Urban Chestnut Brewing Co., a 3-month-old St. Louis craft brewery, today announced a distribution deal with Missouri's largest beer wholesaler.

Maryland Heights-based Grey Eagle Distributors, a longtime Anheuser-Busch InBev wholesaler and the exclusive distributor of A-B products in St. Louis County, will begin to sell Urban Chestnut beers in St. Louis, Franklin and Gasconade counties within the next 30 days. The Midtown Alley craft brewery will continue to self-distribute its draft beers within St. Louis City and has plans to begin bottling sometime this summer.

The deal marks Grey Eagle's entry into the local, independent craft-beer market. One of its fellow A-B wholesalers, Lohr Distributing Co., which is the exclusive A-B wholesaler in the city, has been scooping up craft accounts since October.  

"Urban Chestnut's beers will provide a strong complement to the Anheuser-Busch products we have delivered for almost 50 years," Grey Eagle president David Stokes said in a statement. "This distribution agreement will enable Grey Eagle to participate more fully in the growth of the craft-beer category."

Urban Chestnut currently produces two beers for off-site distribution -- a classic German-style lager called Zwickel and a chestnut beer called Winged Nut -- in addition to about 10 other styles available at its Washington Boulevard tasting room.

"Our ambition from day one ... was to be a consistent and meaningful contributor to the vibrant, growing craft-beer culture and general community of St. Louis," Florian Kuplent, Urban Chestnut's brewmaster and co-founder, said in a statement. Both he and business partner David Wolfe are former A-B employees.

"Since we opened in late January, the reception for UCBC has been unbelievable," Kuplent said. "But we feel like we have just scratched the surface on what we hope to achieve in the community and area of St. Louis."