Think the bar is the only place you can get a cold beer? Think again. Craft beer is becoming so ubiquitous, it’s popping up in the most unlikely of places, like the yoga studio. Sure, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with getting a drink in a bar. Some purists would argue that drinking in a bar is the way God intended it to be. Maybe. Bars, beer gardens, ball parks, restaurants, hotel lobbies, the bed of a pickup truck going down Highway 41…these are all great places to knock back a cold one. But there’s something sweeter about finding a beer in a place you didn’t expect to find a beer. Like when you go to church and your pastor gives you a beer. Yeah, that’s a real thing. Check out these seven unexpected places you can find beer.
Yoga Class 
Photo via Bendy Brewski/Facebook
There’s a yoga class in Charleston where you work your way through your Vinyasa flow of mountain, downward dog, cobra, then work your way through a pint or two of local beer from Holy City, or one of the other participating breweries. It’s called “Bendy Brewski,” and it’s pretty much the best yoga class ever. There’s another yoga/beer class in Greenville called “Hatha and Hops,” and a number of Western breweries offer yoga classes (Poses and Pints at Crooked Stave, anyone?). Finally, a health trend we can truly get behind.
Church
This shouldn’t be too much of a stretch, considering Belgian monks have a long history in brewing beer, and the Catholic church has a patron saint of beer (Saint Arnold). And yet, it strikes me as a little odd to find a church pushing beer here in the U.S., but that’s exactly what some progressive churches begun doing—organizing beer tastings/Bible study in an attempt to attract younger members. You’ve got “Church in a Pub,” which gathers in a Fort Worth bar to discuss Jesus, and church meetings in Michigan called “What Would Jesus Brew?”
Chuck E Cheese
Ah, Chuck E Cheese, A.K.A. “hell on earth.” Loud video games that induce seizures? Check. A hundred snot-nosed kids running around spreading lice? Check. Human-sized rodent who sings and dances? Check. Beer? Apparently, check. Not only does Chuck E Cheese serve really crappy pizza, roughly 70% of the locations serve beer and wine. Sure, it’s crappy beer and crappy wine, but it might just be good enough to make that crappy kid’s birthday party you have to attend bearable.
At the Gym
Uplift Studios, in New York City, is a women’s only boutique fitness studio with all of the regular classes you’d expect. But on Friday nights, they offer “Happy Hour” class where you get to sit around a bar and gab with the gals over a glass of wine after an hour of high-intensity interval training. Substitute beer for the wine, and an hour of watching TV for the interval training, and I’m there.
The Art Gallery
Photo via Gallery5/Facebook
Okay, wine snobs and art snobs go hand in hand, but you gotta hand it to Gallery5, in Richmond, for installing half a dozen taps in their space, which is a renovated fire station. Add all that together, and you have the coolest art gallery on the planet. They rotate local craft beers through the tap system on a regular basis, which is promising, since Richmond has one of the hottest craft beer scenes going right now.
The Governor’s Mansion
Yeah, the Colorado Governor’s mansion is the first, and as far as we know, only Governor’s mansion to have a tap system installed. Props to Governor John Hickenlooper for having such vision (he is a former brewer, after all). Not only does the mansion have a tap system, it also hosted a beer festival recently, where people paid $100 to sample 20 different beers from Colorado. Now that’s a good use of public space.
The Bike Shop
Right down the road from my house, there’s a wonderful little place called “The Hub,” which sells mountain bikes and outdoor gear. But back in the mechanic’s pit, there’s a bar with $2 PBR tallboys and five taps pumping out local craft beer. You can drop your bike off for a tune up, and belly up to the bar for a few Dale’s Pale Ales. In my world, that’s called Nirvana. And there are more of these awesome places popping up all over the country. Why? Because bikes and beer go together like…bikes and beer.