Beerenburg

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Dutch spirit drink

title: "Beerenburg" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["bitters"] description: "Dutch spirit drink" topic_path: "general/bitters" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beerenburg" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Dutch spirit drink ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Aangebroken_fles_Weduwe_Joustra_Beerenburg_35%.jpg" caption="Weduwe Joustra Beerenburg"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Sonnema-berenburg.jpg" caption="Bottle of Sonnema Berenburg"] ::

Beerenburg (West Frisian: Bearenburch) is a Dutch drink, made by adding herbs to jenever, with about 30% alcohol.

The original Beerenburg was made in the early 18th century by the Amsterdam spice merchant Hendrik Beerenburg, to whom it owes its name. Beerenburg opened his own shop at the Stromarkt 6 in Amsterdam in 1724, a location which to date shows on its roof a bear ('beer') crawling out of a fortress ('burcht'). Beerenburg kept his recipe secret but soon local varieties emerged, each with its own recipe. These were, however, not allowed to use the name "Beerenburg", which is why there are variations on the spelling, such as Berenburg and Berenburger.

Despite the Amsterdam (North Holland) origin of Beerenburg, the drink became most popular in the northern provinces Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe. It is related to the Italian amaro, another type of digestive bitters.

In the European Union, Beerenburg is classified as a spirit drink.

Brands

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Distilleerderij_F.J._Sonnema_in_Dokkum.jpg" caption="Old building of the Berenburg distillery F.J. Sonnema in [[Dokkum]]."] ::

Some famous brands of Beerenburg are: Boomsma (Leeuwarden), Bokma, Sonnema (Dokkum), Weduwe Joustra (Sneek), Plantinga (Bolsward), all from Friesland, and Hooghoudt Kalmoes, from Groningen.

References

References

  1. "Using Beerenburg for your cocktail". cocktailsoftheworld.com.
  2. (18 July 2022). "Heeft de stad een culinaire ziel? 'Amsterdammers hebben een nieuwsgierige maag'".
  3. Wilson, Jason. (2010). "Boozehound: On the Trail of the Rare, the Obscure, and the Overrated in Spirits". Ten Speed Press.
  4. (13 February 2008). "Annex II". europa.eu.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

bitters