Full Glass: Ukrainian launches project for Resist beer, an ‘anti-imperial stout’

Between late 2013 and early 2014, Lana Svitankova was one of thousands of people who flocked to Kiev’s Maidan Nezalejnosti, or Independence square, to protest then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych — who backtracked in a treaty to enter the European Union and approached Vladimir Putin.

Despite bloody police repression, the wave of protests at the time led to the resignation of Yanukovych, later replaced by a pro-European government.

Now 39 years old, Lana Svitankova lives in Zurich (Switzerland) with her husband and has been following with anguish and apprehension the Russian bombings against her Kiev. Her parents managed to get out of the country, but she still has friends who are in the nation’s capital, sleeping in bomb shelters. “We are in the 21st century and one country is still invading another independent country… it’s bizarre. Sometimes my brain can’t process it, it feels like we’re in an apocalyptic movie”, she laments.

Specialist in beers, with the certificate of cicerone, Lana is in Blumenau, where he is part of a team of 106 judges of the Brazilian Beer Contest, the main award in the country. “I feel guilty several times, because I’m here judging beers, and my friends are sleeping in the underground”, comments the Ukrainian, who wears a pin with the colors of the country’s flag all the time.

Lana found in the industry she loves so much a way to help her countrymen by launching a fundraiser with the brewing community. She created the website drinkersforukraine.com (drinkers for Ukraine), where she invites participants to donate any beer item for auction, such as a rare beer or an autographed book. Drinks For Ukraine also gained profiles on Facebook and Instagram (here).

The site also urges brewers to produce a new label, Resist beer, a “ukrainian anti-imperial stout” (a provocation to the famous Russian imperial stout) with at least 10% alcohol. The website provides a recipe and suggests label art, but allows for creative licenses in the formula. The amount raised with Resist goes to the Red Cross that is working in the eastern European country.

The action is somewhat reminiscent of the Black Is Beautiful project, created in the United States, which raised money for foundations that fought police violence after the murder of George Floyd.

Home brewery and Brazil

When telling a little about her story, Svitankova recalls that it took her a while to get into the beer world, despite the fact that alcohol consumption is allowed from the age of 16. The interest came during the honeymoon in Prague (Czech Republic), one of the main beer centers in the world. “I drank a dark lager and thought, ‘hmmm, so beer might be like this, I need to know more about it,” she recalls.

She read everything she could, faced the machismo common in the sector, took her certificate as a cicerone, became a translator of beer books in her home country and a judge in contests in different corners of the world, including the current edition of the Brazilian Contest of Beer.

On her first visit to Brazil, Svitankova was impressed by the size of the contest — with more than 3,500 samples entered — and the quality of the beers, including catharina sour, the first officially recognized Brazilian style. “The level of beers is extremely good, in other contests some are bad, but here it was above average”, she says. Before Blumenau, Lana passed through São Paulo, where she met and marveled at beers from brewpubs and taprooms, such as Croma, Dogma, Trilha and Tank.