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Sorghum Research Directory

Who is actually working on sorghum — and where the work lives. A living map of the institutions, researchers, active projects, funders, industry players, organizations, and literature behind sorghum brewing science. Entries are brief, factual, and dated; every one links out to the primary source.

Sorghum research is scattered across federal labs, land-grant universities, international programs, checkoff boards, and a small commercial supply chain. No single place maps it. This directory is that map, built the way the rest of this site is built: verified facts, primary links, no endorsements.

How to read it: seven categories answer "what kind of thing is this?" Open the category you need. Each entry is one honest paragraph plus links. Entries carry the date they were last verified, because the fastest way for a directory to become useless is silent rot. Descriptions are not endorsements — funders and companies are described, never recommended.

This page covers sorghum. Coverage is US-centered by design — this site works in the American supply chain — with international anchors (Pretoria, Queensland, ICRISAT, CSIR) included where the science is foundational. The structure expands to other gluten-free grains as the directory grows.

Directory established 2026-08-24 · last full review 2026-08-24.

Key topics — find entries by subject, across every category

The categories answer "what kind of thing is this?" — this index answers "who touches my topic?" Names below appear as full entries in the categories that follow.

Sorghum protein & digestibility — ARS Manhattan (Grain Quality unit) · Bean · Peiris · Tilley · Hamaker · Awika · Purdue · CSIP's value-trait work · the FAN, waxy-digestibility, kafirin, and NIR papers under Literature.

Malting & enzymes — K-State · Clemson · Queensland proteomics · Wrocław · Fox · Boyles · Kresovich · the amylase screening, α-glucosidase, and malting-quality papers · the evaluation-methods family.

Measurement & sensing — Peiris (NIR) · the hyperspectral tannin study · the standards bodies (SABS, IoB/EBC, CSIR, ASBC) · commercial COA practice · this site's proposed standards.

Breeding & cultivars — Yerka · Baggett · Rooney · Tesso · Tuinstra · Morris · Chopra · Jordan · Shakoor · TAMU · UNR · QAAFI · Danforth · ICRISAT · the cultivar identity fingerprinting study.

Markets & economics — University of Arkansas · Lafontaine · the Functional Sorghum Collective · Sorghum Checkoff · Texas board · MASBDA · the rice-malt cost model under Literature.

Topics are indexed once they have enough entries to be worth indexing — thinner threads (flavor, agronomy) join as the directory grows.

1. Institutions — federal labs, universities, and international centers doing sorghum work

— Federal laboratories —

USDA-ARS Grain Quality and Structure Research Unit — Manhattan, Kansas. The federal lab closest to this site's subject: sorghum grain composition and how its components — especially proteins — determine end-use quality. Their published work spans sorghum protein chemistry, grain-quality measurement methods, and gluten-free food applications. Unit publications · Verified 2026-08-24

USDA-ARS Cereal Crops Research Unit — Madison, Wisconsin. The federal cereal-quality lab whose sorghum micro-malting screening this site republishes in full — the closest thing the field has to a public sorghum malting evaluation baseline. Core mission is barley and oat quality and germplasm, which is exactly why its sorghum screening matters: sorghum evaluated with barley-grade rigor. Unit page · the screening, republished on this site · Verified 2026-08-24

— US universities —

Kansas State University — Manhattan, Kansas. Grain science, sorghum breeding, and the Center for Sorghum Improvement, embedded in the same campus ecosystem as the ARS unit above; also home base of the international Sorghum and Millet Innovation Lab. A K-State study malted and brewed named sorghum hybrids through a complete gluten-free ale — one of the primary documents behind our own published results pages, and two of its hybrids are cross-validated against the Madison screening we republish. Center for Sorghum Improvement · the K-State brewing study (open thesis) · Verified 2026-08-24

Penn State University. Two distinct sorghum-relevant threads. First, a funded gluten-free brewing research program with peer-reviewed publications on brewing procedures for gluten-free malts and starch behavior in gluten-free beers — process science on this site's exact subject. Second, a sorghum breeding effort developing enhanced-phytochemical lines aimed at food and beverage uses. Modified brewing procedure for GF malts · starch digestion in GF beers · Verified 2026-08-24

