80 working hours per week are not uncommon for Manfred Reichert. He hardly knows any free weekends. And yet the trained butcher and self-made brewer from Upper Franconia has put in countless extra shifts over the past weeks and months and mobilized his entire village in an unprecedented effort to organize aid for Ukraine. The war-torn country is home to his girlfriend Iryna. She was visiting relatives when the first bombs fell at the end of February.
Outbreak of war in Ukraine: girlfriend was at the site
Ukrainians with Metzgerbräu beer and relief supplies from Uetzing
The last quarter of the year has taken a lot out of Manfred Reichert – both physically and mentally. While most people only know about the suffering of the people in Ukraine from television images, the 52-year-old has experienced it first-hand. His girlfriend Iryna, with whom he has been in a relationship for eight years, comes from the country that has been ravaged by a Russian war of aggression since the end of February. For Christmas, she had gone to Ukraine to be with her family. There, however, the war caught up with her. Although her hometown near Lviv has so far been spared from bombs, the war is omnipresent there as well. Several times a day, the sirens wail, and then she has to take refuge in a basement.
“This is madness. We are very scared,” the 45-year-old says in a video she shot in her hometown, which can be found on the Facebook page of Uetzingen’s “Metzgerbräu.” Iryna’s 25-year-old son is not allowed to leave the country because he is of draft age and has to make himself available for a possible military deployment. That is why Iryna, who normally commutes between Ukraine and Uetzing every six months, decided to stay in her home country for the time being. She wanted to stand by her family and organize help directly from there.
Help for Ukraine: the whole village supports the brewer
Manfred Reichert, Metzgerbräu
From Uetzing in Upper Franconia, a district of Bad Staffelstein, her partner Manfred Reichert supports her wherever he can. His original idea was to prepare cans of goulash for the Ukrainian soldiers in his own butcher shop. Virtually overnight, this turned into an unprecedented aid campaign in which the entire village of 500 people pitched in. Manfred Reichert’s call for help on Facebook was immediately met with a huge response. His own garage quickly became insufficient for all the donated goods. Without further ado, the old fire station in the village had to be used for storage. Together with his employees and many volunteers, Manfred Reichert sorted and packed all the items to be delivered to Ukraine: warm clothing, parkas, jackets, coats, sturdy shoes, boots, gloves, knee pads, sleeping bags, blankets and pillows, durable foodstuffs such as chocolate, energy bars, tea, coffee, bagged soups, but also bandages, disposable gloves and discarded fire department helmets.
Together with family and friends, Manfred Reichert drove to Prague with several vehicles loaded to the top. There, the relief supplies were transferred to a touring bus with which a good friend of Iryna’s usually travels on the Kiev-Prague route. In Ukraine, they were then distributed to soldiers and those in need. The Upper Franconian brewer has already organized five such transports since the beginning of the war to provide aid to Ukraine. In addition, he personally transferred his late mother’s 13-year-old VW Passat to Ukraine to make it available on site as a military vehicle.
Brewer from Uetzing sends donations and beer to help Ukraine
A car for the soldiers
In addition to the usual aid supplies, 1,000 cans of sausage from the company’s own butchery and 130 five-liter kegs of the company’s own beer found their way to Ukraine. The beer is intended for the Ukrainian soldiers. “Maybe it will help to keep them motivated,” Manfred Reichert hopes. The motivation is immeasurably high among the normal population as well in general, he notes admiringly. And that, in turn, is what motivates him to help. And, of course, the love for his Iryna, whom he has seen almost only via cell phone in recent months. A few weeks ago, she visited him in Uetzing, but then had to return to Ukraine for a medical procedure. Manfred Reichert is all the happier when he can hopefully hold her in his arms again in the next few days.
Manfred Reichert has already taken in some of Iryna’s relatives – her daughter and sister-in-law with small children – as war refugees. He was able to hire his stepdaughter as a temp, so that she now helps him out with his business. After all, Manfred Reichert can always use help. The 52-year-old is a true jack-of-all-trades. In addition to the butcher store he took over from his parents and a corner store, he also runs his own home brewery with a small restaurant. He got into brewing more by chance than anything else: 20 years ago, he ordered books from a mail-order company and “simply ordered” a book about brewing as a hobby.
“Metzgerbräu” in the five-liter keg can also be ordered online
Enthusiasm and ambition were aroused, and the first brewing attempts were promising. The self-made brewer quickly developed a recipe for a drinkable Franconian beer that was well received by friends and family. Registering his own brewery in 2004 was the logical next step. For years, the beer was brewed in a sausage kettle. But as demand grew steadily, at some point this was no longer sufficient. In the course of building a new business and residential premises, Manfred Reichert set up his own brewhouse with an adjoining pub in 2012. He now brews a proud 1150 hectoliters of beer there every year.
He has long since made a name for himself in the surrounding area as “Metzgerbräu”. His home-brewed beer – just like his famous smoked ham – is now selling like hot cakes. But even those who do not come from the Bad Staffelstein area can enjoy the “Metzgerbräu” beer. In its own online store, the “Metzgerbräu” lager beer can be ordered in the five-liter keg from Envases. However, not during the summer months – the expense of refrigerated shipping is not feasible for Manfred Reichert. That’s why the “Metzgerbräu” beer can currently only be enjoyed in Uetzing and the surrounding area – and thanks to Manfred Reichert’s aid shipments, also in Ukraine.
