Last week I had the privilege to get an extended guided tour at Malting Factory Dingemans in Stabroek, Antwerpen. Since 1875, the Dingemans family has been producing an extensive range of quality ingredients for the demanding Belgian and European brewers. Currently the fifth generation of the Dingemans family, Jan and Karl, are running the company.
Malts are one of the main ingredients of beer and no beer brewer can work without them. Long ago malting grains was part of the farmers’ activities, but through the ages malting became a specialized business. This year is the 150th anniversary for Dingemans and they are one of the main suppliers of malts to our beloved Belgian brewers.
Malting factories buy in the grains (like barley and wheat, but many other grains will work too) and make them ready for brewing. This process involves the germination of the grains in order to bring out the enzymes and starches inside. Those starches will later change in the sugars needed for fermentation. After the germination the malts will be kilned and/ or roasted to make different varieties. Anyone that has ever done a good brewery tour will have heard about malting and how important this is.
The tour at Dingemans was extensive and as brewery guides we got to ask a lot of questions and learned many things about malting. What really surprised me is how extensive the research and preparation before the malting are. Dingemans, for instance, monitors the weather patterns during the growing season in the grain regions all over Europe. If a region has had a lot of rain just before harvesting they already know the grain is not suitable for malting. Wet grain may easily get fungi and mold causes gushing in beers. So they will switch to grains from other regions. Another dazzling fact was that samples of all the grains that come in, are tested to be sure they will actually respond to the malting process, but also to check they have the right parameters to ensure a good quality beer, like viscosity, filtration speed, protein levels and gushing risks.
Good quality beers don’t just happen. First of all brewers need to know their job well, but it also is every step on the way to the brewery that matters , including the road the main ingredients have taken.
View my photos and videos of the visit here
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