Mark Strooker

Started his interest in craft beers in 2002, it didn’t take long for Mark Strooker to decide brew his own beer. Back in the day craft brewery was not that popular in Netherlands and his passion for Belgian and American craft beers drove him to start making beer first at home and later to flow in the first wave of craft breweries coming from Netherlands. Now, more than ten years later he presents the line of his new brewery - Oproer in the best place for such thing in Sofia - Kanaal, who are partners of Mark for Bulgaria. Surely, we were invited to taste the beers and learn more about the craft brewing from Mark himself.

For how long have you been making beer?
I started as a home brewer in 2006 with a friend who was a squatter. Thus we had a place. I started with an Imperial Stout.

That's a good start having in mind most of the home brewers are starting with an IPA. Was it good?
Yes, it was good. And it was also infected (laughs). I had to learn a lot. So I started brewing more often in 2008 - I had a new brew every week. In 2012 I started Rooie Dop which was my first commercial brewery and then this January, in 2016, I started Oproer with Bart-Jan Hoeijmakers who had a brewery called Ruig. We teamed up and created Oproer which we are drinking now. Some of the beers are old Rooie Dop beers. For example 24/7 was my recipe and I changed it, I lowered the ABV, so it's 3.9% now. I also had Imperial Oatmeal Stout before but for Oproer I completely re-wrote the recipe and now it is more the thought I had about it, I recreated it.

What do you change in the recipes for Oproer?
Making recipes for me is like reinventing myself. I don't have a certain way for doing things - I am constantly rethinking the whole process. For a certain beer - it has this taste, this smell and this body, and I am doing research to see what new techniques are out there to achieve that. So I incorporate new things all the time.

What turned you into home and craft brewing?
I started drinking beer professionally in 2002 or 2003. I went to supermarkets and bought all the Belgium beers I could find and for holidays I always got some special beers. Then I became friend with two guys who later started their own brewery. And I was inspired by this and I wanted to do my own stuff. I also started trading beers with people from the USA and in Denmark. I went to beer festivals in Denmark and on places like these you meet a lot of people, you get to know more beers. I got acquainted with the guys in Mikkeler, Evil Twin, De Molen and it was in the very early days of their breweries. That's how I got connected with the world of beer.

I was drinking a lot of different beers and they have not being sold in the Netherlands, so I decided I'd be making my own beer. But the things changed a lot in 2012-2013. There were about 50 breweries in Netherlands in 2012 and now they are about 450.

Do you remember what was the first interesting beer you have tried besides the lagers?
The first really good one was the Yeti imperial stout - that changed the things a lot for me.

What types of beer do you prefer for the different parts of the day?
That’s where comes 24/7 - you can drink it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I like bourbon barrel aged stouts and I prefer them in the morning (if it’s Saturday) or in the early afternoon because then you feel their full flavor, you can experience everything the beer offers. Most of the people are drinking them way in the end of an evening full of beers when they are a little dizzy and then they taste it less. That’s a shame because those beers have so much flavor! And in the summertime I like more sours, farmhouse ales and Berliner weisse beers. And all the time it is great to have a good IPA (laughs).

Do you have special beers for special occasions?
With beers you can wait for special occasions. But I believe that every time you open up a beer, it’s a special occasion.

Tell us more about the Oproer beers.
We have three beers now. One is 24/7 - with that one we wanted to make a light beer that you can drink the whole day, so it’s only 3.9%. We want to keep the body and the flavor more like of a 5% beer but then it’s lighter and you can drink more. And we are trying new systems, so we are constantly making our beers better. Most brewers want to have each beer the same every time while we are trying to make every batch better. If you can make something better, why not do it better?

The second one is the Black Flag - it’s a Cascadian dark ale, 6.5% which is more of a roasty kind of stout with Cascade hops. It has a nice and full body.

The third one is the Imperial Oatmeal Stout which is nice and creamy with full body. It’s very drinkable though it’s 9.5%.

We rented a new place which is 800 square meters and it will be our production facility with 25 hectoliter system. We will also keep the old brewery and we’ll use it only for sours. And we are going to do a lot of barrel aged beers as well.

How did you start working with Kanaal?
I met the guys a couple of years ago during a festival in Netherlands, when I was still with Rooie Dop. They were already selling my beers in Kanaal. Now we are selling in Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia.

How do you see the craft beer expansion through the world?
It’s a good thing and a bad thing. It’s good because more people are given the choice to have good beer. And it’s bad because a lot of people come out in the market with the only purpose to make money and they are selling really expensive beers. Which is more for the profit and not for the passion of beer.

What’s the most common mistake for a home and a craft brewer?
Most of the mistakes are connected with the quality control and the fermentation. Also many times when you make a home brew, it’s too high in alcohol and the yeast character is way too off and the beer becomes too yeasty.

What advice you’d give them?
The best way to make a beer is try to keep it simple. Do not overthink, do not add too many different malts and hops and mix it all together. Think it simple. It’s good to different ingredients but in different stages, different times in the process. Thus you get layers in the flavor and in the aroma.

You have your Black Flag beer and now with the tendency a lot of bands to make their own brand of beer, would you do beer for bands?
Only if the band is cool (laughs). It would be for a skate punk band like NOFX. And that has to be a funny beer. We did the Oproer Brouwerij like a Do It Yourself thing and we are supporters of the DIY movement, so I’d definitely go for bands like this.

Text Ivaylo Alexandrov/ Photography Sofia Zasheva