Urban Chestnut Brewing Co. (UCBC) owners David Wolfe and Florian Kuplent have announced plans to open a second brewery in St. Louis. The two-year-old craft brewery will locate its second production brewery in The Grove neighborhood at 4465 Manchester Ave., formerly occupied by Renard Paper Co., between Taylor and Newstead Avenues.
According to a press release issued today, the new facility, projected to open in early 2014, will be a 70,000-square foot brewery, packaging facility, warehouse and indoor/outdoor tasting room. At this location, UCBC will initially have the capacity to brew approximately 15,000 barrels annually with capability to expand to 100,000. Urban Chestnut owners reported brewing some 3,500 barrels in 2012 and expect that figure to double this year.
“We’ve been growing at about 200 percent, year over year,” said Kuplent, who is also brewmaster for UCBC. “We never imagined we’d grow this fast. Essentially it means we’re going to run out of the space to add further capacity at our current location sometime this year,” he explained regarding the decision to expand. The UCBC project will bring 10 full-time and 30 part-time jobs to the City of St. Louis within the next two years.
Partnering with UCBC on the project is Green Street St. Louis, a local real estate firm that focuses on sustainable building practices. According the UCBC’s press release, plans are to renovate the property in The Grove “in a manner that embraces the principles of environmental stewardship and social responsibility” by seeking LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Wolfe noted that construction may begin as early as next month.
When the second brewery opens, UCBC’s brew house, tasting room and Biergarten, located at 3229 Washington Ave., in Midtown Alley, will continue to operate and will be utilized primarily to test, brew, and package smaller batch beers. “Outside of small batch, we’ll be brewing just about everything in our portfolio at the new facility,” said Wolfe.
In keeping with its two-part brewing philosophy of “revolution” (New World, modern American beers) and “reverence” (Old World, classically-crafted European styles of beer), UCBC will apply those concepts to its distinct facilities. The new location is marked for revolution, offering an industrial feeling. “It will be a bit more modern,” said Wolfe. The design, he explained will “integrate the brewing process and equipment into the retail experience.” The original location will align with the brewery’s reverence philosophy.
This article appears in April 2013.