The story of De Prael dates back to 2002 when Fer Kok and Arno Kooy started brewing beer together. Both of them worked in a psychiatric hospital and both of them loved beer. This turned out to be a great match to lay the basis of a successful social enterprise.

Thanks to its premium beer, De Prael expanded from a single bar to a full-fledged franchise and currently consists of a premium brewery and three bars, with more venues planned to open later this year.

As of today, approximately 170 people work for De Prael, 150 of whom have a working disability, be it physical, mental, or social.

To know more about their story, I paid a visit to De Prael’s oldest bar in the Oudezijds Armsteeg in Amsterdam. From outside, it looks like a regular bar: just a few wooden tables to gather around and a simple glass door. Inside, a few bikes hang from the walls, adding a quirky touch to the environment.

What you would never guess is that most of the staff that works here consists of people with mental health issues and ex-prisoners.

Because the staff’s disabilities are not advertised, many visitors don’t overanalyse the waiters and bartenders. They just focus on the beer, as it is the appropriate thing to do in a brewery. I can imagine groups can have a lot of fun here trying out the freshly-brewed varieties of beer, since De Prael offers beer tastings in miniature glasses. Word of warning if you visit: the beer called “Liquid Bacon” actually does taste like bacon.

But knowing the concept of the bar, I wanted to ask someone what it’s like to work here as I was finishing my experience of what it’s like to drink here.

I saw a staff member standing idly and approached him with a few questions.

Matthys is 33 years old and this was his second week working at De Prael. He was unemployed for 14 years because he suffers from manic depression, which caused him to be in and out of psychiatric hospitals for decades. This is his first job and he really likes it. One day, he dreams to own and run a bar like this one.

“Everyone is quite open here about their disabilities,” Matthys told me, “It’s just hard for me to socialize about normal things with people. I was always either analysed by psychiatrists, or I listened to other people’s problems. Talking about everyday things just doesn’t come naturally to me.”

Truth be told, I went to De Prael expecting to see weird-looking guys or men in heavy tattoos and piercings.

But the problem is not just these kind of stereotypes.

People with difficult backgrounds fall outside society not only because of how they look, but because normal people can’t relate to their experiences. That’s why the most admirable part of De Prael is not only that they give employment opportunities to the disabled; the job allows people with disabilities to develop general work skills, enabling them to join other work forces in the future.