Lakefront Brewery has long had connections to Ukraine, where its beer has been available for seven years.
During that time, Lakefront’s Export Beer Sales Manager Andy Jungwirth has visited numerous times and help forge relationships with breweries there, including Lviv's Pravda Brewery, which has been extremely active in the resistance.
Lakefront is getting involved, too, via its crowler labels, which have been used to support causes in the past.
The brewery has created anti-Putin labels for its 32-ounce aluminum cans, which can be filled with any beer on tap to-go.
The newly labeled crowlers go on sale this weekend at the brewery, 1872 N. Commerce St. and Lakefront hopes to raise at least $10,000 for Ukrainian refugees.
A “Black Lives Matter” label raised $8,000 for the local children’s organization, Urban Underground.
The new labels say "Putin is a Dick," a reference to a beer brewed by Pravda, which means "truth" in Russian.
“The relationship with our friends in Ukraine has been growing for some time,” says Jungwirth. “And the recent events have broken our hearts. When we can help, we feel empowered. And now Lakefront fans can too.
"We also encourage other breweries as well, to create their own ‘Putin is a Dick’ brand to raise funds as well.”
The crowlers will cost $5 more than normal, but $10 of that will go to Ukraine. Crowler cost varies depending on the beer it contains.
“When you purchase an anti-Putin labeled crowler from Lakefront, $10 will be sent to the refugee fund, the National Bank of Ukraine’s Humanitarian Assistance to Ukrainians,” said Lakefront Brewery President, Russ Klisch.
“The crowler will cost folks $5 more than normal, and we will put in $5 as well to help Ukrainians though this awful time.”
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
