The annual beer festival Odesa Beer Festival started last Friday in the Odessa City Garden. For the whole weekend, the cozy territory of the Summer Theater turned into a paradise for fans of the intoxicating drink and lovers of fried, salty and hearty snacks, the smell of which can be heard almost to Deribasovskaya.

As a Dumskaya correspondent reports, traditionally, entry to the festival is free, but beer will only be poured into a branded glass, which can be purchased at the entrance.

This year, thirty brewers from all over Ukraine came to Odessa: Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkov and even Kherson. The Drofa brewery, which resumed its work three months after the de-occupation of the right bank of the Dnieper and continues to work under daily shelling, introduced a new variety of stout, Anti-Imperial. The bottle’s label is decorated with a burning Kremlin.

“We were lucky, the orcs couldn’t take away the capacity, they only stole raw materials and finished products,” a brewery employee told Dumskoy. — There were problems with logistics, but now we are slowly working and even developing. We opened two stores in Odessa. This winter we brewed a new stout, a dark beer with an aftertaste of prunes and smoked meat.”

An interesting line of flavors was traditionally presented by lovers of experiments, the Kyiv craft brewery “SemBrew”.

“We try to surprise everyone with new varieties,” said the brewery’s founder, Yaroslav Gritsay. — We work in the American style, we specialize in ales, there are interesting fruit varieties, this year we have “Bloody Mary” tomato ale and “Wild wild Pumpkin” pumpkin ale. This is a seasonal strong beer based on baked pumpkin, a semi-dark ale that is loved by American farmers.”

For the first time at the festival, you can try a low-alcohol drink based on fermented honey from the Odessa meadery “Lokal Deserta”.

“It’s very difficult to ferment honey; it’s not a berry,” explains brand creator Evgeniy Zhuk. – There is a mixture of different technologies: partly from cider, partly from beer, partly from wine – dancing with a tambourine. The first fermentation is where the honey base is made, but in the second fermentation we add flavors. Now we have blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, vanilla, and cinnamon on tap. The best is Charlotte – apple with cinnamon, it tastes like grandma’s real Charlotte.”

According to the organizers of the Odesa Beer Festival, this year the festival has changed its format.

“This is not a beer festival in its purest form,” said organizer Stanislav Podlubny. — We are already a well-known brand, people know and love us, so this year we directed our efforts to help local charitable projects that support the Armed Forces of Ukraine and help displaced people. They are all presented here. You can get acquainted with their activities and help them directly.”

In addition, part of the proceeds and free donations collected during the festival will be used to equip the unit, which was joined by the main Odessa bearded man and the face of the festival, the famous Odessa brewer Sergei Parkhisenko.

Every day at the festival there will be an auction in support of the Did Craft Beer brewery, whose creator also defends the freedom of our country as part of one of the tank brigades of the Ukrainian armed forces.

On the festival ends at 23:00.

(C)DUMSKAYA NET 2024