Superior Bathhouse Beer

There’s only one place on the planet where you can sip beer made from thermal spring water: Superior Bathhouse Brewery in Hot Springs, Arkansas. When professional tuba player Rose Schweikhart set down her instrument and picked up a brew kettle, little did she know she would soon transform a century-old bathhouse into the only brewery inside a national park. With minimal experience but plenty of moxie, she discovered her calling in Hot Springs—and found her true home in the South.

One of the smallest and oldest national parks, Hot Springs National Park is a unique urban enclave. Forty-seven thermal springs bubble up around Bathhouse Row, a line of eight elegant bathhouses built from 1892 to 1923, the height of the medical bathing era. Travelers flocked to the town to soak in steaming pools and (supposedly) alleviate myriad health problems, from arthritis to cancer to hiccups. But by 1983, hydrotherapy was passé and Superior Bathhouse closed. Over in New Jersey, Schweikhart had just been born.

“I was always a little entrepreneurial,” Schweikhart says. “From a young age, I wanted to run businesses. I babysat and mowed everybody’s lawns in the neighborhood.” Studying classical tuba in college, she relished the “inherent” connection between tuba players and beer. “Tuba players are a joyful, celebratory type of musician,” she explains. Graduate school took her to Europe, where beer was more than a drink. “It’s part of culture and society,” Schweikhart says. “I fell in love with beer as an experience.”

She also fell in love with home brewing. The hobby was introduced to her by her then-husband, whose work brought them to Hot Springs in 2011. The marriage didn’t last, but brewing did. Schweikhart was surprised that her new hometown, famous for delicious spring water, had no brewery. What if she could open one in a former bathhouse? “Looking back, those were crazy thoughts,” admits Schweikhart, who credits her mettle to her mother: “She was a big thinker.”

Schweikhart’s timing was perfect: Hot Springs National Park was looking for small businesses to revitalize the empty bathhouses. The then-29-year- old’s eye fell on Superior Bathhouse, constructed in 1916 and known for affordability. “It was for everybody,” she says. After a two-year process, she signed a 55-year lease—then rolled up her sleeves and went to work.

Schweikhart threw herself into creating a brewery while preserving the bathhouse’s character, often picking up the drill and hammer herself. After sitting vacant for three decades, Superior Bathhouse reopened in 2013. Massive beer tanks now stand where bathers once soaked, and the original check-in counter serves as the bar. Picnic tables on the patio bustle with beer drinkers, families, and happy-faced dogs.

Like the bathhouse before it, this brewpub is for everybody. “I want people to feel comfortable,” Schweikhart says. “That’s my
philosophy about our beers, our food, and our prices.” Her bestselling beer is Space Force hazy IPA, and she also brews ales, bocks, and stouts. But not every beer is strong or dark; the Spring Training blonde ale is a hit with people who want to keep it simple.

Superior’s scratch-made cuisine relies on local vegetables and Arkansas meats, like the special-grind beef in the smashburgers. Bavarian pretzels come with housemade beer cheese, and the sweet potato salad dazzles with spicy bacon and Asian carrot vinaigrette. Reuben nachos keep things interesting. “I’m proud of our food,” Schweikhart says. “I’m proud of the brewery.”

Now 42, she takes the stewardship of the historical site seriously. “It’s my baby. My life’s work is in this building, and it’s my job to do the best I can for it.” Reborn with new purpose, Superior Bathhouse continues its story thanks to Schweikhart—and everyone
who eats a burger or sips a beer at this one-of-a-kind Southern treasure.