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The Lot Reporting Standard

A lot's brewing behavior is predicted by numbers the seller already has. This standard moves those numbers with the grain.

A gluten-free beer should never fail because information that existed wasn't passed along. Every lot has a protein number; every protein number implies a process. The job of this standard is to make sure both travel with the grain.

The problem: the grain varies, and the numbers stay behind​

Sorghum is not barley. Malting barley arrives pre-solved: bred into a narrow protein window, grown to a specification, and analyzed to standardized brewing methods before a brewer ever touches it. Sorghum is sold as a food and feed commodity. Its lots swing widely in protein content, and protein drives mash behavior — conversion, extract, lautering, clarity. Two lots from the same seller can need meaningfully different processes.

Here is the part that should bother you: the numbers already exist. Protein is measured during FGIS grading. Germination comes from the seed laboratory. Gluten status comes from the allergen laboratory. If the grain was malted, the malt analysis adds diastatic power and extract. Every one of those figures sits on a certificate the seller already paid for — and then the grain ships without them, and the brewer starts guessing.

Gate 1 — Grain Source and Acceptance explains what those certificates are and why acceptance depends on them. Reading a Malt Certificate of Analysis explains what the numbers mean. This page exists because knowing how to read a certificate only helps if the certificate arrives.

What makes a seller worth buying from​

A trustworthy seller, for the purposes of this standard, is not a seller with perfect grain. It is a seller whose numbers travel:

  • The lot is identified. A specific farm and bin, per Gate 1. A lot that cannot be tied to its source has already failed acceptance.
  • The gluten claim is documented, per the site's truly gluten-free standard: no gluten detected by a suitable method, with a certificate — not an assumption.
  • The analysis values are reported, per batch, every batch. Honest numbers on an ordinary lot are worth more than silence on a good one. An unusual protein figure, reported, is a process adjustment. The same figure, unreported, is a failed batch and a brewer who blames the grain.

None of this asks the seller to generate new information. It asks them to forward what their own paperwork already says.

The requirements​

A seller registered under this standard commits to the following for every batch sold through the registry:

  1. Protein content, reported to the nearest 0.1%. This is the single number that most changes what the brewer should do, and it is already measured during grading.
  2. The remaining certificate values, reported as they appear. Moisture, test weight, and grade from FGIS grading; germination from the seed laboratory; DON and aflatoxin screening results; the gluten test result with its method; and, where a malt analysis exists, diastatic power and extract. No new testing is required by this standard. If a value is not on the seller's existing certificates, it is not demanded — the standard routes existing paperwork; it does not invent lab work.
  3. Lot identity on every report. The reported values are tied to the lot's source identity so the numbers and the grain cannot separate.
  4. The report travels with the shipment. The buyer receives the values with the grain, not on request, not afterward.
  5. Reported values are published for research — anonymized, always. Lot values enter an open dataset so the actual variability of gluten-free brewing grain becomes public knowledge for the first time. Seller, farm, and buyer identities are never stated. The data is for research value; the privacy of the people behind it is not negotiable.

What each side gets​

The buyer receives characterized grain: the protein figure and supporting values in hand before the mash is designed, on paperwork rather than on faith. Process guidance keyed to protein level is the natural companion to this standard, and it is where this site's brewing-process documentation is headed.

The seller gets something the commodity market has never offered them: a buyer pool that specifically wants documented lots, at the cost of forwarding certificates they already own. Transparency becomes an advantage instead of an exposure.

Register​