Fortuna Vlieland

With the [Buitenbrouwerij], her mobile beer brewery, Henriette Waal has since 2010 been developing beers with nature and stories from the Wadden, an area off the north coast of the Netherlands with wetlands and tidal flats. Together with a local home brewer, she developed Zeebier on Terschelling Island.

The Eilander and Parelduiker beers with mineral-rich dune water and oysters from Vlieland Island were brewed for Into the Great Wide Open festival. To commemorate the forgotten war disaster off the coast of Vlieland in 1666, the Outside Brewery launched in 2016 ‘Rampzalig’ (a combination of the Dutch words for ‘disaster’ and ‘delicious’) a layered amber beer with smoked malt and seaweed.

Brewing with the landscape on Vlieland Island has been embraced and made sustainable in collaboration with two inspired entrepreneurs. Fortuna Vlieland brewery opened at the end of 2019. The brewery has its own source of dune water, harvests the sun on its roof, and is likely to be the most beautifully located brewery in the Netherlands. Fortuna Vlieland makes sparkling water and beer using plants from the dunes and mudflats. The brewery not only adds a locally made product and remarkable attraction to the island but also offers a unique way of engaging with the landscape.