Urban Chestnut to open small brewery in Hallertau, Bavaria

Florian Kuplent, co-founder and brewmaster of Urban Chestnut Brewing Co., a craft brewery located in St. Louis, MO has purchased the Bürgerbräu Wolnzach in his homeland of Bavaria, and plans to brew small batches of his beers there.

Urban Chestnut plans to open the brewery in Wolnzach a bit later in 2015. And while the new brewery will be the smallest of the three UCBC breweries, it will carry a big load. The Wolnzach operation will be utilized to brew beers to distribute in Europe as well as to brew unique, German-brewed beers to export to the U.S. It will also act as the central point of operations for the importing/exporting of raw materials, beer, and other goods to and from the U.S. Urban Chestnut currently receives weekly container shipments of raw materials, their standard .5L Euro bottles, and other goods from Germany.

Bürgerbräu Wolnzach, a small brewery located in the town of Wolnzach, Hallertau, recently closed its doors which provided Urban Chestnut the opportunity to do something they had always hoped was possible…own and operate a brewery in Germany. Wolnzach, which is situated in the world’s largest producing region of hops, Hallertau Bavaria, is also the home of The German Hops Museum.

“Since my apprenticeship as a teenager at Erharting Brauerei, I’ve always dreamed of owning my own brewery in Bavaria,” said Kuplent. “I’m thinking we might be a little crazy opening our third brewery in 5 years, which is much sooner than we planned, but the Wolnzach opportunity was too good to pass up.”