In the early years, the internet was not affordable and only accessible to large companies and organizations.
So there was fidonet which consisted of various BBS's (nodes) that were available via a dial-up connection with an analog modem, and/or via ISDN. Via these BBS's one could follow discussions via the so-called echos (say the newsgroups on the internet), and one could download many files from various groups.

The website about bier028.nl is designed as an information source with regard to the messages echo BIER.028 and fidonet as the underlying network.
But there is more:

• All about BEER.028
• Monthly meetings and holidays over the years with members of BIER.028
• Fidonet and history
• Lots of brewery links from all over the world
• Links to various cafe links in the Netherlands and Belgium
• Links to beer shops in the Netherlands and Belgium
• Links to beer associations for consumers
• Links to branch associations for breweries

More about the history can be found here.