University of Nevada, Reno. Home of the most on-topic sorghum breeding effort in the country: a program breeding sorghum specifically for malting and brewing traits, with a public-release ethos and a working grain-to-glass chain with Nevada industry partners. Also published DNA-fingerprinting work verifying sorghum cultivar identity — the genetic science underneath identity-preserved sourcing. The breeding project · UNR's announcement · cultivar identity verification study · Verified 2026-08-24

University of California, Davis. The malting and brewing science program, which collaborates with UNR on improving sorghum's malting potential and co-published the mechanism-level work on why sorghum ferments differently from barley. UC Davis Brewing Program · brewing research · Verified 2026-08-24

Texas A&M University. Sorghum breeding — including specialty food-grade lines that reached commercial retail and registered waxy-endosperm germplasm — plus long-running cereal quality and sorghum chemistry programs, and protein-quality hybrid development for food use. TAMU sorghum breeding in the news · Verified 2026-08-24

Purdue University. The sorghum protein digestibility program: the rapid assays that made screening for digestible sorghum practical, and the high-digestibility lines that later proved out in malting and fermentation research. Home of the Whistler Center for Carbohydrate Research — starch structure-function science directly relevant to brewing. Whistler Center · the rapid digestibility assay · Verified 2026-08-24

University of Arkansas. Alternative-malt economics and flavor chemistry — the program that built the only peer-reviewed cost model for a gluten-free base malt (rice), with a brewing certificate program and research nanobrewery behind it. Its rice malting work is already cited on this site's rice pages; the economics methodology has never been applied to sorghum. Program news · the rice-malt cost study · Verified 2026-08-24

Clemson University. Sorghum genetics work that screened diverse accessions for malt amylase activity — peer-reviewed evidence on why enzyme levels limit sorghum mashing and what breeding could do about it. The amylase screening study · Verified 2026-08-24

Texas Tech University. Sorghum agronomy and sustainability — including a major USDA-funded project on sorghum-based sustainable rotation on the High Plains — and host of the 2026 Global Sorghum Conference in Lubbock. TTU sorghum research · Verified 2026-08-24

Colorado State University. Sorghum adaptation genomics — including chilling-tolerance work that could expand the crop's viable growing regions northward, a direct input to where dedicated gluten-free sorghum supply could be grown. Chilling tolerance study · Verified 2026-08-24

— Independent and international centers —

Donald Danforth Plant Science Center — St. Louis, Missouri. The largest independent plant-science institute in the US, running federally funded sorghum genomics, phenotyping, and stress-resilience programs. Danforth Center sorghum news · Verified 2026-08-24

University of Pretoria — South Africa. The academic center of gravity for sorghum brewing science internationally; source of the field's canonical malting-and-brewing literature. Malting and Brewing of Sorghum (chapter) · Verified 2026-08-24

CSIR — Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, South Africa. The historic home of industrial sorghum beer science: the CSIR-era research that first put sorghum malting quality on a laboratory footing. Its evaluation methods are documented on this site's research pages. Novellie / CSIR methods, documented on this site · CSIR · Verified 2026-08-24

University of Queensland — Australia. Two sorghum threads. The brewing proteomics group that co-published the mechanism paper on sorghum fermentability — identifying the enzyme behavior that separates sorghum from barley in the mash and fermenter. And QAAFI's public sorghum pre-breeding program — genetics from it are in essentially all commercial sorghum grown in Australia — now scaled up through a national strategic research alliance targeting traits including protein content and quality. The fermentability study · QAAFI sorghum breeding · Verified 2026-08-24

Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences — Poland. A gluten-free and alternative-substrate brewing research group, including a peer-reviewed study of brewing gluten-free beer from sorghum malts mashed without external enzyme preparations. The sorghum-without-external-enzymes study · Verified 2026-08-24

ICRISAT — International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics. The global center for sorghum germplasm and improvement across the crop's home geographies; the deepest collection of sorghum genetic diversity in the world. ICRISAT · Verified 2026-08-24

