It’s a typical Monday evening at Ska Brewing Co. as customers drink beer, toss dice and talk story. Snippets of conversation float through the tasting room: “I don’t come out very often,” a man claims to a woman who replies, “I don’t either,” as others shriek about ski conditions or swear happily. They seem blissfully unaware that upstairs, 22 butts stick up in the air as Heather Hooten’s Happy Hour Yoga  class dives into downward-facing dog.

“Channel your best Darth Vader with that ojai breath at the back of the throat,” she calls out. “Don’t think about beer – we’re only five minutes into class.”

The unconventional but popular yoga class has breathed life into Monday nights at Ska since its inception in June 2011. For $10, students get an hour-long yoga class and a token for a pint of beer afterward.

“The idea of beer and yoga – you can’t beat it,” says Tony Casale, who’s faithfully attended the class for more than a year.

Happy Hour Yoga is open to all experience levels, from beginners to advanced.

“Customize your practice – keep it at your safe edge,” Hooten tells the class before a balancing pose. “If you fall out, guess what? Nobody cares.”
Hooten’s irreverent, upbeat teaching style suits the casual atmosphere well; students laugh as she leads them in a particularly challenging pose and groans “Holy guacamole!” then says apologetically, “The bitch of it is now we have to do the other side.”

“It’s one of the best 10 bucks you can spend in town – well, $11 with tip,” says student Whitney Mick. “It’s the best part of my Monday.”

Kristen Muraro, event coordinator at Ska, conceived of Happy Hour Yoga when she was trying to come up with a fun activity for Monday, which is not typically a big drinking night.

“I was thinking, ‘What do people in Durango enjoy doing?’ and it just seems like there are a lot of people in town who are into yoga,” Muraro says. “Along with craft beer and music, I think outdoor activities and sports are an important part of the Ska Brewing culture … Adding yoga just seemed like a natural fit. We’re a very active brewery.”

Participants take an overhead stretch during Happy Hour Yoga. After class, they can head to the bar for a free beer, or save the token for a little carbo loading later./Photo by Steve Eginoire

It was also a chance for the brewery to offer a wellness benefit to employees, who were invited to join the 5:30 p.m. class. So many Ska employees – and owners – participated in happy hour yoga that once the class gained traction with the public, Hooten had to start a separate employee class because of space constraints.

“It brought some people in who had never been here before,” Muraro says. “There are several folks who the first time they came here was for yoga class, and now I see them at all different events – they come for our Ska-B-Qs on Thursdays, they’re at all our big festivals.”

And she never had any doubt about who should teach the class.

“When I thought of the class, from the beginning, I pictured Heather teaching it,” she says. “It’s obviously not your typical yoga environment, and it takes a certain personality to teach class out here.”

Hooten left a nursing career to begin teaching yoga full time several years ago, starting at Yoga Durango and expanding to diverse clients such as Dalton Ranch and Your Flesh Tattoo, where she trades for her own ink. Her tattoos range from the Hindu deity Ganesha on a leg to her 5-year-old son Grady’s name on her left forearm. (“He’s really cute when he says things like ‘Mama’s going to teach’ or he used to say ‘Mamaste’ instead of ‘Namaste,’” she says.)

Hooten says the idea was to form an inclusive class that wouldn’t be intimidating to men, though most of her students are women “even though I tell every single man I know the best place to meet a girl is in yoga,” she says.

While many in the community have embraced the concept of yoga in a bar, others aren’t so sure, Hooten says.

“People often say, ‘Yoga and beer?’ I get that a lot,” Hooten says. “My response is, ‘You don’t have to drink the beer after class – you get a token – you can drink it whenever you want.’ And how many people don’t leave their yoga mats and have a drink anyway?”
Hooten says she doesn’t change her style much for her more traditional yoga classes.

“I try not to say, ‘Shit – I just drank a Red Bull’ at my other classes, but that doesn’t mean I don’t do it,” she laughs. “I want to be myself, and I want to honor who I am, which has taken a long time to be comfortable with.”

Her students love her teaching style and personality.

“She’s hysterical – and she’s real,” says Erin Williamson, who has attended Happy Hour Yoga since the first class.

Williamson, who has practiced yoga for six years, says her practice has improved since starting classes with Hooten because she doesn’t worry about being judged on her ability.

“It’s helping me take myself less seriously and get into the pose more,” she says.

Hooten’s mom, Kathy Salupo, started practicing yoga because of her daughter and enjoys the Ska class.
“She’s always been this way – outgoing, bubbly, a go-getter,” Salupo says.

The venue also draws praise from Happy Hour Yoga students. Dana Wilson, who has practiced yoga off and on for 15 years and has been coming to the Ska class for 1½ years, says the bar setting contrasts with the incense, calming music and bells of traditional yoga studios.

“I like the smell of hops and the sound of people laughing and talking – the sound of people having fun,” Wilson says.

At the end of Happy Hour Yoga, Hooten dims the lights as students recline in shavasana, “the corpse pose.”

One by one, she massages their ears with scented oil and leaves a Hershey’s kiss at the foot of their mat, then asks the group to sit up with their hands clasped in front of their chests as she quotes Martin Luther King, Jr.

“‘Faith is taking the first step, even when you can’t see the staircase,’” she says.

The students bow their heads and cho rus “Namaste.”

“Namaste,” Hooten says. “And now it’s time to drink beer.”

Ska Brewing Co. hosts Happy Hour Yoga every Monday at 5:30 p.m. on the second floor (stairs are to the right of the tasting room’s bar). Cost is $10 for an hour of yoga and a beer token, or $90 for a 10-punch pass. For more information, call Ska Brewing at 970-247-5792.