Drofa

Oleh Konovalenko and Yurii Zelinskyi had sold drinks and run a pub in Kherson for 25 years before they began brewing; their first beer, in 2019, became a local hit. The brewery takes its name from the great bustard, a bird of the southern steppe. Russian troops occupied Kherson early in 2022, and Drofa brewed with its remaining stock until a strike brought down a wall. After the city’s liberation in November 2022 the owners found their warehouse looted. In 2025 it brewed 338,000 litres, still a few kilometres from the front line, and it plans a second brewery in Odesa.