Brouwerij de Prael is not just a brewery. During the week there are more than hundred people working here with ’a distance to labour’. Most of them got a psychiatric history. When we started in 2001 we tried to get people back to work with this brewery and get people out of their social isolation.
To keep up doing this work in the future we have to make more beer and keep the same quality. For us it is necessary to search for young entrepreneurs to help us to develop a professional ‘brew-team’.
Francesco Sottomano started at our brewery in January 2015. To start working in a new place in another country is of course very difficult. Francesco however did it very well. As a person he is very social and respectful to his colleagues. He just fitted in very easily.
Beside his social skills he was very eager to learn the ‘brewing job’ and within a month he knew every part off the brewery and could work his way in this process. He completed the brewing team. He helped us out thinking about new recipes and experimented with different ways to handle the beer even in wooden wine-barrels. (Italian)
At the end of his Erasmus period here Francesco became a full professional brewer and a very fine colleague. Reason enough to keep in contact for the future of this brewery.
Fer Kok, Brouwerij de Prael