USA & Germany: Missouri’s Urban Chestnut starts brewing at its small brewery in Hallertau, Bavaria

Urban Chestnut Brewing Co. has begun brewing beer at a facility in Bavaria, Germany that was acquired in January, STLtoday.com reported on June 3.

"It's always exciting to get something to the final stage of the process - especially when there's beer at the end," Urban Chestnut co-founder and brewmaster Florian Kuplent, a Bavarian native, said.

Urban Chestnut purchased the Bürgerbräu Wolnzach Brewery, which is located in Wolnzach, a town north of Munich, and rechristened it Urban Chestnut Hallertauer Brauerei.

Kuplent acknowledged that breaking into the German market has presented a much different challenge from entering the booming domestic market for craft beer.

"There are so many local breweries still," Kuplent said. "The variety in beer (brands) is pretty big. The variety of styles isn't."

The key, Kuplent said, is to explain to customers what Urban Chestnut Brewery is doing with each beer and why each tastes the way that it does. With that information, customers are open to try new styles.

"It does take that effort to explain it," he said.

05 June, 2015