2. Contributors — the researchers and breeders behind the work

— Grain quality & protein science —

Scott Bean — research chemist, USDA-ARS Grain Quality and Structure Research Unit. Career subject: sorghum proteins and grain quality, including gluten-free applications. Publications · Verified 2026-08-24

Kamaranga H.S. Peiris — USDA-ARS Manhattan. Near-infrared spectroscopy methods for grain quality — the measurement science that makes rapid, non-destructive sorghum characterization practical. NIR protein method study · Verified 2026-08-24

Michael Tilley — USDA-ARS Manhattan. Cereal chemistry, including proteomic characterization of sorghum's kafirin storage proteins. Kafirin proteomics study · Verified 2026-08-24

Bruce Hamaker — Purdue University. Sorghum protein digestibility — the assays and the high-digestibility lines that later proved out in malting and fermentation research; directs the Whistler Center for Carbohydrate Research. Rapid digestibility assay · Verified 2026-08-24

John R.N. Taylor — University of Pretoria. The most-cited author in sorghum malting and brewing; his corpus is the field's foundation. Representative chapter · Verified 2026-08-24

Joseph Awika — Texas A&M. Sorghum chemistry and health-focused food science; leads protein-quality sorghum development for food applications. TAMU scholar profile · Verified 2026-08-24

— Breeding & genomics —

Melinda Yerka — sorghum breeder, University of Nevada, Reno. Leads the malting-and-brewing-traits breeding program. Program page · Verified 2026-08-24

John Baggett — University of Nevada, Reno. First author of the DNA-fingerprinting study verifying sorghum cultivar identity — the genetic method beneath identity-preserved grain. The fingerprinting study · Verified 2026-08-24

William Rooney — sorghum breeder, Texas A&M. Specialty and food-grade sorghum lines, including waxy-endosperm germplasm. Breeding program coverage · Verified 2026-08-24

Tesfaye Tesso — professor of sorghum breeding and genetics, Kansas State University. Improvement of grain sorghum as an alternative food and feed source; trained under Tuinstra at K-State and Hamaker at Purdue — the protein-digestibility lineage in person. Faculty profile · Verified 2026-08-24

Mitch Tuinstra — Wickersham Chair and professor of plant breeding and genetics, Purdue University. Climate-resilient sorghum and maize genetics; co-author of the cultivar-level tannin variability work directly relevant to brewing character. Faculty profile · the tannin work, via ARS publications · Verified 2026-08-24

Richard Boyles — associate professor of cereal grains breeding and genetics, Clemson University (Pee Dee Research and Education Center). Co-author of the diverse-accession malt amylase screening; his program's licensed sorghum lines are commercially grown across the southeastern US. Faculty profile · the amylase study · Verified 2026-08-24

Stephen Kresovich — Clemson University. Sorghum genomics; senior author in the lineage behind the malt amylase diversity screening. The study · Verified 2026-08-24

Geoffrey Morris — Colorado State University. Sorghum adaptation genomics, including chilling tolerance for northern expansion. Chilling tolerance study · Verified 2026-08-24

Surinder Chopra — Penn State. Sorghum genetics; develops enhanced-phytochemical colored-sorghum lines aimed at food and beverage markets, with active commercialization work. NSF commercialization award · Verified 2026-08-24

David Jordan — University of Queensland (QAAFI). Leads Australia's public sorghum pre-breeding program, a UQ–Queensland DAF–GRDC partnership whose genetics underpin essentially all Australian commercial sorghum. QAAFI profile · Verified 2026-08-24

Nadia Shakoor — Danforth Plant Science Center. Sorghum genetics and field phenotyping; led major multi-institutional sorghum genomics and sensor-phenotyping programs. Danforth profile · Verified 2026-08-24

— Malting & brewing science —

Glen Fox — malting and brewing science, UC Davis. Published the mechanism-level explanation of sorghum fermentability and the field's central review of quality variation in malting and brewing grains; engaged with the craft malting movement. Profile · the fermentability study · Craft Maltsters Guild feature · Verified 2026-08-24

