Urban Chestnut to open consumer research brewery

Urban Chestnut Brewing Company (UCBC) is excited to announce plans to open “The U.R.B.” (short for The Urban Research Brewery), which will be a consumer research & pilot brewery in The Grove.

Late in 2015, UCBC reached a lease agreement for a portion of the 4501 Manchester Ave property, with Restoration St. Louis, a St. Louis based real estate developer who’s been very active in development of The Grove, aka Forest Park Southeast neighborhood.

The U.R.B. will house a small pilot brewery, a consumer research bar area, and a small pizza-by-the-slice counter. The 2 bbl pilot brewery will be the centerpiece of the location and will provide Urban Chestnut with the capability to brew very small batches of experimental beers. It will be accompanied by a consumer research bar area where beer drinkers will be able to provide instantaneous feedback on test beers via their cell phones, tablets, or other ’smart’ devices.

It’s important to Urban Chestnut to receive a lot of feedback regarding their experimental beers. In order to achieve this objective, UCBC is ensuring their research component is accessible to beer drinkers. As such, The U.R.B. will be open daily, offering “test flights” of two-ounce samples for USD 1, with the one requirement that the “surveyee” provide feedback via an interactive digital platform. After that, if any of the “surveyees” would like to enjoy any of UCBC’s test batches further (or other select UCBC beers), a regular-sized pour will be offered at a standard price – if there is ample supply.

The U.R.B. launch date is pending delivery of Urban Chestnut’s European pilot brewery and on federal and local licensing, all of which should be finalized this spring.