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T<\/span>he Flemish city of Turnhout is the playing card capital of the world. <\/p>\n Turnhout is to playing cards what Kobe is to Japanese Wagyu beef; what Parma is to Italian Prosciutto; what Fez is to leather. The biggest card-producing company in the world, Cartamundi, is headquartered in Turnhout. 1.3 million decks of cards are produced there every single day. If you have ever played poker, performed a magic trick with cards, traded Pok\u00e9mon cards, or played Monopoly, Risk, Clue, or Catan, then you\u2019ve touched something that comes from Turnhout.<\/p>\n The beers of Brouwerij Het Nest of Turnhout are all branded according to a playing card theme. Their most famous beer is their Tripel\u2014the Schuppenboer\u2014Jack of Spades. They started out as a homebrewing collective in 2000 and then in 2015 set up their own brewery. <\/p>\n This podcast is about how a regional brewery in Belgium goes about navigating the pitfalls of the modern beer game: Bart\u00a0Cuypers of Het Nest and his colleagues would suffer legal headaches due to their playing card branding; there would be COVID closures and a war in Ukraine that would send brewery energy costs through the roof across Europe; export markets on which they relied would collapse like a house of cards; and Belgium\u2019s attitude to alcohol\u2014especially amongst its young\u2014would shift more quickly than they could ever have imagined.\u00a0<\/p>\n So\u2014in the face of mounting industry challenges, how should a brewery play the modern beer game?\u00a0<\/p>\n The owners of Brouwerij Het Nest of Turnhout\u2014the world capital of playing cards\u2014gambled on the brewery\u2019s future with strategy, ambition, and a little bit of luck. <\/p>\n Listen in to find out how.<\/p>\n * <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n