CHESAPEAKE, Va. – Just off Greenbrier Parkway, inside a building that used to house a doctor’s office for military families, is now a modern, craft brewery called The Garage Brewery.
The owner is Ukrainian.
Ulyana Wingard was born and raised in Lviv, Ukraine. Her family, including her parents and brothers, still live there and update her often about the war. In fact, she said her younger brother just contacted her, asking what type of gun he should buy to protect himself and his family. Wingard described it as surreal.
“I got a call from my brother yesterday which scared me. He was inquiring about a weapon: what kind of weapon he should buy,” Wingard said. “This was a call I would have never expected and conversation I would have never expected to have with my family.”
The Garage Brewery had one of the staff members design a t-shirt to sell to customers. They say 100% of proceeds will go to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense to support the Army and Ministry of Health to help medics. They sold about 800 already, and with additional donations, raised a little more than $20,000 according to Wingard.
Now, her brewery in Chesapeake is connecting with Pravda Brewing out of Lviv. Pravda made headlines recently after announcing that it switched from making beer to crafting Molotov cocktails.
Wingard said a brewer who used to work at Pravda and now lives in New York, is planning to visit The Garage Brewery next week to share a special recipe for a golden ale. She said the staff will be busy peeling beets which is a fairly common ingredient in Ukrainian beer.
The plan is to have the same logo on the beer bottle as well as the new t-shirts which they’ll sell to help raise more money for Ukraine.
The Garage Brewery is located at 1011 Eden Way North in Chesapeake. For more on their efforts, click here.
