Quinoa & Amaranth Research Directory
Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) and amaranth (Amaranthus spp.) share a page for an honest reason — but not an equal one. Both are pseudocereals: broadleaf plants producing starchy, naturally gluten-free seed, like buckwheat rather than like the true cereal grasses, and both are Latin American staples with thousands of years of Andean and Mesoamerican cultivation behind them. There the symmetry ends. Quinoa arrives with more than this family expected — malting studies from the same European groups anchoring our millet and buckwheat directories, a funded US breeding program, and a UN year of its own. Amaranth's record is genuinely thin where it counts for brewing: a handful of studies, riding alongside its sibling in the comparative literature. The asymmetry is not genomic — both grains are sequenced, and amaranth has three published genome resources in the Literature section below — it is in the brewing science, the breeding money, and the commercial chain. They are mapped together because the literature keeps treating them together, and because each carries a processing wrinkle a brewer must know: quinoa's seed coat holds bitter saponins that have to be washed off, and amaranth's seed is smaller still, which is a milling and lautering problem before it is anything else. Roughly two-thirds of this page is quinoa's, and it stays a shared page until either grain earns a directory of its own.
Coverage is US-centered by design — this site works in the American supply chain — with international anchors included where the science is foundational; for these grains that reaches the Andes, the European malting groups, and one Saudi genomics powerhouse.
Directory established 2026-08-25 · first verification pass 2026-08-25.
Key topics — find entries by subject, across every category
How to read it: each topic lists the entries that touch it, so a reader hunting one subject can jump straight to the right sections.
Malting & brewing science — the unmalted-quinoa studies and the pseudocereal brewing literature (Literature), Kordialik-Bogacka (Contributors), UCC and Łódź (Institutions).
Genomics & breeding — KAUST's quinoa genome and BYU's two-grain program (Institutions, Contributors), the genome family (Literature & Datasets), WSU's breeding pipeline (Projects).
Supply & economics — the Andean producers and the San Luis Valley (Industry), the IYQ 2013 legacy (Organizations & Events), the saponin problem (Research gaps).
Quinoa in the glass, today — the one outer-ring grain already inside commercial US gluten-free beer: Aurochs and the Grouse chain (Industry).
1. Institutions — federal labs, universities, and international centers doing brewing-relevant work on the pseudocereals
— Federal laboratories and projects —
USDA-ARS North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station — Ames, Iowa. The federal home of the national amaranth collection — roughly 3,000 Amaranthus accessions, curated by David Brenner — at the same Ames station that appears on our corn directory. The station's public curation record covers amaranth; we have not found an equivalent published record for its Chenopodium holdings. The station · The amaranth curation record (PDF) · Verified 2026-08-25
— US universities —
Washington State University. The US quinoa anchor: Murphy's alternative-crops program breeds quinoa for the Pacific Northwest, backed by USDA funding his WSU profile puts at $1.6 million — run by the same breeder behind the buckwheat revival on our buckwheat directory, whose portfolio (quinoa, barley, spelt, buckwheat, perennial grains, proso millet) makes him the most multi-grain person in this directory family. The program · Pacific Northwest quinoa production · Verified 2026-08-25
Brigham Young University. The two-grain genomics home: Maughan's molecular-genetics program builds genomic tools for quinoa, amaranth, and oca — the amaranth genome came from this orbit, BYU hands are on the quinoa genome, and the program's funding runs through USDA, NSF, and the McKnight Foundation. Maughan's program · Verified 2026-08-25
Oregon State University. The extension data point: OSU's small-farms program publishes Willamette Valley quinoa production guidance — the crop's agronomy reaching Pacific Northwest growers outside the breeding pipeline. The guidance · Verified 2026-08-25
