WATCH: Turning a Christmas dish into a brew to support Ukraine

• A traditional Ukrainian Christmas dish inspired the drink
• Unique ingredients, including what's known as the juggernaut of yeast, are involved
• All the proceeds will go to help Ukraine

It’s a symbolic dish in Ukrainian culture that some say dates back 10,000 years.

Kutya is common on the Christmas tables of many Ukrainians, as well as a holiday favorite of Mike Prytula, a Kelowna brewer.

It is also often associated with unity, which is fitting given a Kelowna partnership has come up with a beer that will also help Ukrainians in their motherland.

“What’s happening isn’t right and I’m just grateful that I’m able to help in any way that I can,” Prytula told Kelowna10.

He is the head brewer and owner of Unleashed Brewing. He and Brad Tomlinson from Jackknife Brewing, who is also Ukrainian, collaborated on making a special drink inspired by the beloved dish.

It also comes as Pravda, a brewery out of Lviv, a city in eastern Ukraine, put out a call for support, asking brewers around the world to, well, get brewing, and ship the proceeds abroad.

Realizing Kutya shares many ingredients to other beers, the pair decided to make this experimental brew.

Kutya – as Prytula's father made it- uses wheat berries soaked overnight, which are cooked with honey, salt, and pepper, as well as crushed poppy seeds.

The recipe was tweaked slightly to make the beer, with various types of wheat and some barleys added for needed enzymes.

Prytula said he had to replace the poppy seeds with toasted oats. Poppy seeds have oils and they ruin beer, he said. Oats were chosen as a taste substitute.

Prytula said Tomlinson had an ancient “Viking type of yeast”, which was used in Kutya.

“It’s the juggernaut of yeast and it just rips through all the sugars and transforms it into beer like within two or three days,” he said, explaining that other yeasts take weeks to do the same thing.

The leftover grain from the brew process is collected and donated to farms for livestock feed.

The Kutya beer should taste similar to other wheat ales.

The inspiration for this endeavour was less about making a drink with the same taste and more about using ingredients found in the Ukrainian recipe to brew with.

“Easy, crushable, not very bitter but pretty floral with some citrus hops,” he explained.

All proceeds from the beer sold will go straight to Pravda. It’s on-tap at both Unleashed and Jackknife.

Pyrtula said they will continue to brew Kutya for as long as the Russian invasion is ongoing.

Jackknife hopes to do other beer collaborations with Okanagan Valley breweries who want to support Ukraine.