Will work for beer: New brewery fitness class website launching in Charlotte

There are 18 breweries in Charlotte and almost all of them offer some kind of brewery fitness. Alicia Thomas and Melanie Fox would know — they’ve tried all of them.

Back in February, they noticed a problem: There wasn’t once central place to find information about the more than 60 classes scattered around the Charlotte area. So they decided to create Work For Your Beer, an online “master guide” to brewery fitness in the Charlotte area. The website is scheduled to launch Dec. 1.

Fox, 26, and Thomas, 23, met in college at Penn State. Fox moved to Charlotte in 2013 and Alicia came in 2015, and they both started going to brewery fitness events to work out and meet new people. At first, it was the big ones: The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery’s Yoga On Tap, and yoga at Triple C and Lenny Boy.

“There’s gotta be more of these,” they thought. They were right, but the classes were hard to find, and the information they could find wasn’t always up-to-date. More than once, they’ve showed up for a class that didn’t exist or was canceled.

“I’ve showed up for classes before and been like, ‘I guess this isn’t happening. I guess I’m just getting a beer.’ Which isn’t the worst thing in the world,” Thomas said.

“We’re filling a need,” Fox added. “There are a lot of ways to get this information, but we’re trying to make it as intuitive as possible.”

Here’s how the site will work:

– You can search for classes on Work For Your Beer by date, location and type of activity.

– Each event page will have basic info like time, date and cost, but will also have information about the vibe (like slow flow vs. power yoga), about discounts and/or food trucks, and about parking and where in the brewery the class is held (taproom vs. warehouse vs. outside). Fox, who has a photography background, will also post photos from the event.

– Fox and Thomas will contact the breweries and event organizers each week to update the listings themselves.

– There will be a Sunday “Brewsletter” and a blog to keep people updated, and the two hope to host events in the future.

– The site will include more than just brewery fitness. It will have any fitness event with an alcohol and social component, like Yoga + Wine at the Mint Museum and bike rides at Brixx Pizza.

Fox and Thomas launched the Work For Your Beer Instagram in October and it’s already attracted more than 3,000 followers. The pair also just wrapped up an Indiegogo campaign to fund their business start-up costs, which was 110 percent funded. This, plus market research — both work in digital marketing — proves that there’s an audience that craves this kind of service, Fox and Thomas said.

The listings are free for breweries. Fox and Thomas hope to initially make money for the site by selling merchandise, which was made for them by Ink Floyd. But this is just a “side hustle” now — both have full-time jobs.

With Work For Your Beer, they want to create a community around brewery fitness in Charlotte. And they also hope to get people out of their comfort zone by going to a different class or trying a different type of activity, like Crossfit, Pilates or a boot camp.

“I think a lot of people think it’s just yoga and run clubs and it’s not,” Thomas said. “There’s so much else out there.”

Want to learn more? Head over to www.workforyourbeer.com or follow Work For Your Beer on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Photos: Courtesy of Work For Your Beer

This story was originally published November 22, 2016 at 12:21 AM with the headline "Will work for beer: New brewery fitness class website launching in Charlotte."