— International anchors —
KAUST — King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia. Led the 2017 quinoa genome in Nature — Tester's team, 33 researchers across four continents — and the 2023 chromosome-scale update. The same institution behind the fonio genome on our fonio directory: one Saudi university now underpins two of this family's genomes. The 2017 genome · The 2023 assembly, open access · Verified 2026-08-25
University College Cork — Ireland. The Arendt group's gluten-free cereal-science programme, which anchors our millet and buckwheat directories. Its public page describes the group's gluten-free work without naming the grains, so what it has done specifically with the pseudocereals is not something we can show from it. UCC Cereal and Beverage Science · Verified 2026-08-25
Łódź University of Technology — Poland. The food-science group behind the unmalted-quinoa brewing studies: quinoa substituting up to 30% of barley malt without exogenous enzymes, and the quinoa-and-amaranth wort-minerals work — the most brewer-practical pseudocereal science of the last decade. The quinoa study · Verified 2026-08-25
University of Copenhagen — Denmark. Coordinated PROTEIN2FOOD, the €8.8M EU project spanning quinoa, amaranth, and buckwheat — and home of Jacobsen's decades of European quinoa agronomy, from Danish trials to the Mediterranean and beyond. The project record (CORDIS) · Verified 2026-08-25
CIRAD — France. The French center from our fonio directory appears again: Bazile's quinoa program coordinated FAO's global state-of-the-art report and tracked the crop's spread to more than 125 countries — CIRAD's second grain in this family. The global expansion record · Verified 2026-08-25
INIA — Peru's National Institute of Agricultural Innovation. The homeland's breeding authority: INIA's named quinoa varieties (Salcedo INIA, Pasankalla, Black Collana, Altiplano and more) run the world's largest producer, with seed conservatories and the Illpa Puno experiment station behind them — and the FAO varieties catalogue is INIA's joint work. The varieties catalogue (PDF) · Verified 2026-08-25
INIFAP — Mexico. The national institute holding amaranth's homeland genetic resources: morphological characterization of 155 Amaranthus accessions in the genetic-resources program at CEVAMEX — Mexico's formal science under the crop its communities never stopped growing. The characterization study · Verified 2026-08-25
2. Contributors — the researchers and breeders behind the work
Kevin Murphy. The WSU breeder from our buckwheat directory, whose program has bred quinoa for the Pacific Northwest since 2010 per the published breeding review, and who co-wrote the Wiley reference Quinoa: Improvement and Sustainable Production — three of this family's grains run through one person's breeding portfolio. His profile · The textbook · Verified 2026-08-25
Jeff (Peter J.) Maughan. The BYU molecular geneticist whose career runs through both of this page's grains: genomic tools for quinoa and amaranth from markers to genomes — the scientific reason these two crops' breeding futures are linked. His profile · Verified 2026-08-25
David Jarvis. A geneticist on both genome projects — an author on the 2017 quinoa genome and on the 2017 amaranth assembly, at KAUST for that work — one researcher inside both halves of this page's foundation. His CV · Verified 2026-08-25
Mark Tester. The KAUST plant scientist who led the quinoa genome — 33 researchers, four continents — putting an Andean staple on a chromosome-scale foundation aimed at global dryland agriculture. The genome · Verified 2026-08-25
Edyta Kordialik-Bogacka. The Łódź brewing scientist behind the field's most practical findings: unmalted quinoa to 30% of the grist with positive sensory results, and the quinoa-and-amaranth mineral contributions to wort — pseudocereal brewing measured, not speculated. The quinoa study · Verified 2026-08-25
Rick Jellen. The BYU chromosomal geneticist who, with Maughan, has bred quinoa since 2004 — the pair provided roughly 1,000 breeding lines to WSU in 2012, the seed of the joint varieties released in 2023. His profile · The 2023 releases · Verified 2026-08-25
