Eight Winnipeg craft brewers are the latest Canadians to join forces and come up with a special brew to help support Ukrainians–using a recipe from Lviv, Ukraine–with all proceeds are going towards supporting the country via the Pravda Humanitarian Fund.

“It wasn’t very difficult to get some partners to collaborate on this, because it is for a great cause,” said Torque Brewing’s director of operations, Matthew Wolff.

“Who wouldn’t want to come buy a beer, drink it and help humanitarian relief through it?”

The eight breweries taking part in this venture include: Torque, Trans Canada, Nonsuch, Barn Hammer, One Great City, Devil May Care, Lake of The Woods and Stone Angel breweries.

“This is the first time we’ve actually seen this many breweries locally, and also globally, get together to support a common cause,” said Wolff.

According to the Brew for Ukraine website, approx. 500 breweries all over the world are taking part in this cause with hopes of raising more than $4 million by the end of this month.

“One thing with beer is it takes a little bit of time – but Pravda Brewing provided all the recipes because unfortunately, their brewery is no longer active because of the conflict.”

The recipe the Winnipeg brewers chose is an American red ale, which features a deep rouge with notes of citrus and grass.

Red Eyes American Red Ale was canned at Torque and the initial batch of roughly 3,000 cans went on sale last week.

“I have a feeling it’s going to be going pretty quickly,” Wolff said. “(We) produced around 1,500 litres of the beer, so that’s going to equate to around 3,000 cans.”

“It sounds like a lot, but I’m sure it’s going to fly off the shelves for the support.”

The group is working with local vendors to make it readily accessible around Winnipeg, and select Manitoba Liquor Marts started selling cans this week as well. 

Photo courtesy of Torque Brewing/Twitter