Florian Kuplent

Brewmaster Florian Kuplent brings over three decades of artisan brewing experience to Urban Chestnut Brewing Co. From serving as a brewer’s apprentice in a small German brewery to developing award-winning beer recipes for one of the world’s largest brewers, Florian is sharing his distinctive brewing creations with the craft beer enthusiasts of St. Louis and beyond.

At Urban Chestnut Brewing Co. (UCBC), Florian is employing a unique brewing philosophy UCBC refers to as Beer Divergency- a ‘new world meets old world’ brewing approach wherein UCBC contributes to the “Revolution” of craft beer through creations of artisanal, modern American beers, and pays “Reverence” to the heritage and tradition of beer with offerings of classically-crafted, timeless European beer styles.

Passion, skill and the utmost appreciation for good beer were the key ingredients in Florian Kuplent’s journey to becoming co-founder and Brewmaster of Urban Chestnut Brewing Co. (UCBC).

Florian’s story began near one of the world’s most revered beer cities – Munich, Germany. Surrounded by artisan brewers and great beer throughout his young life in Bavaria, it was no surprise Florian developed a passion for beer. And in 1994, Florian’s dream to become a brewer started to take shape when he was able to convince the brewmaster at Brauerei Erharting to take him on as its first ‘brewer’s apprentice’ in decades.

This early, small brewery experience provided Florian with his first hands-on involvement with the very complex aspects of malting, brewing and fermentation. Hence, it was during this time that the brewery’s highly skilled Bavarian brewers, who had little in the way of modern brewing luxuries, instilled a fundamental, artisan-based passion of brewing tradition in Florian – something he carries with him to this day.

While learning the craftsmanship of beer and meticulously brewing time-honored recipes at Brauerei Erharting, Florian also bolstered his technical skill as a brewer by enrolling as a student at the Bavarian College of Food and Beverage Science, and later at the prestigious brewing University of Munich-Weihenstephan, where he earned a Master’s degree in malting and brewing science.

Florian was also able to experience the world of American craft beer for the first time when he spent a year working as head brewer for the small New England Brewing Co. in Norwalk, CT.

Following this stint in the United States, and prior to heading to London where he helped Meantime Brewing Co. launch its first brewery, Florian continued to expand his brewing experience with posts at other European breweries, including Brauerei Beck’s (Bremen Germany), Brouwerij Moortgat (Breendonk, Belgium), and Mash, (London, England).

While it certainly was something Florian considered during his studies and during his time in Europe, it was mostly the experience at Meantime– being involved in all facets of setting up, launching and operating a small brewery – that proved to Florian he was ready to launch his own brewery. However, before pursuing this dream he chose to follow a unique opportunity to work for the world’s largest brewer.

So, for the next several years, Florian worked at Anheuser-Busch, Inc., learning many of the aspects of the brewing business that A-B is most respected for across the industry: batch consistency, quality assurance and yeast propagation.

During this time at A-B, Florian was also given free rein to experiment with new ingredients and different recipes at the brewery’s experimental microbrewery, which was where he created a series of award-winning craft-style beers under the well-known Michelob brand.

In addition to his duties at UCBC in 2020 Florian also co-founded Alemanni Solutions with two other brewing veterans from Germany and the US. Alemanni focuses on helping companies in the fields of brewing, cider making, and distilling to enhance the quality and consistency of their products.

Outside of his paying jobs, Florian has kept himself immersed in the general brewing community; as an active member in many brewing associations and clubs, as a regular beer festival/competition judge (St. Louis, national, global), and as a sometime contributor to industry publications.