because it’s a cool thing to do versus a really serious yogi who wants to challenge themselves and process outside of the studio. So I’m happy it’s pulling from different demographics.
And just to confirm, you wouldn’t recommend drinking beer before doing yoga?
Correct. You need a little bit of balance. Also, legality-wise and insurance-wise, it would be a total nightmare.
Brews & Balance takes place at 6 p.m. Tue 12/30 at Market Garden Brewery, 1947 W 25th St., Cleveland. The cost is $20 for an hour-long yoga session, beer tour and social event (including one bottle of People Water and one house beer). http://balanceandbrews.com
Freelance writer John Benson spends most of his time writing for various papers throughout Northeast Ohio. Cleveland, OH 44113