Urban Chestnut Wolpertinger

Brewed by Urban Chestnut Brewing Company
Style: American Strong Ale
St. Louis, Missouri USA

Serve in Snifter, Tulip

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On tap at the brewpub. Comes a dark brown with a nice tan head. Aroma of malt, yeast, and nuts. Taste is roasted malt, nuts, yeast, fruit, and caramel. Very good.

Sampled at Urban Chestnut’s Wolpertinger festival. It poured dark brown with red. Plenty of fruit in this beer with yeast and nice caramel sweetness. Some nuts and some vanilla. Quite nice.

Very black. Tan head. Somewhat nutty and roasted. Oily. OK but not great.

Draught at brewery. Caramel. Toffee. Some cola. Sweet and brown. Not imperial in an imperial hop sense, but in overall brown flavor. Nice.

It poured a dark brown color with a small off-white head. The aroma was very nutty, with a hint of vanilla. The taste was similar to the aroma, more nuts with a hint of vanilla. A very good American Strong Ale.

UPDATED: FEB 15, 2012 (draught at tasting room) hazy amber with huge off white head. Aroma of roast malt and yeast. Flavor is roast malt, some nuttiness, a little yeast/weizen flavor. Winged Nut isn’t my favorite UCBC beer - I liked this better, but it’s definitely a sipping beer.

Draft at the brewpub. Pours a hazy, deep amber color with a small off-white head. The aroma has big, big toasty chestnut notes - very much an imperial Winged Nut - along with some dry toasted malts, and not much else. The flavor has the same big chestnuts and toasted malts, along with some of the banana character from the yeast strain. Medium-bodied, with a toasty, sweet mouthfeel and moderate carbonation. I enjoyed the hell out of this one.

UPDATED: FEB 2, 2013 2/7/2012: Tasted at the 1st annual Urban Chestnut - Wolpertinger beer festival in St. Louis, MO, USA, from tap into beer boot sampler. This was the official festival beer, available in a bourbon barrel aged version and an "un-aged" version. I tried both incarnations, and while they were decent enough big brown ales, I was frankly underwhelmed. The problem was, Urban Chestnut’s Winged Nut is a near-perfect beer. Their original recipe is a masterpiece of balanced beer-making, and so far, any experimentation has just detracted from that balance. I mean, I never thought I would complain about a brewer making a higher gravity version of a favorite recipe, but this alteration masked the cool nutty flavor, unique tartness, mellow wheat mouthfeel, subtle roastiness, and it totally overpowered any subtle banana/pepper/clove weizen yeast phenols. Obviously, this Un-oaked Wolpertinger lacked the vanilla and charred hardwood aspects of the oak-aged version, but still... it’s too bad. A kick-ass party, though; best wishes for many more years of success to Urban Chestnut Brewing Company! UPDATE 2/2/2013: Sampled on tap at the 2nd annual Urban Chestnut Wolpertinger party in a dimple mug. This version was cask-conditioned with Calypso hops, nicely kept and at it’s prime. Same overall impression of the original Wolpertinger, a nice caramelly, bready, complex, full-bodied dark wizen, except with improved appearance and mouthfeel which comes from careful cask-conditioning, plus the unexpected Calypso hops notes: tropical fruit, mango, melon, strawberries. A bit strange but enjoyable. If I weren’t experiencing sensory-overload at an all-day beer festival, I would enjoy reflecting at length with a couple nice pints of this odd-ball.

Sampled at Urban Chestnuts Wolpertinger - 1st anniversary - Pours dark brown with a tan head. The aroma has nutty malt, vanilla and toast. Medium / full body with sharp carbonation. The flavor starts like the aroma, but it is a bit medicinal and sour. The finish shows more abv than expected (like the oaked version). Good beer.