(Note: I wrote the main text of this diary before the Russian attack on Lviv today.)
Greetings, beer lovers! For this Friday evening, once (or not) again, ‘tis chingchongchinaman as your FNBB guest blogger. The title of tonight’s edition obviously indicates the melancholy choice of subject, where clearly all of us would rather be talking about the Ukrainian craft beer industry during peacetime. But this is all too sadly not that time. The launch point for tonight’s FNBB is the “Brew for Ukraine” campaign, started by Yuri Zastavny, co-owner of Pravda Brewery in Lviv, as reported by several US news outlets, such as:
3/10/2022: Heather Schatz, WJCT News (Jacksonville)
3/14/2022: Peter Crimmins, WHYY (Philadelphia) (3/14/2022)
The parent Brew for Ukraine site has a page about the “Victory Beer Series”, which mentions that:
“Pravda Brewery opens recipes of its main award-winning beers and invites brewers around the world to brew them…We ask to donate to our relief fund…”
In her WJCT story, Schatz mentions Intuition Ale Works’ new take on Pravda’s “Syla” tripel beer:
“Intuition Ale Works announced Wednesday that it will release “Hey Putin, Go F*** Yourself!” or HPGFY, a Belgian-style Tripel, to raise money for humanitarian relief efforts in Ukraine.
“This special release, which will be available exclusively in the brewery’s downtown Jacksonville taproom beginning in early April, is part of an international “Brew For Ukraine” project that was recently launched by the Pravda Brewery in Lviv.”
In his WHYY story, Crimmins mentions Stickman Brews (accidentally calling the establishment “Stickman Brewery”, but hey, whatever, we get it) in Royersford, PA, who are working on their version of Pravda Brewery’s “Frau Ribbentrop” Belgian witbier, although it wasn’t clear to me what Stickman Brews’ title will be:
“‘We will be using proceeds from our version of @pravdabeer witbier, as well as our upcoming cream ale “aundzere landsman,” to support the Pravda team and the Ukrainian people in their defense of their homes,’ wrote Stickman on its Facebook page.”
An FB group page dedicated to the “Brew For Ukraine – Pravda Brewery – Victory Beer Collaboration” is here. One YT video about “Brew For Ukraine” is as follows:
From the parent “Brew for Ukraine” page and the Schatz and Crimmins articles, one can cobble together quotes from Yuri Zastavny, from life before and life after:
Before (from Crimmins/WHYY): “Craft brewing is developing in Ukraine. We were not the first, but one of the first breweries in Ukraine. Now there are a lot of breweries.”
After:
(a) Crimmins/WHYY, about an annual Craft Beer and Vinyl Music Festival that had been planned for this coming May: “We will probably have to hold off on that and do important things first. Like, clean the country of the enemy, come back to normal life, rebuild the country.”
(b) Schatz/WJCT, about a “production change”: “Not long after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Pravda transitioned from brewing beer to making Molotov Cocktails.”. An Instagram post mentioned that ’Pravda Brewery team is hand-bottling,’ along with a photo of homemade firebombs, and added, “We’ll bottle beer later.””
You can also listen to Yuri Zastavny from the NPR program “Here And Now” at this page. The “Brew for Ukraine” site has this closer on one page:
“As peaceful craft brewers, we want to return to the normal life asap and enjoy brewing and drinking. But first we must kick the cockroaches out of our land. No more Gulags, Holodomors and oppression. It’s a decisive moment for Ukraine, Europe and democracies of the world.
Soon will win this war and have a good beer. The Beer of Victory.”
Of course, comparing Putin and his thugs to cockroaches is a complete insult…to cockroaches. Cockroaches look unpleasant, but they’re at least not out to “get” anyone. They just do what they’re programmed to do by nature, without malice or particular ill-intent towards humans. The same cannot be said of humans themselves, sadly.
The “Brew For Ukraine” movement in the craft beer community looks to be growing by leaps and bounds, as is the nature of these movements. Sadly, given how long the situation will probably drag out, if not blow up (literally) into something much worse, it’s probably a tragically safe bet that FNBB could easily highlight for weeks to come, if not longer, new beers brewed to benefit humanitarian aid for Ukraine and Ukrainians. These two stories are just the tip of the iceberg, and one can easily dig up more. Also, if one thinks about it, and at the risk of sounding morbid, the fact that Pravda Brewery opened up their recipes to the rest of the craft beer world is almost a way to ensure that their work doesn’t get wiped out, in case of the worst. Not the kind of diary that one wants to read on a Friday night, but it is what it is, until the day that P---n winds up in the docket in The Hague.
Given how recent this story is about Brew For Ukraine, the featured beer chez 3CM clearly has nothing to do with Ukraine, even if self the loser had tried to find a Ukrainian beer. Instead, it’s very much a stateside concoction, a Rising Sun Inn Ableman Ale, brewed for the inn in question by McAllister Brewing Company. As the labeling indicates (and 3CM is susceptible to clever marketing as anyone), the obvious idea here was that McAllister was going for an American colonial style. McAllister does like to make their brews on the slightly bitter side, and that tradition stayed with this Ableman Ale, as with other McAllister Brewing flavors that I’ve sporadically sampled and even mentioned in past FNBBs. It’s definitely on the hearty, darker side as well.
With that, time to turn it over to you folks? What are you imbibing tonight? Anyone brewing their own? And if anyone wants to keep the “Brew For Ukraine” theme going into the future, feel free to do so.