Urban Chestnut Zwickel
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Tasting Notes
The aroma is softly bready with a hint of fresh grain and mild noble hop earthiness — nothing showy, just clean lager character. On the palate, it delivers a gentle malt sweetness up front, balanced by a restrained bitterness and a faint yeasty haze that adds a little roundness to the texture. The body is medium-light, with a smooth, somewhat creamy mouthfeel that comes from the unfiltered conditioning. The finish is dry and short, leaving behind just a whisper of grain and herbal hop.
About the Brewery
Urban Chestnut is a St. Louis, Missouri brewery founded in 2011 by two former Anheuser-Busch brewers, Florian Kuplent and David Wolfe. The brewery has built a reputation around German lager traditions alongside American craft ales, splitting its lineup between what it calls 'Reverence' (traditional styles) and 'Revolution' (experimental) beers. Their German-influenced lagers have earned particular respect in a market otherwise saturated with hop-forward ales.
Food Pairings
A soft pretzel with grainy mustard is a natural match because the malt character mirrors the bread while the mustard's tang cuts through the yeast. Roast chicken works well here too, as the beer's gentle bitterness and round body stand up to savory fat without competing. Mild bratwurst or a weisswurst plate plays directly into the Bavarian DNA of the style. A simple radish-and-butter open-faced sandwich also fits: the peppery bite of the radish contrasts cleanly with the beer's soft malt.
Style Guide
Kellerbier and Zwickelbier are both unfiltered, unpasteurized German lagers — traditionally served young, straight from the cellar or conditioning tank before filtration would have been applied. The result is a hazy, malt-forward lager with a slightly fuller, yeastier texture than its filtered counterparts, and hop bitterness that tends to be moderate and earthy from noble varieties. The style originated in Franconia, Bavaria, as a practical way to sample beer before full conditioning, and it sits close to Märzen or Helles in base character but is distinguished by that unfiltered softness. It differs from a Hefeweizen primarily in yeast character — there's no banana or clove here, just clean lager yeast with a gentle cloudiness.