Scott Lafontaine — University of Arkansas. Flavor chemistry and alternative-malt economics; built the only peer-reviewed gluten-free base-malt cost model (rice) — methodology unapplied to sorghum so far. His group's rice malting work is already cited on this site's rice pages. Program news · the cost study · Verified 2026-08-24

Cockburn, Elias & Hopfer — the Penn State gluten-free brewing research group: brewing procedures for gluten-free malts, starch digestion in gluten-free beers, and flavor science. Beverages 2021 · Food Bioscience 2024 · Verified 2026-08-24

Steve Carly Zangue Desobgo — brewing process engineering; author of the field's current comprehensive textbook on sorghum brewing. Brewing with Sorghum (Elsevier, 2025) · Verified 2026-08-24

— Agronomy & crop systems —

S.V. Krishna Jagadish — Thornton Distinguished Chair, Plant and Soil Science, Texas Tech University. Sorghum crop physiology, stress resilience, and sustainable cropping systems on the High Plains; leads Checkoff-funded and USDA climate-smart sorghum projects. Faculty profile · TTU sorghum research · Verified 2026-08-24

3. Projects & Grants — funded work in flight right now

What qualifies: work that is currently funded or actively producing output, sits at the intersection of sorghum and malting, brewing, or food-grade quality, and has a public record — every entry links that record. Completed work moves to Literature; unfunded ideas don't appear at all.

UNR sorghum breeding for malting and brewing. Active breeding project evaluating sorghum lines for malting and brewing performance in the western US. Project record · Verified 2026-08-24

UC Davis × UNR sorghum malting collaboration. Joint work on improving the malting potential of sorghum, connecting a breeding program to a brewing science program. UC Davis brewing research · Verified 2026-08-24

Penn State gluten-free brewing program. Peer-reviewed output on gluten-free malt brewing procedures, starch digestion in gluten-free beers, and fermentation character. Beverages 2021 · Food Bioscience 2024 · Verified 2026-08-24

Collaborative Sorghum Investment Program (CSIP). The US sorghum industry's cornerstone improvement platform — Sorghum Checkoff, Kansas Grain Sorghum Commission, Kansas State University, and the State of Kansas jointly funding sorghum yield, demand, and value-trait development through 2036, including novel protein and starch traits. CSIP · Verified 2026-08-24

Texas Tech sorghum sustainable-rotation project. Major USDA-funded work positioning sorghum in sustainable High Plains cropping systems. TTU announcement · Verified 2026-08-24

Texas Tech Checkoff-funded sorghum project. A Sorghum Checkoff investment in TTU-led sorghum research — checkoff dollars traceably at work in a listed institution. TTU announcement · Verified 2026-08-24

Clemson eastern-US sorghum hybrids project. USDA-funded development of higher-yielding, disease-resistant sorghum hybrids for eastern and southeastern growers — new regional supply genetics in flight. Clemson announcement · Verified 2026-08-24

Danforth Center sorghum resilience programs. Federally funded multi-institutional sorghum genomics and stress-resilience research. Danforth announcement · Verified 2026-08-24

Penn State sorghum beverage commercialization (NSF I-Corps). Active commercialization exploration for enhanced-phytochemical sorghum lines in beverage applications. NSF award record · Verified 2026-08-24

Sorghum and Millet Innovation Lab (SMIL) protein sorghum project. International program developing improved-protein-quality sorghum hybrids for food use. Project page · Verified 2026-08-24

GRDC × UQ Sorghum Strategic Alliance. Australia's largest collaborative sorghum research commitment to date (announced late 2025): a national alliance between the grains R&D corporation and the University of Queensland targeting resilience, productivity, and quality — explicitly including protein content and quality. Alliance announcement · Verified 2026-08-24

Functional Sorghum Collective. Australian national initiative to grow domestic demand for sorghum in food and beverage markets — the market-development counterpart to the breeding alliance above, and the closest international parallel to this site's own thesis. Program coverage · Verified 2026-08-24

4. Funders & Programs — who pays for sorghum research (described, never endorsed)

What qualifies: a funder is listed when its money traceably appears in sorghum work documented elsewhere in this directory, or when it runs a standing program whose scope covers the sorghum-to-brewing chain. The qualification is a program or a funded project we can point to — never a mandate statement alone, and never an endorsement.

