5 Things That Makes Hops & Barley the Most Curious Jocu Project Yet

Inspired by beers from around the world, Hops & Barley is the third custom deck of playing cards by Jocu after the success of Fillide and The Green Man. The deck celebrates the ancient process of beer-making, with a style based on the ingredients and iconic equipment used in the brewing process.

The decks are fully custom with classic-style playing card backs, fully custom but familiar pips and indices, redrawn courts based on classic standard iconography, and prominent Aces of Spades. Hops & Barley decks are intended to be a classic, affordable and, above all, a playable deck of cards.

The decks are funded in just over a day on Kickstarter and are currently unlocking beer and brewing related add-ons and stretch goals such as branded beer mats and bottle openers. Soon to be unlocked is the limited edition Brewer’s Reserve copper variant.

Here are five things that make Hops & Barley the most curious Jocu project yet:

1. The back design and main color scheme of the Brewer’s Reserve deck are based on the giant copper fermentation stills at the Heineken brewery museum in Amsterdam.



2. The tuck box paper is made from recycled beer by-products including hops, barley, yeast and even recycled beer labels.

3. Hops and barley were two of the only four ingredients allowed by the old German ‘Reinheitsgebot’ purity law to be used in the production of any drink known as ‘beer’. The other two were yeast and water, but today other grains are often used in varying quantities.

4. Dark Amber and Pale Gold, the two colors on the standard variants, are taken directly from the SRM scale - a scale of color shades used to determine various types of beer. These range from a very pale straw (lagers and weissbiers) to brown and black chocolate shades found in stouts and bocks.

5. The production of the decks spans three European countries famous for different styles of beer. The paper and foils are produced in Germany, where bocks, pilsners and black beers abound. The cards are printed in Belgium - famous for its wheat beer and blonde ales. Finally the boxes printed in northern Italy, best known for its pale layers but also its artisanal breweries’ experimentation with unusual grains such as buckwheat.

Hops & Barley Playing Cards is now live on Kickstarter. Pledge for a standard deck starts from $12 for a single deck. Also, brick tiers are gradually being upgraded as stretch goals are unlocked!

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