Some breweries source their ingredients from the other side of the world. Bospolder Brouwerij gets them from the neighbor. Red bell peppers from their own polder, grapes from a nursery down the road, vanilla via a Westland company. Marko and André Penning have lived in the Bospolder in Honselersdijk their entire lives, and you can hear that in virtually every beer they make.

From the bathtub to a private boiler

It started in 2016 with a five-liter starter kit. Brewing in the kitchen, cooling in the bathtub, fermenting in the living room. Raw and simple, but according to the brothers, above all, addictively fun. A year later, a thirty-liter kettle stood in the space of the family business where the laboratory used to be, among the freesias and amaryllises. From that moment on, they brewed approximately every month.

The idea of scaling up had been brewing for years, but it was repeatedly thwarted by regulations. In 2022, they made the decision. Together with a fellow brewer, the first official beer was released: Gardener's beer, a Trappist beer of 5.2 percent, made to be drunk and not to impress. After that, things moved quickly.

What the Westland puts in the pot

The best beers from Bospolder are the beers where you can taste the region. Pick-me-up is the clearest example of this: a 6.5 percent pale ale featuring red bell pepper from our own polder, grown by neighbor Voort Horticulture. You smell it before you taste it, and with 32 IBU, the bitterness remains mild enough to give that vegetal layer room to shine.

Sonnehoeck goes a step further. Frankenthaler and Alicante grapes from the historic Sonnehoeck nursery in Kwintsheul give this 7 percent grape ale a wine-like quality, without it becoming wine. And Dijks Blond, brewed with the Honselersdijk Festival Week Committee, appeared with five different labels, each depicting a historical village scene from Honselersdijk. Collectors have their work cut out for them.

Where you would start

If you want to know what they can do, then Polder gold A nice starting point. A 9 percent Tripel with orange peel, coriander, and grains of paradise, in which Citra provides citrus and apricot. It drinks lighter than that percentage suggests. Serve it at nine degrees with aged cheese.

If you are looking for something dark instead, then is Polder storm Worth the effort: a 5.7 percent Schwarzbier enriched with Islay Storm single malt from Scotland, with a peat smoke that you can smell even before the glass reaches your mouth. Don't serve it too cold, otherwise the smoke stays inside. And for those who really sit down and savor it... Totally Naughty 2.0 Done, an 11 percent imperial stout with Dutch vanilla incorporated into it. Small glass, big evening.

In the meantime, they are not sitting still. André obtained his international beer sommelier diploma in Munich, and in 2026 Bospolder was present at the Dutch Beer Tasting Festival in The Hague. For two brothers who started with a five-liter package, that is quite a journey.

What they say themselves aligns pretty well with what's in the bottle: they don't like choosing. From classic blonds to experiments with herbs and local ingredients, anything goes, as long as it tastes good. All nine beers from Bospolder Brouwerij are available in our store, including the Gardener's truck with gin and the Blackberry which sold out in no time in 2023.

The photos of the brewers, of the brewing in the kitchen, and of the Dutch Beer Tasting Festival have been reproduced with permission from Bospolder Brouwerij from bospolderbrouwerij.nl.