Some Local Beers

Alright people,

So, if you have read the blog for a while, you'll know that my New Year's beer resolution was to drink more local beers. At school, I was able to accomplish this with help from my friends at Lafayette Brewing Company. Now, I'm moved to St. Louis. A little while ago I told you about my trip to 4 Hands, now I'm going to talk about Urban Chestnut.

Urban Chestnut is a newer brewery in St. Louis, and they specialize in traditional German beers, but they also try to put some American twists on these beers. I've had their 2 flagship beers, Winged Nut and Zwickel before in Indiana, but tonight, we're going to talk about two of their new beers; STLIPA and Schnickelfritz.

First off, we have a traditional hefeweizen, Schnickelfritz. This is part of their Reverence Series, in which they make traditional styles and pay homage to brewers of the past. This is does just that with the classic spices and light wheat flavor of a hefe. What's different about this beer, in my opinion, is the balance between wheat and spices. Most hefes' spices are aggressive and overpower the wheat to a certain extent, but the spices here are mellowed and balance very well with the wheat. An incredibly light beer in body, this is very drinkable, but the carbonation is way up there. Check out my full review here.

Next, the Urban Chestnut STLIPA is a part of their Revolution Series. This series of beers allows some creativity on the part of the brewers in order to bring a modern American twist to their lineup of mostly German style beers. As the name would suggest, this is an IPA, a double as a matter of fact, that is named for the brewery's hometown. Huge hops start this beer out in both smell and taste. I was reminded quite a bit of Resin by Sixpoint while drinking this beer, simply because the hops were so aggressively resinous. Instead of floral or pine-like hops, these were just very aggressively sticky and bitter. This was a true hop-head's dream in a glass. Check of my full review here.

All in all, I like Urban Chestnut's beers. I want to get into some more traditional German style lagers. I forgot how smooth they can be! I aim to make a visit to UCBC's biergarten in the coming weeks, and hopefully I'll get around to writing about it. Until next time, cheers!
-Chris