MIDDLETOWN— As Ukraine continues to fight off Russian invasion, First State Brewery in Middletown is showing support for Ukrainians by joining a relief fund effort that will help those in the war-torn country.

First State Brewery joined the “Brew for Ukraine” Victory beer campaign led by Ukraine based Pravda Brewery, which released a call to action on March 5 encouraging breweries to use their recipes to support the cause. Pravda Brewery paused their brewing operations in light of the invasion and began using their materials to make Molotov cocktails to fight back against Russian forces.

First State Brewery began brewing Pravda’s award winning “Putin Huilo” on March 7 to support the cause, and Pravda will provide First State Brewery, as well as any participating breweries, with labels and recipes for their respective beer.

The beer, which loosely translates to an obscene insult against Russian President Vladimir Putin, is one of five award winning recipes that Pravda Brewery’s Victory beer campaign provided including Putin Huilo, Syla, Red Eyes, Frau Ribbentrop, and From San to Don.

Even though the recipe will take weeks to brew, First State Brewery Founder and CEO Paul Hester says that there has been a great community response to their efforts.

“We’ve done social posts and we’ve gotten a lot of great feedback, there’s been a lot of chatter amongst the guys coming into the taproom,” Mr. Hester said.

“I was at an event at another brewery this past weekend and there were a lot of people asking about it. Its getting a lot of good support.”

The process came together quickly according to Mr. Hester, and given the severity of the conflict in Ukraine, brewing Putin Huilo became a priority for the company.

“We just all communicated together and said, ‘how can we help?’, so we moved some things around and got the ball rolling,” Mr. Hester said.

“As everything has been unfolding over the past couple of weeks, we knew we wanted to help, and this became the perfect opportunity for us to do so.”

Mr. Hester said that as soon as Pravda Brewery released their call to action, First State Brewery immediately rearranged their production schedule to start brewing Putin Huilo. Luckily for First State Brewery, they had all the required raw materials ready to begin brewing.

The initial recipes that Pravda Brewing provided were written in Ukrainian, and Mr. Hester said that before the help of a former Ukrainian brew master, they were left with Google to translate each of the recipes. Once First State Brewery had the proper translation, they scaled the recipe down to match their equipment and process, keeping the beer as true to its original vision as possible.

As a part of their call to action, Pravda Brewery stated that Ukraine cities are bracing for a fight, and since beer takes weeks to brew, they hope to win and successfully defend their homeland in time for brewing to complete.

First State Brewery plans to sell all the Putin Huilo that they brew, and once they sell out, the brewery will tally the numbers and donate 100% of the proceeds to Pravda Brewery’s relief fund.

The immediate response by First State Brewery is a testament to the company’s core values according to Mr. Hester, and the brewery plans to help in any way they can.

“One of our internal core values is ‘Be a good human’ and we constantly talk about what we can do to give back to the community,” Mr. Hester said.

“I felt like this had to take priority over everything, so it was an easy decision for us. We are always open to finding ways to help and support others.”