— Federal —

USDA NIFA. The federal agency funding competitive agricultural research, including small-business innovation programs (SBIR/STTR) that have funded alternative-grain and brewing-adjacent work. NIFA · Verified 2026-08-24

US Department of Energy — Biological and Environmental Research. Funds sorghum genomics and bioenergy-crop research, including the Danforth Center's sorghum programs. DOE BER · Verified 2026-08-24

National Science Foundation. Funds sorghum genetics research and commercialization pathways (I-Corps), including sorghum beverage applications. NSF · Verified 2026-08-24

— Checkoffs and state boards —

United Sorghum Checkoff Program. The national producer-funded board that invests in sorghum research, market development, and new-use programs. Sorghum Checkoff · Verified 2026-08-24

Kansas Grain Sorghum Commission. State producer commission funding sorghum research and promotion in the largest US sorghum-producing state's orbit; co-funder of CSIP. Commission · Verified 2026-08-24

Texas Grain Sorghum Producers Board. State board supporting sorghum research, promotion, and information in Texas, overseen by the Texas Department of Agriculture. Texas Sorghum · Verified 2026-08-24

— State and foundation programs —

Pennsylvania Malt and Brewed Beverage Industry Promotion Program. State program funding up to $1M annually for promotion, marketing, and research that strengthens Pennsylvania's malt and brewed beverage industries — the program family behind Pennsylvania's funded gluten-free brewing research. Annual request for proposals, typically published each January. Program page · Verified 2026-08-24

Missouri Agricultural and Small Business Development Authority (MASBDA). Missouri's agricultural development authority, running value-added and development finance programs in Bard's home state. MASBDA · Verified 2026-08-24

Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR). Non-profit foundation co-funding public-private agricultural research. FFAR · Verified 2026-08-24

— International —

GRDC — Grains Research and Development Corporation (Australia). The Australian grower-and-government grains R&D investor; funds the national sorghum pre-breeding program and the Sorghum Strategic Alliance, and sponsors the Global Sorghum Conference. GRDC · Verified 2026-08-24

5. Industry & Supply Chain — the state of sorghum malt supply, and where to start

The honest state of it: sorghum malt is barely being made or provided at commercial scale right now — and fixing that is part of why this site exists. Brewers can't buy what nobody malts; maltsters won't malt what nobody has proven they'll buy. Breaking that loop takes documented demand, documented standards, and working regional chains — the things this site's pages are built around.

Resources to start from, verification-first:

Proof the chain can work: the UNR breeding program runs a working grain-to-glass chain with Nevada seed, malting, and brewing partners — a published, university-documented model of exactly the regional supply structure gluten-free brewing needs. UNR's account of the chain · Verified 2026-08-24

Research spinning out into industry: Agrela Ecosystems — a sensor and field-phenotyping company co-founded by a Danforth Center sorghum scientist — is the kind of research-to-commercial crossover the sorghum data world is starting to produce. Danforth's account · Verified 2026-08-24

Specific supplier and company entries will be added here as they are verified.

6. Organizations & Events — trade bodies, standards organizations, and the field's calendar

— Sorghum organizations —

National Sorghum Producers. The US grower advocacy organization — policy, promotion, and the political voice of the crop. NSP · Verified 2026-08-24

Sorghum United. International NGO promoting sorghum and adjacent grains across food and industry uses. Sorghum United · Verified 2026-08-24

— Brewing and malting organizations —

Craft Maltsters Guild. The trade organization of the craft malting movement — the small-malthouse infrastructure any regional gluten-free grain chain would run through. Runs Craft Malt Month each September and an annual Craft Malt Conference. Guild · Verified 2026-08-24

American Society of Brewing Chemists. The North American body for brewing analytical methods — the methods framework any US sorghum malt specification would be written against. ASBC · Verified 2026-08-24

Brewers Association. The US craft brewing trade association; its Great American Beer Festival judges dedicated gluten-free beer categories — the competitive proving ground for sorghum-based beer. Brewers Association · competitions with gluten-free categories, on this site · Verified 2026-08-24

