A new “beer spa” coming to Carroll County is giving new meaning to the term “bubble bath.”

The suds in the spa tubs at BierBath, opening Dec. 9 in Sykesville, are ingredients you could also find in a craft brew. Warm baths are infused with hops and barley, giving off the aroma of a freshly poured beer.

The concept might sound strange to Americans, but beer spas have been bubbling up around Europe for years, said BierBath co-founder Hector Enriquez.

“It’s not like a regular spa,” he said. “It’s a totally different experience.”

Enriquez, an international hotel photographer, first encountered beer baths in Spain, and has also visited similar spas in Prague and Iceland. He met BierBath co-founder Greg Baran, a fellow craft beer aficionado who works in the tech industry, at a beer-tasting event.

“He told me he wanted to build a brewery,” Enriquez recalled. “I said, ‘Oh no, I have something better.’ ”

BierBath, located in a retail center at 1213 Liberty Road, will combine a brew house and a beer spa in one building. A 150-seat taproom will serve 30 different beers, including 10 on draft, sourced from breweries throughout the United States.

Guests can grab a drink in the bright yellow brew house whether or not they plan to spend time in the spa. Enriquez said the space is kid- and dog-friendly. A limited food menu will focus on charcuterie boards with meats and cheeses, including Jamon Iberico from Spain and Italian prosciutto di Parma.

To take a beer bath, customers will have to make a booking in advance. Spa services start at $100 and include a 40-minute soak in the tub, 10 minutes in an infrared sauna and 10 minutes in a rain shower to wash off the beer smell. (Though the business is billed as a “beer bath,” Enriquez said the tubs don’t actually contain beer — just beer-making ingredients like hops and barley, plus Epsom salts.)

Customers can book individual soaks or share a tub with one other person. BierBath has a room with two tubs that groups of up to four people can share.

The spa claims that taking a beer bath can serve as a kind of detoxifying experience, opening pores, improving blood circulation and relieving stress.

Enriquez has a feeling the concept will continue to spread across the U.S. There are already a handful of beer spas scattered throughout the country, in Chicago, Denver and Orlando, Florida.

“It’s very, very good for the skin,” he said.