There are brown cafes, and then there's De Prael's Tasting Room. Wooden furniture, dark interior, and on tap beer brewed down the street by people struggling to find work elsewhere. The latter sounds like an advertisement, but at De Prael it's just everyday reality. The location is no coincidence: the Oudezijds Armsteeg already has a beer history dating back to the 16th century, and in 1742 a beer tapper already lived at this address. The building is leased from Stadsherstel Amsterdam.
Behind the brewery are Fer Kok and Arno Kooy, who founded De Prael in 2002 as a social work company. The idea was simple: provide meaningful jobs for people with psychiatric backgrounds or other distance from the labor market, and do it through something worth making. Beer, in other words. De Prael now runs two locations, one in downtown Amsterdam and one in The Hague on Esperantoplein. The Amsterdam location is the home base, and the tasting room is the face of the brewery to the outside world.
The tasting room has something of a classic brown café, but with a tap filled with its own work. The space is narrow, the premises historic, and the atmosphere is one where you don't feel like you're doing anything trendy. You're just drinking beer in a place where beer has been drunk for centuries. The building exudes the same: low ceilings, brick walls, and an interior that wasn't designed but grew.
The beers here are brewed by people who have difficulty finding work elsewhere, which makes each glass slightly different.
The Oudezijds Armsteeg is located downtown, around the corner from what used to be called the Bierkaai. A street with history, and a place where De Prael fits in seamlessly. Not because it looks hip, but because it simply belongs there. The beers here are brewed by people who have difficulty finding work elsewhere, and that makes each glass slightly different.