— The field's calendar —

Global Sorghum Conference. The field's international gathering — researchers, producers, and industry in one place. The 2026 conference runs September 14–18 in Lubbock, Texas, hosted by Texas Tech and sponsored by the Sorghum Checkoff, National Sorghum Producers, and GRDC — four organizations listed elsewhere in this directory, at one event. Conference · Verified 2026-08-24

Craft Malt Month. The Guild's September spotlight on regional malting — the annual moment the craft-malt world is most visible. Guild · Verified 2026-08-24

— Standards and methods bodies —

The organizations whose analytical methods define how sorghum malt is measured — each documented in detail on this site's evaluation-methods pages:

  • SABS — South African Bureau of Standards. Publisher of SANS 235, the world's only national sorghum malt standard. Our SANS 235 page · SABS · Verified 2026-08-24
  • Institute of Brewing & European Brewery Convention. The brewing world's analytical method bodies; their methods, adapted for sorghum, are documented on our pages. Our IoB/EBC methods page · Verified 2026-08-24
  • CSIR (South Africa). The historic sorghum beer research institution — see its entry under Institutions. Our Novellie/CSIR methods page · Verified 2026-08-24

For celiac and gluten-free community organizations, see Celiac organizations.

7. Literature & Datasets — the anchor works, the methods, and the published data

— Anchor works — the shortest honest reading list for sorghum brewing science:

  • Taylor — Malting and Brewing of Sorghum — the canonical academic chapter. Link
  • Fox — Variation in Quality of Grains Used in Malting and Brewing — the field's review of what actually varies in brewing grains and why it matters. Open copy
  • Kerr, Fox & Schulz — an abundant α-glucosidase drives sorghum fermentability — the mechanism paper on why sorghum ferments differently. Open copy
  • Desobgo — Brewing with Sorghum — the current comprehensive textbook. Publisher
  • The K-State brewing study — named hybrids malted and brewed through a complete gluten-free ale. Open thesis
  • Mugode et al. — high-digestibility sorghum and free amino nitrogen — connecting protein digestibility genetics to sorghum's central fermentation bottleneck. J. Inst. Brewing 2011
  • Mezgebe, Abegaz & Taylor — waxy and high-digestibility traits and malting quality — the trait-level evidence for what makes better malting sorghum. J. Cereal Science 2017
  • Disharoon et al. — diverse sorghum accessions and malt amylase activity — why enzyme levels limit sorghum mashing, screened across the diversity panel. J. Inst. Brewing 2021

— Further peer-reviewed reading — narrower studies, each strong on its own subject:

  • Cuevas, Peiris & Bean — whole-grain sorghum protein by NIR across germplasm — the measurement method behind rapid protein characterization. Agronomy 2023
  • Kaufman, Herald, Bean, Wilson & Tuinstra — tannin variability across sorghum cultivars — why cultivar identity drives astringency and character. Via ARS publications
  • Kafirin structure and function, reviewed — sorghum's storage protein, the chemistry that separates sorghum from barley systems. Open review, 2024
  • Wu et al. — hyperspectral prediction of sorghum tannin content — non-destructive grain-quality sensing across varieties and regions. Foods 2025
  • Amisi & Bwanganga — yeast performance in red sorghum wort fermentation — the process levers that govern sorghum fermentation. AMB Express 2025
  • Ciocan et al. — brewing with unmalted vs. malted sorghum — a direct comparison through to finished beer quality. Fermentation 2023

— Datasets published on this site — complete, with data files:

— External research, extracted as data on this site —

— Evaluation methods & proposed standards —

— Where the field's gaps are — this site's running account of what remains unsolved and what data would help:

How the field connects — documented links between the entries above

A directory of separate entries hides the most important fact: this is a connected field. Every connection below is documented — no inferred relationships, no speculation.

