Breeders & Agronomists
This is the furthest-upstream role in gluten-free brewing, and the one with the least brewing in it. Almost nobody breeds these grains for beer: programs select for yield, drought tolerance, lodging resistance, food quality. Brewers inherit whatever those choices produced. The people here matter because that inheritance is the raw material of everything the rest of this site argues about.
Page established 2026-08-25 · seeded from existing site entries; growing.
How to read it — entry rules, and what a listing means
Two kinds of entry. Where someone is already described in the research directory, this page carries a pointer — name, role, subjects touched, link to the page that owns the description. Where they are not, this page carries the entry itself. Nothing is described in two places.
Organizations sit inside the role they perform. A breeding program belongs here alongside the breeders who run it.
Described, never endorsed. A listing is a map reference, not a recommendation, and implies no relationship with this site.
What qualifies. A public-facing role, body of work, or programme. Private individuals are not listed without consent.
Corrections and removals — contact us.
The roster — who breeds and studies these grains
Pointers to breeders the research directory already describes. The person and their span are named here; the work lives on the subject pages linked from each entry.
Melinda Yerka — University of Nevada, Reno. Sorghum for malting and brewing. · sorghum
William Rooney — Texas A&M. Specialty and food-grade sorghum lines. · sorghum
Tesfaye Tesso — Kansas State. Grain sorghum improvement for food and feed. · sorghum
Dipak Santra — University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Proso millet breeding. · millet
Kevin Murphy — Washington State University. Restarted public buckwheat breeding in North America; released 'Tinker' (2024). · buckwheat
Christian de Guzman — University of Arkansas. Rice breeding at Stuttgart. · rice
Seeded 2026-08-25. This page owns the people above; the research directory owns their work. Growing.
Bodies & gatherings — the associations, genebanks and meetings this role runs through
Not yet mapped. The bodies and gatherings we expect to cover here: the national germplasm systems, the commodity checkoffs that fund breeding, the crop-science societies, and the grain-specific improvement conferences.
Working with them — how a brewer, maltster or researcher engages this role
Not yet written. When it is, it will answer: how to request germplasm, how to approach a breeding programme about brewing traits, and what a breeder needs from a brewer to take a brewing request seriously.
How this role connects — documented links to other roles and subjects
No entries yet. Every connection carries its own evidence link, as in the research directory — no inferred relationships, no speculation.
Who's missing — where this page's coverage runs out
Not yet assessed. A documented zero is an answer.
Breed or study these grains, or know someone who does? Tell us.