David Brenner. The Ames curator holding both of this page's grains: the USDA amaranth curation project — quinoa included — is his, the germplasm base every US breeding effort draws on. The curation record (PDF) · Verified 2026-08-25
Didier Bazile. The CIRAD geographer of quinoa's globalization: coordinator of FAO's State of the Art Report on Quinoa around the World, FAO visiting expert assisting 31 countries with quinoa trials, and chronicler of the crop's spread past 125 countries. His publication record · Verified 2026-08-25
Sven-Erik Jacobsen. The Copenhagen agronomist behind European quinoa: decades of trials from Denmark to the Mediterranean, the tropical-crops group at the PROTEIN2FOOD coordinating university, and his own quinoa-promotion company. His company · Verified 2026-08-25
Alejandro Bonifacio. The plant breeder at Bolivia's PROINPA foundation, recognized in December 2020 by the Ministry of Rural Development and Lands and the International Quinoa Centre in the category of genetic improvement. PROINPA's recognition record · Verified 2026-08-25
Damien Lightfoot. Lead author of the 2017 amaranth genome — a KAUST scientist on a KAUST–BYU joint assembly, which quietly makes the Saudi genomics center a contributor to both of this page's grains. The genome, open access · Verified 2026-08-25
Janet Matanguihan. Murphy's co-author on the Wiley quinoa reference and a collaborator across the WSU–BYU breeding axis — the textbook's other half. The textbook · Verified 2026-08-25
3. Projects & Grants — funded work in flight right now
What qualifies: work that is funded and producing public output at the intersection of these grains and breeding, food-grade quality, or brewing.
The WSU quinoa breeding program. The funded US pipeline: varietal selection, agronomy, and breeding for Pacific Northwest adaptation, with preharvest sprouting as the named obstacle — the only US program breeding either of this page's grains at scale that we have found. Its published funding acknowledgment names USDA-NIFA (2021-68012-35955), WSU's Vogel fund, and FFAR. Regional coverage · The program's science · Verified 2026-08-25
The BYU orphan-crop genomics program. Maughan's standing effort building the molecular toolkit for quinoa and amaranth breeding — markers, maps, and genomes — funded across USDA, NSF, and McKnight sources. The program · Verified 2026-08-25
PROTEIN2FOOD — EU Horizon 2020 (€8.8M, 2015–2020). The European protein project spanning 18-plus partners with quinoa, amaranth, and buckwheat among its quality-protein crops — three grains of this directory family inside one funded program, coordinated from Copenhagen. The project record (CORDIS) · Verified 2026-08-25
The WSU–BYU variety releases (2023). The US pipeline's payoff: three quinoa varieties bred for global food security, released jointly by the two programs — the harvest of Jellen and Maughan's thousand breeding lines crossed with Murphy's decade of Pacific Northwest selection. The release · Verified 2026-08-25
The FAO global expansion program. The IYQ's working aftermath: FAO technical assistance carrying quinoa trials to 31 countries (2014–2016, with Bazile as visiting expert) — the program that turned a UN year into 125-plus growing countries. The expansion record · Verified 2026-08-25
The Andean Seeds project — INIA & FAO. The program behind Peru's commercial varieties catalogue: technical and scientific variety information published for researchers, producers, and the public — the named-variety infrastructure of the world's largest producer. The catalogue (PDF) · Verified 2026-08-25
The amaranth genotyping array (2025). Singh and colleagues at ICAR–NBPGR built 'Amahysnp', a high-density SNP genotyping array for grain amaranth — Indian institutions giving amaranth breeding its modern marker toolkit. The copy we link is hosted in ICRISAT's open archive. The array paper (PDF) · Verified 2026-08-25
The honest count, revised upward under challenge — twice: seven. One was withdrawn when its ARS project record went dead, leaving six. But the sharper claim stands: we have found no funded project anywhere at the intersection of these grains and malting — the brewing studies on this page ran on food-science budgets, and the breeding programs target food markets. The same gap this family documents for teff and fonio.
