Hi, everybody! Hope your week’s off to a nice start. I’m still a little sore from the half marathon, but don’t have any major pain. All things considered, we did pretty well, finishing in 2:11. Since I don’t have any pictures from the race yet (they’re on my parents’ phones), I’m left with sharing another highlight of the weekend. Urban Chestnut Brewing Company, one of the newest breweries in St. Louis.
It’s no surprise that I like a craft beer. Urban Chestnut isn’t just a craft brewery by definition (small, independent, and traditional). It’s a craft brewery. In my definition, a craft brewery also makes darn good beer. Beer that uses traditional ingredients and is also innovative.
It’s like the guys at Urban Chestnut read my mind. (PS – They both came from Anheuser Busch, with the brewmaster being from Germany). Their brewing philosophy is called “Beer Divergency.” “A ‘new world meets old world’ brewing approach.” Their beer list is split between Revolution (artisanal American) and Reverence (traditional European-style) beers. The accountant in me loves the balance of it.
John enjoyed the Wasandis (in the stein) from the Revolution series. It’s an unfiltered pilsner with a good dose of hops. I had the Schnickelfritz (in the pilsner glass) from the Reverence side of the list. It’s a Bavarian white/wheat beer with yeast that offers clove, nutmeg or even vanilla and/or banana-like aromas and flavors. We also shared the pretzel plate. Maybe I’m biased, but I enjoyed my drink the best. And I may or may not have picked it based on its name.
A nice little perk of Urban Chestnut is the free sample tastings, which we’ll probably take advantage of the next time around. We stopped by on Saturday afternoon and the race was Sunday morning. Though a bartender was nice enough to give me a second smaller glass of the Schnickelfritz since my pour was from the bottom of the keg. Notice how the beer in the smaller glass is clearer. The beer in the larger glass is cloudier because of some extra sediment. I knew that the Schnickelfritz was unfiltered, so this was an unexpected and appreciated gesture. Either way, I wasn’t complaining about my beer smoothie.
Urban Chestnut isn’t available in stores yet, but you can buy growlers of malty or hoppy goodness at the brewery. For those of you in St. Louis that can’t make it to Midtown (3229 Washington Avenue), Urban Chestnut is starting to offer draught distribution to St. Louis, MO area bars and restaurants.
We’ll definitley be back to Urban Chestnut in the summer to enjoy more tasty beer and their upcoming biergarten.
