Oud-Turnhout
About this Place
Oud-Turnhout is a village in the Kempen region of Flanders with both an old and a surprisingly modern brewing story.
Its historic claim to beer fame is the former Priory of Corsendonk, founded in 1398. The Augustinian community brewed here for centuries before the priory brewery and malt-house were closed in 1784. The Corsendonk name was revived for beer in 1982 and became internationally recognised, although today's Corsendonk beers are brewed elsewhere.
Oud-Turnhout now has a working brewery again. Brouwerij Het Nest grew out of a local beer-tasting club — the wonderfully named Orde van de Zatte Mus, or Order of the Drunken Sparrow — whose members eventually decided to try brewing for themselves. Their own brewery opened in Oud-Turnhout in 2015.
Het Nest's playing-card imagery is another local connection: neighbouring Turnhout has been an important centre of playing-card production for generations.
Brewery: Brouwerij Corsendonk NV
Visitor notes
The former Priory of Corsendonk remains the historic heart of the Corsendonk story, but don't arrive expecting to find Corsendonk beer being brewed there. Today the site is better appreciated for its history, architecture and peaceful Kempen setting.
For living brewing, look instead to Brouwerij Het Nest. Its brewery in Oud-Turnhout provides a neat modern counterpoint to the priory story: centuries after brewing disappeared from Corsendonk, beer is once again being made locally — this time by a brewery whose irreverent playing-card identity is firmly rooted in the wider Turnhout region.
Together they make Oud-Turnhout rather more interesting than the Corsendonk name alone might suggest: one brewing story preserved through history and branding, and another still developing in the village today.