Now more than ten years ago, a group of friends started a beer tasting club. Every two weeks they came together at one of their homes to drink a good Belgian beer and to discuss beer, women and football. During the years the interest in beer grew. This resulted in following brewing courses in 2007.
From that year on, they started “Hobbybrouwerij Het Nest (Home Brewery the Cradle)”. Their first success was a third place at the Open Dutch Championship for home brewers in the “triple” class.

Turnhout: the centre of the playcard industry

Turnhout arose before the 12th century on the cross roads of two major trade routes in the Duchy of Brabant (now north Belgium). In 2012 the town received its “city rights”. In 1338 it received the right to organize a market every Saturday. Even today this tradition is kept alive. In 1826 Pieter Jozef Brepols started the production of play cards in Turnhout. In the twentieth century this company became the worldwide leader in the production of playing cards. Today the card production activities of Brepols, Van Genechten and Biermans are centralized in a joint venture called Cartamundi which is Latin for "cards for the world". Cartamundi does not only produce the classical play cards but also cards for boardgames like Monopoly. Since 1969 Turnhout has a "national museum for the playing card".

With all members of the home brewery being born and raised in Turnhout, it was obvious to refer play cards.

Jack of Spades (Schuppenboer): This beer is born out of the first brewing experiments. The goal was to brew a beer inspired by the famous La Chouffe. Today the La Chouffe yeast strain is still used to ferment this beer. The use of coriander and Cascade hops give this beer a fruity touch.

King of Hearts (Hertenheer): A hoppy beer. For this beer European hops like Fuggle and Hallertau are used.

Ten of Clubs (Kleveretien): With 10% vol.alc. by far the strongest beer. The 10 stands not only for the alcohol percentage but also for the 10^th anniversary of the beer club. This dark beer has a very complex aroma and taste. In September 2012 a whiskey barrel aged version of this beer will be launched.

Patriot of Turnhout (Turnhoutse Patriot): the most recent development. This beer is launched to celebrate the 800^th year anniversary of Turnhout. Patriot is a saison style beer where a classic saison recepy is combined with novel hop strains.