If you buy only one beer this year, make it this one: With Stand Anti-Imperial Stout. It’s a collaborative beer made by three breweries in the South-east, with profits going to support Ukraine.

It’s hard to believe that a year ago I helped organise a beer event at the Mad Squirrel Taproom in Heritage Close to raise funds for Ukraine.

Those of us at the event had no idea that a year later the war would still be raging, tens of thousands of people have lost their lives and towns and cities have been razed to the ground.

I salute the breweries involved in this new initiative: Ramsgate and Westerham in Kent and Sambrook’s in London. Profits from sales of the beer will go to the Disasters Emergency Committee Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.

The beer is strong – 9 per cent – and recalls the porters and stouts brewed in London in the 18th and 19th century for export to Russia and the Baltic States. The high level of alcohol kept the beer in good condition during the long and often tempestuous sea journeys.

The beer is complex with a number of different grains used: pale, Vienna, crystal and chocolate malts and flaked oats. The hops are two English varieties, East Kent Goldings and Target. There’s one unusual addition to the recipe: beetroots, that adds an intriguing bittersweet vegetable note.

The beer pouts with a dense tan head of foam. The aroma is fruity with rich chocolate notes and spicy hops. Creamy malt and spicy hops dominate the palate with chocolate, bittersweet fruit, a hint of vegetable and spicy hops. Hop bitterness grows in the finish with notes of dark fruit, chocolate and vegetable.

Sambrook’s Brewery opened in 2008 with the aim of filling the large gap left when Young’s Brewery in Wandsworth closed. Duncan Sambrook, who gave up a successful career in the City of London, to build his brewery, has been so successful that he has now moved into the former Young’s site.

His main beer, widely available throughout London and the South-east, is Wandle Ale.

Robert Wicks launched Westerham Brewery in 2004 in the town of that name in Kent, close to Chartwell, the country estate of Sir Winston Churchill. He had been supplied with beer by the local Black Eagle Brewery, which had pubs as far away as London.

It was taken over by the big Romford and Burton brewer Ind Coope, which closed Black Eagle in 1965. Robert has revised many of the beers, including Audit Ale that was supplied to colleges in London.

Robert Wicks has been hugely successful and supplies 500 outlets in the region. He moved to a new site in 2017 with its own taproom.

He uses Greensand aquifer water from an on-site borehole and specialises in brewing with locally-grown Kent hops.

His Black Eagle brews use the former brewery’s yeast strains that were stored at the National Collection of Yeast Cultures in Norwich, ensuring the beers have an authentic taste and character.

Westerham’s main beers are Spirit of Kent and British Bulldog.

The Ramsgate Brewery is better known as Gadds asfter its founder Eddie Gadd. He set up shop in 2002 behind a pub on Ramsgate’s seafront but in 2006 he moved to a bigger plant with 25-hectolitre equipment and a bottling.

Eddie now supplies pubs far and wide and is well placed to export to mainland Europe. In common with Westerham, he used Kentish hops, including Northdown and Goldings, and says he is determined to produce well-balanced beers with good malt character, unlike some of the over-hopped American IPAs.

His range includes pale ale, gold and bitter plus Dogbolter Porter. He picked up the name of Dogbolter from the famous Firkin pubs in London in the 1980s and 90s.

Duncan, Robert and Eddie have combined their brewing skills to produce the strong stout. Please buy it and support the campaign for freedom and democracy in Ukraine. £5 a can from www.sambrooksbrewery.co.uk.