4. Funders & Programs — who pays for brewing-relevant pseudocereal research (described, never endorsed)
USDA — NIFA and the grants side. The largest documented funder: NIFA money behind the WSU quinoa program, plus support inside BYU's genomics program — federal grant money building the US quinoa pipeline. BYU's funders, in their own listing · Verified 2026-08-25
USDA — ARS and the infrastructure side. The other federal arm: Ames's curation of the national amaranth collection, and the Pullman station's germplasm holdings — infrastructure and in-house research rather than grants. The amaranth curation record (PDF) · Verified 2026-08-25
European Union — Horizon 2020. The EU's second appearance in this family's funding map (EWA-BELT carries fonio): PROTEIN2FOOD put €8.8 million behind quinoa, amaranth, and buckwheat as protein crops. CORDIS · Verified 2026-08-25
ICBA — the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture. The Dubai-based center works on quinoa for marginal environments and has convened an International Quinoa Conference. What we can link is a 2016 speaker profile; we have not found a record establishing it as a funder of this page's work, or the conference as a recurring series. The conference · Verified 2026-08-25
The Inter-American Development Bank. Development money in the Andean chain: an IADB project promoting the inclusion of Bolivia's small quinoa producers in export markets — the finance layer under the producer associations. The project document (PDF) · Verified 2026-08-25
National Science Foundation. In the pseudocereals through BYU's genomic-tools program — the basic-science funder behind the marker and genome work. The funded program · Verified 2026-08-25
McKnight Foundation. A third appearance in this directory family: the foundation behind the tef and fonio grants also funds BYU's quinoa and amaranth genomics — one US foundation now documented across four of this family's grains. The funded program · Verified 2026-08-25
FAO — the International Year of Quinoa legacy. The UN agency stewarded quinoa's 2013 year — proposed by Bolivia, backed by Peru — and its aftermath: rising production, consumption, and scientific attention that the agency itself documents as the year's legacy. The year's closing · Verified 2026-08-25
The honest shape of it: every funder here backs breeding, genomics, or food promotion. We have found no funder of pseudocereal malting research — the pattern now documented across all three of this directory's outer-ring pages.
5. Industry & Supply Chain — the commercial layer
The honest state of it: quinoa is the one grain in this family's outer ring already inside commercial US gluten-free beer — but as an unmalted adjunct, not a malt. The documented brewing-supply product is flaked; we have found no published quinoa or amaranth malt from any US malthouse. Amaranth's commercial layer is thinner still: real acreage, real food products, no documented brewing chain at all.
Grouse Malt House — flaked quinoa. The gluten-free malthouse from our millet and rice directories carries flaked quinoa as an unmalted brewing adjunct — the documented route by which quinoa reaches US brewhouses. The listing we can link is a community fermentables entry giving PPG and colour and classing it "Adjunct/Raw"; it makes no certification or head-retention claim. The fermentables listing · Verified 2026-08-25
Aurochs Brewing Company — Emsworth, Pennsylvania. The proof quinoa is already in the glass: the dedicated gluten-free brewery builds its beers on millet and quinoa, making quinoa a working ingredient in commercial gluten-free beer, something neither teff nor fonio can yet claim. One of the two linked profiles describes the millet and quinoa as malted — which, if right, would be the only account of malted quinoa in a US brewhouse we have found, and cuts against the unmalted-only framing this page otherwise carries. We have not been able to confirm it with the brewery. Inside the brewery · Profile · Verified 2026-08-25
Ardent Mills — quinoa. Scale arrives: a major North American flour miller sells quinoa flour and multigrain blends — the mainstream milling industry already handling the crop. The product page does not state the grain's origin. The product line · Verified 2026-08-25
Andean Naturals — the import chain's builder. The California importer that built a substantial US organic and fair-trade Andean quinoa business — then Ardent Mills acquired its quinoa operations, folding that sourcing expertise into mainstream American milling. The consolidation moment of US quinoa supply. Our source for the transaction is behind a block, so the finer details of date and description are ones we cannot show here. The acquisition · Verified 2026-08-25
Quinoa Quality — Denmark. The European promotion company from Copenhagen's quinoa agronomist — Jacobsen's vehicle for carrying the crop into European, African, and Middle Eastern farming — the commercial edge of the continent's quinoa science. The company · Verified 2026-08-25
NorQuin — Saskatchewan, Canada. By its own account the largest vertically integrated quinoa producer, with a story it dates to 1992. Acquired by Above Food in 2022. The company · The acquisition · Verified 2026-08-25
