The revolutionary product comes from Swedish microbrewery PangPang and creative agency Snask. Straightforwardly named “Shower Beer,” the craft pale ale is tailored to be consumed in one shower session.
It’s designed to be small enough to handle and finish quickly, but makes up for it by being stronger than your average beer.
“A sweet but strong pale ale, served up in a palm-friendly 18 cl [6 oz] bottle, that can be finished in three gulps while taking a shower,” Snask’s site reads.
But that’s just if you want to drink it. Because if you have it in your shower, why not use it as a hair product while you’re at it?
According to PangPang’s site, the beer contains “enough Citra to double as a hair conditioner.” Personally, we would never condone wasting beer or putting it anywhere but down your throat, but still, it’s a cool feature.
It’s also designed to have a “soapy” flavor, so take that what you will.
“I let the Shower Beer sit longer in the primary fermenter before dry hopping and cold crashing it, compared to other PangPang beers,” PangPang brewery founder Fredrik Tunedal told Vice. “This lets it develop a soapy flavor that in some beers is considered an ‘off’ flavor, but is just on point for the Shower Beer. The beer is heavily hopped with Citra [hops], and has a citrusy, soapy, and somewhat herbal profile.”
The beer was first released in a limited batch in Sweden in 2016, but word soon spread and demand was high.
“We did this first batch that wasn’t that big. It was mostly for the Swedish market and we wanted to have it for ourselves,” Tunedal said. “It sold out so fast. There’s quite an interest in it.”
It got people talking… even Tom Hanks joked about the beer while guest hosting an episode of NPR’s Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!
“[It’s] perfect for people who want some hair of the dog to go along with that stuff that’s clogging their drain,” Hanks joked. “If you have enough of them, you’ll eventually be drunk enough to fall down in the shower and become another shocking cause of death statistic.”
The Shower Beer isn’t currently available at the moment, but you can pre-order a batch for the next time it’s brewed.
But whether you’re drinking this special shower-ready brew or just your regular, everyday beer-of-choice, it’s clear that the “shower beer” idea is becoming a common pastime.
“The idea for a Shower Beer is a universal thing,” Tunedal told Vice. “As a brewer I work long and hard days, and when I come home I’m often covered in malt dust … and the shower is a gateway back to normal society.
“Looking through the hashtag #showerbeer it’s easy to see that people all over the world love that feeling of a hot shower and an ice cold beer.”
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