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Missouri Food and Drinks

Old Meets New at Urban Chestnut Brewing in St. Louis

by Missouri Life

This article is presented in partnership with Urban Chestnut Brewing Company.

With its authentic heritage and quality, St. Louis brewery Urban Chestnut Brewing Company is an unconventionally minded yet tradition-oriented brewer of craft beer. Using Old World brewing techniques and their state-of-the-art brewing facilities, they have consistently brewed high-quality beers, especially lager styles, since January 2011. Their on-site quality assurance lab houses hundreds of proprietary yeast strains, and they employ sustainability and conservation methods during every step of the brewing process.

Brewmaster Florian Kuplent brings two decades of artisan brewing experience to Urban Chestnut. From serving as a brewer’s apprentice in a small German brewery to developing award-winning beer recipes for one of the world’s largest brewers, Florian now shares his distinctive brewing creations with the craft beer enthusiasts of St. Louis.

Florian Kuplent

At Urban Chestnut Brewing, Florian makes use of a unique brewing philosophy they refer to as “beer divergency”—a “New World meets Old World” brewing approach wherein Urban Chestnut contributes to the “revolution” of craft beer through creations of artisanal, modern American beers and pays homage to the heritage of beer with offerings of classically crafted, timeless European beer styles. This philosophy is also utilized at the Urban Chestnut Hallertauer Brauerei located in Wolnzach, Germany, where timeless regional styles are brewed alongside modern styles.

As they endeavor to create high-quality offerings of lagers and ales, Urban Chestnut Brewing also strives to be respected for its actions as a business member of the St. Louis community. The team’s efforts span from the sustainability methods they employ during the brewing process to a concerted emphasis in aiding local not-for-profit organizations to reach their fundraising goals. In February 2015, their Grove Brewery & Bierhall became Missouri’s first LEED-certified brewery, one of a handful of breweries nationally, for featuring an assortment of green and energy saving features. In addition to a solar panel array and water conservation efforts, some of these features include employee and indoor customer bike parking, 97 percent use of Energy Star equipment, and easy access to public transportation. These features along with other sustainability efforts and economic achievements resulted in Urban Chestnut being named one of the EPA’s sixteen national WasteWise Award Winners in 2017 and 2018, earning Small Business Partner of the Year for two years in a row.


Brewed for more than ten years, Urban Chestnut’s flagship beer, Zwickel Bavarian Lager, is a classic German-style beer—unfiltered, unpasteurized, and adjunct-free. This slightly hazy, crisp, and refreshing lager is a local staple for beer lovers. Zwickel was also recently rated 99 points in a blind tasting conducted by the editors at Wine Enthusiast.

Learn more about Zwickel Bavarian Lager and other beer offerings at UrbanChestnut.com.

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