024: Leonard Koningswijk | Bear Cider, Netherlands

Leonard Koningswijk owner/cidermaker of Bear Cider in the Netherlands is turning his country towards cider one palate at a time. The idea was sprouted at his family home in the rural village of Beerze on the border of Germany. (Beerze means bear in Dutch.) Like many cider folk he saw the bounty of apples laden on the trees and thought something must be done with those apples. Via the internet he learned how-to press apples and make cider and took a course with Peter Mitchell on cidermaking. 

He knew his country was great for growing apples, but there are not any large volume of cider apples being grown. (Note this is changing as the demand for cider increases, most notably south east of Amsterdam where UWE Betuwe Cider has an orchard.)

The cider revival is slowly gaining speed in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Den Haag, and Rotterdam. Listen to Cider Chat episodes 002: Wouter Biljs | CiderCider, Rotterdam and 010-Margot Sanderse | Het Ciderhuis, Utrecht and see how two importers are making craft cider cool again.

In this chat, Leonard and I discuss how he makes cider, by importing apple juice from Herefordshire, England, the lack of cider apples in the Netherlands, and the uphill push to educate the public on the virtues of drinking cider.

Full show notes and photos at ciderchat.com

on twitter @ciderchat