Beer breweries unite to support Ukraine: Samuel Adams, Dogfish Head
Ukrainian-born Naz Drebot helped start a brewery in the United States in 2015. He now runs his own in Kyiv and brewers around the world want to help his country as it faces an ongoing Russian invasion .
Among the latest to join the brewing of Resolve, a beer whose profits go to support humanitarian efforts in Ukraine: Boston Beer Co., which brews the great Samuel Adams and Dogfish Head beers. Each of Boston Beer’s local breweries will be brewing Resolve for a theatrical release this spring.
Earlier this month, more than 30 other breweries – mostly in the US, but some in the UK, Poland, Hungary and Ukraine – also started participating.
Brew a beer for Ukraine
42 North Brewing Company in East Aurora, New York, started the project because Ukraine’s plight is personal. Drebot “helped us build the place,” said brewery founder John Cimperman. “Half the recipes we still have on our wall today are beers that he designed recipes for, so he’s a family member in more ways than one. … When all these horrible events started he about a month ago we said, ‘What can we do?'”
Cimperman and Drebot, along with other brewers including Clay Keel of Keel Farms Agrarian Ales and Ciders in Plant City, Florida, teamed up to make a beer called Resolve, with proceeds from the beer going to help Ukrainian citizens and refugees who left for Poland to escape Russia’s invasion of the country.
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42 North uploaded two recipes and a label in March and began brewing its own Resolve beer. It is currently available at Wegmans supermarkets in the Buffalo, New York area.
Drebot helped create one of two basic recipes for a crisp lager known as Kellerbier available on the Resolve website. He also designed the label which includes the Ukrainian word for “freedom”.
Proceeds from the beer go to the Global Empowerment Mission, which provides aid to fighters and families left behind in Ukraine, as well as refugees who have fled to neighboring Poland, and to the World Central Kitchen, which has served million meals. in Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Moldova and Hungary since the start of the Russian invasion.
Where to find Boston Beer’s Resolve on tap
Boston Beer Co. has its own Ukrainian connection. The parents of the company’s marketing manager, Lesya Lysyj, and her husband, Bo, were displaced from Ukraine during World War II and came to North America in 1950. Bo Lysyj helped transport refugees from Ukraine to other parts of Europe during the current crisis. .
“When our brewers shared the Resolve collaboration concept with peers at 42 North and 2085 Breweries, we knew we had to get meaningfully involved,” Lesya Lysyj said in the press release announcing Boston Beer’s involvement.
The company will donate $50,000 to World Central Kitchen. Boston Beer’s Resolve will be available for a limited time at these locations:
- Samuel Adams Boston Brewery & Taproom – Jamaica Plain, Mass.
- Samuel Adams Boston Tasting Room – Boston
- Samuel Adams Cincinnati Taproom – Cincinnati
- Dogfish Head Tasting Room and Kitchen – Milton, Del.
- Dogfish Head Brewing & Eats – Rehoboth Beach, Del.
- Dogfish Head Chesapeake & Maine – Rehoboth Beach, Del.
- Miami fruit bat head – Miami
- Angel City Brewery – Los Angeles
- Coney Island Brewing – Coney Island, NY
- Restaurant Veselka – the East Village in New York
In kyiv, a brewer faces atrocities
“From Kyiv, our thanks to Boston Beer for supporting our fight for freedom and life. Resolve is our light to overcome darkness,” Drebot said in the announcement.
Drebot’s 2085 Brewery, which made its Resolve beer earlier this month, continues to operate and export beer throughout Europe. Since the invasion, Drebot has been unable to help brew, but has spent time serving in the Territorial Defense Forces at a guard post.
More recently he has turned to volunteering to help with supplies and international press assistance. “I just want to protect my country,” Drebot said recently on a Zoom call.
Drebot returned to Ukraine in 2016 and co-founded the 2085 brewery in Kyiv two years ago. “The United States is my second home. The country has helped me a lot and continues to help my country,” he said.
He said he had seen some of the recently reported atrocities firsthand. “It’s horrible. The world should know what’s going on. … You see civilians with their hands tied behind their backs with bullets in their heads,” he said. “It’s like 9/11 every day.”
42 North is donating at least $10,000, Cimperman said, and he hopes the number of breweries joining in making the beer will increase.
“If we can get 50 brews, now we’re talking,” he said.
“It’s just a small thing we can do to hopefully raise some money, but equally important to show Naz and his compatriots that we support them and that there is solidarity here,” Cimperman said.
For more information about Resolve Beer and participating breweries, visit: resolveukrainebeer.com
Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @mikesnider.
USA Today
