Photos by Ella Manthey
Oktoberfest is coming to the heart of Downtown St. Louis thanks to Urban Chestnut Brewing Co. Starting Oct. 8 and running every Thursday through the end of the month, the brewery will host its Der Biergarten Oktoberfest in Kiener Plaza in partnership with Gateway Arch Park Foundation.
The free, public event will run from 4 to 7 p.m. on Thursdays, giving Downtown workers, residents, and visitors a fun and seasonal happy hour or potential pregame destination ahead of Blues games and concerts. The events will transform the recently fully reopened Kiener Plaza into a beer garden-style gathering place featuring live music, local eats, and of course, Urban Chestnut brews.
“We’ve got this brand new, beautiful space at Kiener Plaza, and to us, it’s such an honor to be thought of to be able to come in so early on into that space being reopened and to be able to bring it to life,” says Kimberly Thro, Field Marketing Manager at Urban Chestnut. “We want to bring the freshest, most high-quality beer that we can possibly bring to this experience for people and having that Downtown is, of course, exciting.”
For Urban Chestnut, the move represents more than an expansion of its annual Oktoberfest festivities, which happen annually at its Midtown and Grove beer halls: It is also an opportunity to activate one of Downtown’s most prominent public spaces and introduce more people to the brewery’s German brewing traditions.
“There hasn’t been an open, free-to-the-public Oktoberfest in true Downtown St. Louis maybe ever, if not for a long time,” Thro says. “And it’s time. It’s a really great way for people who work Downtown to end their day. And the Blues play three out of four of those Thursdays at Enterprise, so I think it’s a really great pregame: park your car, walk over to Kiener, have a couple beers, keep on going right over to Enterprise.”
Guests can expect Zwickel, the brewery’s Bavarian lager, along with its signature O-Katz Oktoberfest Märzen lager, and a new Fest Bier, a pale lager with a slightly higher alcohol content and notes of bread crust and toast on tap. The brewery also plans to offer its Bushelhead hard cider, Squirrel Werks hazy IPA, nonalcoholic options, wine, and more. Food will follow the theme, with options possibly including brats, hot dogs, pretzels, and other Bavarian-inspired fare. The goal isn’t necessarily to create a full dining destination, but to give people something to snack on while enjoying a beer or two.
“When St. Louis-born companies like Urban Chestnut choose to continue to invest in and bring vibrancy to Downtown, our whole region benefits,” says Ryan McClure, Executive Director of Gateway Arch Park Foundation. “These weekly Oktoberfest happy hours will bring fresh programming to Kiener Plaza throughout October, extending the activity in this city park for both residents and visitors ahead of Winterfest kicking off in late November.”
The event will also feature polka music, Bavarian-inspired activities and eats, and beer garden furniture designed to create the feel of a traditional Oktoberfest gathering. And the brewery is working with Gateway Arch Park Foundation to bring activities like bingo and trivia to the events. One of the signature attractions will be Urban Chestnut’s stein-holding competition, which has become a qualifying event for a national stein-holding competition, Thro adds.
The Oktoberfest series is part of a broader effort to bring the brewery’s beer and community gatherings into more corners of the St. Louis region. Urban Chestnut has been using its mobile beer truck for pop-ups at area parks and community events throughout the summer and views those activations as a way to test different event formats and build connections across the metro.
“We want to continue to grow regionally within our community,” Thro says. “Our hope and dream is that like people come to something like this and then they’re like, ‘Let’s go grab a drink at another bar or let’s go grab dinner while we’re Downtown.”
For now, Urban Chestnut’s monthlong Oktoberfest events in Kiener Plaza offer a simple invitation: grab a stein, meet up with coworkers or friends, and celebrate the start of autumn in Downtown St. Louis.
