Brouwerij Het Nest now also brewing Pilsner beer

28/02/2018

Since the start of 2018 the Oud-Turnhout friends, known for their playing card beers, have also been brewing their own Pilsner beer. We want to be able to offer our customers an as wide as possible range of beer varieties, tells our chairman Bart Cuypers, so a Pilsner beer is also a must. When designing the brewery, we already provided the necessary facilities to also be able to brew low fermentation beer. With our cold water tanks we can cool 3,000 litres of boiling wort down to 10 °C within half an hour, being the ideal temperature for Pilsner fermentation.

But it still took almost three years before Het Nest put its own Pilsner beer on the market. The reason for this is very simple, explains master brewer Gust Hermans. You must already work with a certain volume before a Pilsner or other beer can become cost-effective. The Belgian and Dutch markets, in which we mainly operate with our playing card beers, is dominated by the major players. It is difficult to force your way into such a market. We also saw that there was particularly a demand for a traditionally brewed artisanal Pilsner abroad, so we decided to brew it under the name Four Aces - Cellar Beer.

The name Cellar Beer obviously refers to the traditional “Kellerbieren”. We took the inspiration for Cellar Beer from across the border at our Eastern neighbours, in Bamberg to be more precise. During my last visit to this town I was impressed by the “Naturtrüb” (naturally cloudy) from brewery Mahr`s, says Bart Cuypers.

Our Cellar Beer is brewed according to the “Reinheitsgebot”, so 100% malt, yeast and hops and without sugars, maize, rice, herbs or other flavouring. Munich malt gives the beer some extra body. The hops come from Germany. The beer is a little more bitter than the well-known `factory Pilsner`, and more hops are added during brewing for extra flavour. This all creates the 5.5% vol. alc. Four Aces - Cellar Beer, a tasty thirst-quencher.

At present our Cellar Beer is mainly exported to the United States, Italy and Spain. In April we will start looking to see if there is also interest here in Belgium and the Netherlands. The traditionally brewed Pilsner is only available in casks. We will be introducing the beer to the general public at the Zythos beer festival (Brabanthal Leuven - 28 & 29 April).

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