— Research to research —

  • UC Davis ↔ UNR — an active joint project on improving sorghum's malting potential connects the brewing science program to the breeding program. UC Davis brewing research
  • ARS Manhattan ↔ Kansas State — the federal grain-quality unit and the university's sorghum programs share one campus ecosystem in Manhattan, Kansas.
  • ARS Manhattan ↔ Purdue — the cultivar tannin-variability work was co-authored across the federal unit and Purdue genetics. Via ARS publications
  • TAMU ↔ Pretoria — the high-digestibility FAN study was co-authored across the two programs — US breeding genetics, South African brewing science, one paper. The study
  • TAMU ↔ K-State ↔ Pretoria — the SMIL protein sorghum project runs across all three programs at once. Project page
  • UC Davis ↔ Queensland — the sorghum fermentability mechanism paper was co-authored across both — the same malting chair bridging his current and former programs. The study
  • Purdue ↔ the malting literature — the digestibility assays and lines developed at Purdue are the raw material the FAN and waxy-malting studies later proved out in the brewhouse.
  • K-State ↔ Purdue, by training lineage — K-State's sorghum breeder did his doctorate under Tuinstra and his postdoc under Hamaker; the protein-digestibility school has a family tree. Documented on his faculty profile

— Funding lines —

  • CSIP: four funders, one platform — the national Checkoff, the Kansas commission, Kansas State, and the State of Kansas jointly fund a single sorghum improvement program. CSIP
  • Pennsylvania's program ↔ Penn State — the state's malt and brewed beverage program funds research in the same state whose university produces the gluten-free brewing papers listed above. The program
  • GRDC ↔ Queensland ↔ the conference — Australia's grains R&D investor funds QAAFI's pre-breeding program and the Sorghum Strategic Alliance, and sponsors the Global Sorghum Conference where the US programs gather.

— Research meeting industry —

  • Fox ↔ the Craft Maltsters Guild — brewing science's most credentialed malting chair, engaged with the craft malting movement. Guild feature
  • Danforth → Agrela — sorghum phenotyping research spinning out into a commercial sensing company. Danforth's account
  • UNR ↔ Nevada's grain chain — the breeding program works with commercial seed, malting, and brewing partners in a documented grain-to-glass chain. UNR's account
  • Clemson → southeastern fields — the cereal-grains program's licensed sorghum lines are commercially grown across the region: public breeding reaching real acres. Faculty profile

— The field connecting through this site —

  • The K-State brewing study ↔ the Madison screening — two of the same hybrids were measured independently by both programs; this site cross-validates the two datasets.
  • ARS Madison ↔ our data library — the unit's sorghum micro-malting screening is republished here in full, complete and attributed.
  • ARS Manhattan ↔ our data library — the unit's germplasm protein study is presented as data on our external-research pages.
  • Pretoria ↔ our methods pages — the Taylor/Pretoria evaluation methods are documented in our methods family, beside SANS 235 and the CSIR-era methods.
  • Penn State and Arkansas ↔ our grain pages — the millet pages cite Penn State's process research; the rice pages cite the Arkansas group's rice malting work. Citation relationships that existed before this directory did.
Research gaps — where the field's coverage runs out

A map is most useful where it shows blank space. These are the gaps we have found and documented — if we have missed something, tell us:

  • Sorghum buyers work without the information layer wheat buyers take for granted. Wheat markets have long traded on per-load protein premiums and discounts; we have found no widely used commercial equivalent for sorghum. Lot-to-lot variation in protein and grain quality lands on the buyer as unpredictable mash behavior — a documented, recurring headache. Closing this gap is the purpose of this site's Lot Reporting Standard: per-batch reporting of the values buyers actually need, built from testing sellers already do.
  • A national sorghum malt standard is rare. South Africa's SANS 235 is the only one we have identified — documented on our methods pages — and we know of no US equivalent. This site publishes a proposed evaluation standard as a starting point.
  • We have found no peer-reviewed cost model for sorghum malt. The closest work is the rice-malt cost study — a methodology that, as far as we can tell, has not yet been applied to sorghum.
  • Production-scale commercial lot data is scarce to absent. The published research world measures germplasm and experimental plots; we have found no published production-scale commercial sorghum lot dataset. The closest public analogs are the datasets on this site.

What would close these gaps, in detail: Open research problems · Research asks.

Run a sorghum program, lab, project, or company this directory hasn't listed? 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 whole sorghum 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.