Regional Dutch whisky distiller suspends all exports of brand

‘Frysk Hynder’ too popular at home

BOLSWARD - A local, private distiller of a single-malt whisky has suspended export sales of his first-ever product. Aart van der Linde no longer sells his ‘Frysk Hynder’ whisky outside of his home province of Friesland.

In the short time since Van der Linden’s brewery and distillery made the whisky available on his website, orders and requests had poured in, many from Frisians ‘om utens.’ The distiller’s output is limited to 10,000 litres only and internet sales were so strong that he would have been sold out within a month.

To satisfy his regular customers, Van der Linde now only sells the regional product from his ‘Us Heit’ store in this 550-year old city. The transplanted Limburg brewer as well sells a homemade beer with the same name, also a limited quantity brand. His annual output of 3,000 hectoliters (about 950,000 bottles or cans) is equivalent to what one of the Heineken breweries in the Netherlands produces in a couple of hours. Water for ‘Us Heit’ lager is drawn from a 250-metres deep well in the southern Frisian village of Spannenburg.

For his limited batch of whisky, the Bolsward distiller uses around 30,000 litres of so-called ‘whisky beer.’ The current, first batch of the whisky was begun in October 2002.

The Us Heit distillery, brewery and shop are located in the former Secondary School for Food Technology, which Van der Linde once attended. In 1995, he moved to Bolsward to start his brewing business.

A new batch of ‘Frysk Hynder’ whisky will not be available for another three years, since the brew must age in oak barrels for at least three years.