The San Luis Valley origin. US quinoa began in Colorado's San Luis Valley in the early 1980s — small against the Andes, but a real domestic base the breeding programs build on. We have found no published figure for current US quinoa acreage. The crop profile (AgMRC) · USDA's account · Verified 2026-08-25
The Andean supply. The crop's center of gravity: Peru leads world production — 86,011 tonnes in 2018, and 43% of world exports in 2019 — with Bolivia second, its production rising from 25,201 tonnes in 2005 to 70,763 in 2018. Any US buyer of Andean quinoa inherits that supply history, saponin removal included. Production analysis (Choices) · Bolivia's bioeconomy report · Verified 2026-08-25
Amaranth's layer. US amaranth is a real but small crop — the federal curation record puts it at 2,000 to 3,000 hectares — whose products run to flour and puffed grain. We have found no documented amaranth brewing supply chain; the published feasibility work on unmalted amaranth remains ahead of any commercial practice we can find. The curation record (PDF) · Verified 2026-08-25
— Sourcing and verification, on this site's working pages —
- Malthouses that run gluten-free — the verification method, with worked examples
- Finding a contract craft maltster
- Comparing gluten-free brewing grains — where the pseudocereals sit among the alternatives, on our grain pages
- Third-party testing resources
More supplier and brewery entries are added as they are verified.
6. Organizations & Events — trade bodies, standards organizations, and the field's calendar
— Organizations —
ANAPQUI — Bolivia's National Association of Quinoa Producers. The producer organization this family's other pages lack: founded in December 1983, representing more than 25,000 farming families in the Intersalar region of the southern highlands, and processing at a scale it puts at 12 containers a month rising toward 35 — quinoa's growers, organized at national scale for four decades. The association · Verified 2026-08-25
PROINPA — Bolivia. The Andean research foundation for native crops: quinoa breeding, integrated pest management, and regenerative agriculture for the Altiplano — the organization holding the crop's homeland science. The foundation · Verified 2026-08-25
Peru's producer-association layer. The world's largest producer organizes locally rather than nationally: cooperatives and producer associations across Puno and Ayacucho collect, process, and sell into the export chain, with a UN program having worked on producer conditions — a documented sustainability study of one High Andean organic producers' association carries the details. The association study, open access · The UN program · Verified 2026-08-25
The Tulyehualco amaranth community — Mexico City. Amaranth's living economy: in Santiago Tulyehualco (Xochimilco), roughly half the community lives from amaranth production and sales, turning the grain into more than a hundred products — the organized heart of the crop that fills this page's thinner half. The community's producers · Verified 2026-08-25
Puente a la Salud Comunitaria — Oaxaca, Mexico. The formal amaranth-dedicated organization this page previously reported as unfound: a nonprofit advancing food sovereignty through amaranth cultivation, consumption, and commercialization across 24 rural and indigenous communities in Oaxaca's Central Valleys and Mixteca regions, with women's farming and microenterprise at its center. The organization · Verified 2026-08-25
— Events —
International Year of Quinoa 2013. The UN year that made quinoa a global word: proposed by Bolivia, approved by the General Assembly, and stewarded by FAO — with production and scientific attention rising in its wake. The precedent for the millets year that our millet, teff, and fonio pages share. FAO's closing account of the year · Verified 2026-08-25
The International Quinoa Research Symposium. WSU's convening tradition: the Pullman symposium in the crop's UN year (2013), a Seattle edition in 2020, and a standing home produced by the Sustainable Seed Systems Lab — the US research community's recurring quinoa gathering. The 2013 speaker record · The symposium's home · Verified 2026-08-25
The International Quinoa Conference (ICBA). The other gathering: convened from Dubai by the biosaline-agriculture center, carrying quinoa's marginal-environments agenda. Our source is a 2016 speaker profile, so how regularly it runs is not something we can show. The conference · Verified 2026-08-25
The Feria de la Alegría y el Amaranto — Tulyehualco. Amaranth's own standing event, and an old one: the annual fair in Santiago Tulyehualco reached its 53rd edition, with organizers expecting a million visitors to a town built on the grain — the thin half of this page has had a yearly celebration longer than most of this family's grains have had research programs. The fair's tradition · The fair's scale · Verified 2026-08-25
The gap, checked and revised — three times: an earlier version of this section had no organizations at all and expected no standing conferences; successive checks found ANAPQUI, PROINPA, Peru's cooperative layer, two recurring conference series, the fifty-year Tulyehualco fair — and finally Puente a la Salud, the amaranth-dedicated organization we had twice reported unfound. What remains unfound after three rounds of checking: any US growers' association for either grain, and any dedicated amaranth research organization.
