Reinventing himself as a beer brewer at the age of 62 had never occurred to Poul Erik Vestergaard, a Danish mink farmer, but the country's controversial cull of its mink population over Covid fears forced him to swap careers. Alongside his son, Martin, and a childhood friend, Thomas, Poul Erik has started brewing beer in his kitchen and, despite the ban on mink farming being lifted in January 2023, he has no intention of returning to the trade. "I've never imagined doing this. They had this hobby, and they were close to taking it to the next level" he explains, "it's going to be exciting: a new chapter!" The transformation has been helped in part by a nationwide reconversion project for former mink farmers put out of business by the cull. "Mink farmers are a very entrepreneurial group" says Bent Mikkelsen, the reconversion project's manager, "today, virtually no one who was a mink farmer does not have a job of some kind or has set up another business." IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES