330. Urban Chestnut – STLIPA (St. Louis India Pale Ale)

Posted By kkozlen on Jun 3, 2011 | 0 comments

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m in St. Louis doing a “mini-micro tour” (hitting 3-4 microbreweries) with my friend Joe.  After lunch, our first stop was Urban Chestnut brewing for a couple beers. They have a very cool set up in an old carriage garage, and both the brewery and bar are new and modern. Joe and I sat at the corner of the bar and had samples of several different beers.   They are very, very generous here with the samples and allowed us to try several of the almost 20 beers on tap. If you’re in St. Louis. I highly recommend you stop here if you get a chance.

The menu says, “STLIPA, which is the acronym for St. Louis India Pale Ale, is actually a DIPA (Double or Imperial IPA).  We hope it’s a ‘sleeper’ that you’ll include in your set of favorite DIPA’s from one of the best beer cities in the world… St. Louis.”

Location: On tap at Urban Chestnut in St. Louis, MO.

Numbers: 8.5% ABV, “Hmm…” IBUs, 18.5 Plato OG, ~ 248 Calories

Ingredients: Hops: Sterling, Cascade, Mt. Hood, Willamette, Chinook

Appearance & Aroma: TheThe first thing I noticed is that it was extremely cloudy, was bright golden orange, and appeared to have quite a bit of yeast in suspension in it.  There was also a big soapy foamy white head on it, and there was an extremely obvious grapefruit and piney-citrus hop aroma to it.

Taste & Feel: The body was medium and it had a bit of a creamy mouthfeel.  There was a bit of sweet yeasty, bready maltiness at first, before a huge grapefruity and citrus hop flavor kicked in.  The hop flavor was a very sweet citrus flavor, almost making my mouth pucker a bit.  The hop flavor continued well into the finish, with a little bit of floral hop flavors coming through.

Food Pairing: If I had to pair this with a food, I would probably go with something bland that would help to cut back on the citrusy hop flavor.  A good pretzel, perhaps with mustard, might help to counteract the sweet and citrusy flavors.

Overall Impression: I certainly don’t mind a little bit of yeast in my beer, but its sort of orange glowing look was a bit off-putting.  I also love double IPAs with lots of hops, but the large amount of grapefruit and citrusy hop flavors was also a bit off-putting to me (which surprised me, given the list of hops used).  Overall, it wasn’t a bad beer, it was just a bit too sweet and grapefruity for me.

My Rating:

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