7. Literature & Datasets — the anchor works, the methods, and the published data
— The brewing science —
The unmalted-quinoa study (2018). Kordialik-Bogacka in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture: quinoa can replace up to 30% of barley malt without exogenous enzymes, with positive sensory results — the page's most brewer-practical number. The study · Verified 2026-08-25
The quinoa-and-amaranth wort minerals study (2019). The companion work: both pseudocereals measurably enrich wort, with the paper reporting a quinoa addition lifting zinc by 41% and magnesium by 49% — one paper covering both of this page's grains in the brewhouse. The basis the percentages are figured on is not one we can state from the abstract. The study · Verified 2026-08-25
The unmalted pseudocereals brewing assessment (2022). The Food Chemistry evaluation of unmalted cereals and pseudocereals for gluten-free beer — the modern comparative baseline for brewing these grains without malt. The study · Verified 2026-08-25
The buckwheat-and-amaranth brewing review (2022). The open-access Plants review of the two pseudocereals as brewing raw materials — one paper pairing amaranth with the anchor grain of our buckwheat directory. Open access · Verified 2026-08-25
The Andean pseudocereals beer review. The Peruvian review of brewing with the crops in their homeland — quinoa, kiwicha (amaranth), and cañihua in beer production — a compilation of the existing studies rather than original brewing work, published open access from the source region. Open access · Verified 2026-08-25
The quinoa malting-conditions study (2016). Malting's effect on quinoa's phenolics, Maillard products, and antioxidant activity — the process chemistry under any future quinoa malt. The study · Verified 2026-08-25
The amaranth beer nutrition study. The Canadian engineering work tracking iron, folate, and protein through amaranth brewing — malting to fermentation — the nutrition-through-process data. The record · Verified 2026-08-25
— Genomes and germplasm —
The quinoa genome (2017). Tester's KAUST-led Nature paper: the chromosome-scale assembly with two ancestral diploids and 22 resequenced relatives — the foundation of modern quinoa breeding. The paper · Verified 2026-08-25
The 2023 quinoa assembly. The chromosome-scale update resolving the subgenomes — quinoa's genomics kept current, open access. Open access · Verified 2026-08-25
The amaranth genome (2017). The KAUST-led, BYU-partnered chromosome-scale assembly in BMC Biology — single-molecule sequencing and Hi-C resolving all 16 chromosomes, open access. Open access · Verified 2026-08-25
The amaranth diversity panel (2025). Genome-wide population structure across a grain-amaranth diversity panel — the variation map for the thinner half of this page, open access. Open access · Verified 2026-08-25
The Ramdana genome (2020). India's amaranth: a chromosome-level assembly of A. hypochondriacus built around the crop's Indian identity (ramdana) — amaranth's third geography, alongside Mexico's community economy and the US genomics, open access. Open access · Verified 2026-08-25
The two-grain breeding review (2023). Genetic resources and breeding approaches for improvement of amaranth and quinoa — one open-access review carrying both of this page's grains, the consolidation their pairing rests on. Open access · Verified 2026-08-25
The Murphy textbook. Quinoa: Improvement and Sustainable Production (Wiley) — the standing reference from the WSU program's leader. The book · Verified 2026-08-25
The Peru varieties catalogue. FAO's catalogue of Peru's commercial quinoa varieties — the named-variety layer of the world's largest producer, openly published. The catalogue (PDF) · Verified 2026-08-25
The crop profiles. AgMRC's US quinoa profile and the SEI Bolivia bioeconomy analysis — the economics bookends, domestic and Andean. AgMRC · SEI report (PDF) · Verified 2026-08-25
The USDA collection assessment. The phenotypic-diversity analysis of the federal quinoa collection, linking genotypic adaptation to germplasm origin — the Ames holdings, characterized, open access. Open access · Verified 2026-08-25
