After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine started on February 24, 2022, Karolína Chroustovská was a driving force behind a benefit beer festival in Prague called Drink for Ukraine—not once, but twice. After the city government realized it would need the festival hall to house waves of incoming Ukrainian refugees and canceled the festival planned for March at the last minute, Chroustovská and her partners worked to reschedule it for later in the spring.
That work helped raise more than 600,000 Czech koruny (about $26,000) for Ukraine—but it also increased awareness and helped move public opinion at a crucial time. “My first impulse was a feeling of helplessness and a huge wave of panic,” Chroustovská says. “I was born in democracy, raised in it, and I never, ever imagined this could be happening a few hundred miles away.”
Helplessness is not a concept most of us would ever associate with Chroustovská—rather the opposite. As a multitasking working mother, Chroustovská organized Drink for Ukraine while also taking care of a three-year-old child and a six-month-old baby.
For years, curious Czech drinkers have had access to new craft beer styles through Pivovar Chroust, the contract brewery Chroustovská runs with her husband Jirka Chroustovský. For example, the brewery produced the first Milkshake IPA in the country in autumn 2017, as well as other newfangled recipes previously unknown in this Lager-loving region. To get those new flavors into the hands of the public, the couple forged a unique partnership with the dining-car company that serves Czech Railways, offering craft styles exclusively to train travelers.
When she wasn’t brewing beers, running her business, or organizing festivals, Chroustovská created a nonprofit organization that just applied to become the Czech branch of the Pink Boots Society. There’s a good reason why Chroustovská has had several profiles in Czech media this year: She makes things happen.
Words,Evan Rail