The FAO–CIRAD State of the Art report. The IYQ's scientific monument: the global report on quinoa around the world, coordinated by Bazile — the field's single most comprehensive reference. The report's record · Verified 2026-08-25
The global expansion analysis. The Global Expansion of Quinoa: Trends and Limits — the peer-reviewed accounting of the crop's spread beyond the Andes and what constrains it. The paper · Verified 2026-08-25
The amaranth genotyping array (2025). The high-density Amahysnp SNP array — grain amaranth's modern marker platform, built by Indian institutions and openly published. The array (PDF) · Verified 2026-08-25
The kiwicha lipids study. Peruvian amaranth (kiwicha) accumulating higher unsaturated linoleic acid — the Andean side of amaranth's composition science, open access. Open access · Verified 2026-08-25
The Andean–Amazonian quinoa characterization (2025). Agromorphology of quinoa under Peru's Andean–Amazonian conditions — the current homeland field data, open access. Open access · Verified 2026-08-25
The three-country Amaranthaceae comparison. Nutritional and bioactive characterization of the family's seeds from Peru, Slovakia, and Poland — both of this page's grains measured across continents in one study, open access. Open access · Verified 2026-08-25
How the field connects — documented links between the entries above
Every connection below is documented — no inferred relationships, no speculation.
Murphy, three grains. The buckwheat directory's WSU breeder leads the US quinoa program, with proso millet also in his portfolio — the single most multi-grain researcher in this directory family. His portfolio
KAUST, three genomes. One Saudi genomics center produced the quinoa genome (2017), the fonio genome (2020) — and its scientists led the amaranth genome too (2017, jointly with BYU). Three of this family's genomic foundations trace to the same institution. Quinoa · amaranth
McKnight, a third time. The foundation funding tef and fonio also funds BYU's quinoa-and-amaranth genomics — one US foundation documented behind four grains of this family's outer ring. The funded program
Arendt's fourth grain. UCC's gluten-free program anchors our millet and buckwheat pages, appears on teff, and malted quinoa — one Irish group threaded through half this family. The group
One campus, two directories. WSU's Pullman campus hosts the quinoa breeding program — and the USDA station holding teff's federal collection sits on the same campus. One college town underpins two outer-ring grains. The breeding program · the station
The literature keeps pairing them. The wort-minerals study, the unmalted-pseudocereals assessment, and the 2023 breeding review each carry quinoa and amaranth together — the pairing this page rests on is the literature's own habit, not our convenience. The minerals study · the breeding review
The outer ring reaches brewers unmalted. Teff's beer used undocumented processing, fonio ships to brewers as unmalted grain, and quinoa arrives flaked — all three of this family's newest pages show commerce running ahead of malting. Quinoa alone has closed the loop into year-round beer. The flaked product
The Grouse–Aurochs chain. The malthouse from our millet and rice pages supplies the quinoa in Aurochs' beers — the one documented, continuously operating pseudocereal-to-beer chain in this family's outer ring. The brewery's account
Amaranth rides with buckwheat too. The 2022 brewing review pairs amaranth with buckwheat rather than quinoa — the thin grain of this page is joined in the literature to both of the family's pseudocereal anchors. The review
Two UN years, four pages. Quinoa's 2013 year set the template the 2023 millets year followed — between them touching this page, millet, teff, and fonio. The quinoa year
Ames, twice. The station curating the national amaranth collection is the same one on our corn directory — one Iowa town holding germplasm under two family pages. The station
The US pipeline is a relay. BYU bred the lines (from 2004), handed a thousand of them to WSU (2012), the two programs released three varieties together (2023) — and 196 BYU Chenopodium accessions now rest in the federal collection at Ames. One thread from campus bench to national genebank. The joint releases · the collection
One EU project, three family grains. PROTEIN2FOOD carried quinoa, amaranth, and buckwheat together — the single most family-dense funded project this directory has documented. The project (CORDIS)
CIRAD, twice. The French center coordinating fonio's field science also chronicles quinoa's globalization — one institution behind two of this family's international stories. The quinoa record
The Bolivian stack, complete on one page. PROINPA breeds the varieties, ANAPQUI's 25,000 producer families grow and export them, and the Inter-American Development Bank finances the producers' market inclusion — one country's entire quinoa chain, from bench to boat, documented across three sections of this directory. The breeder · the growers · the financing (PDF)
Copenhagen, twice over. Jacobsen's tropical-crops group carried quinoa across Europe for decades — and his university coordinated PROTEIN2FOOD, the family's densest funded project. One institution holding both the continent's quinoa science and its biggest pseudocereal grant. The group's company · the project
The Łódź echo. One Polish lab produced both the unmalted-quinoa study and the two-grain wort-minerals work — pseudocereal brewing science concentrating in a single group, the same pattern this family documents at Weihenstephan for the cereals. The quinoa study · the minerals study
The saponin thread runs the page's length. The Andes wash it out in processing, the US brewing product arrives flaked and processed, and no lot standard anywhere states a residual number — one compound connecting this page's industry section to its gaps. The processing scale · the flaked product
Amaranth has the tools without the pull. A chromosome-scale genome, a federal collection under active curation, a diversity panel — and no breeding program aimed at any market that would use them. The thin grain's problem isn't infrastructure; it's demand. The genome · the collection (PDF)
Two homelands, two economies. Quinoa's center is Andean and export-scaled; amaranth's is Mexican and community-scaled — Tulyehualco turned one grain into a town's livelihood and a fifty-year fair. The page's two grains mirror each other's geography but not each other's markets. The Andean scale · the Mexican community
Research gaps — where the field's coverage runs out
No pseudocereal malt exists commercially — anywhere we can find. The brewing-supply products are flaked and unmalted; the malting studies exist but no malthouse we have found has industrialized them. The gap between the 2016 malting-chemistry work and a purchasable quinoa malt has no owner.
The saponin question has no lot standard. Quinoa's bitter seed-coat saponins are removed in processing — but we have found no published specification a brewer could cite for residual saponin in brewing-grade quinoa. The exact kind of gap this site's lot-reporting work exists to close.
Amaranth's brewing science stops at feasibility. The unmalted study and the nutrition work show it can be done; we have found no follow-up program, no variety work for brewing, and no commercial practice. The thinner half of this page is thin all the way down.
No US program touches malting. WSU breeds for food markets; BYU builds genomic tools; neither — nor anyone else we have found — selects or evaluates these grains for malting traits.
The brewing that exists is undocumented in the literature. Aurochs brews with quinoa year-round, yet we have found no published study of quinoa's behavior in commercial gluten-free brewhouse practice — the gap between working knowledge and published knowledge, again.
Run a quinoa or amaranth program, lab, project, or company we should list? Entries are added on merit once verified — tell us about it.
Entries are added as they are verified, never to pad the count. A listing here is a map reference, not a citation: this directory deliberately maps the brewing-relevant quinoa and amaranth research world — a wider circle than the specific evidence our brewing guidance is built on, which every guidance page cites directly. Corrections welcome — see Contact.