Skip to main content

Midwest 2019 Grain Nutrition: The Same Malt, the Other Instrument

Send sorghum malt to an agricultural laboratory and you get the panel an agricultural laboratory runs: feed-and-forage nutrition. These March 2019 analyses of Bard's white and red production malts measure real composition — protein, fat, fiber, minerals, feed-energy values — through an instrument built for cattle rations. Both facts matter.

Midwest Laboratories (Omaha) ran AOAC feed-nutrition panels on the two production malts. As the commercial COA practice page argues, this is one of the two panels sorghum malt actually gets in commercial reality — and while feed energy in Mcal/lb answers no brewing question, the composition and mineral rows are real data on real production malt.

The dataset

Dry-weight basis (as-received values in the CSV):

MeasureWhite (13197816)Red (13197817)
Moisture (as received), %7.027.92
Crude protein, %8.6911.9
Crude fat, %2.333.30
Fiber (ADF), %3.65.4
Ash, %1.031.53
Total digestible nutrients, %90.689.9
Phosphorus, %0.290.36
Potassium, %0.240.36
Magnesium, %0.150.18
Calcium, %0.030.03
Sulfur, %0.100.12
Sodium, %<0.01<0.01
Iron, ppm39.838.8

Feed-energy rows (NE lactation/maintenance/gain, DE, ME) are preserved in the CSV — honest data from the wrong question.

Reading notes

  • Red runs richer across the board — more protein (11.9 vs 8.69%), fat, fiber, ash, and most minerals. Same red-versus-white pattern as the Hartwick brewing panel measured the same year (11.8 vs 8.7% total protein — two labs, two methods, one consistent fact).
  • The calcium row explains a brewing rule. 0.03% calcium in the grain is why the brewing water carries the calcium — the malt brings almost none.
  • AOAC methods stated per row — method designations and analyst/verification dates are on the certificates, preserved in the source.

Download the dataset

Download as CSV — both samples, both bases, all rows including feed-energy values.

Record

First published 2026-08-09 as v1.0. Corrections to date: none. This dataset is a frozen record — it changes only for corrections, and every correction is logged in this section with its date and what changed.

Where else this data lives: nowhere else public that we know of.

How to cite this dataset

Report of Analysis 19-067-9463 / 19-067-9464: Bard's Brewing sorghum malt. Midwest Laboratories, March 8, 2019. Republished by Gluten Free Brewer, 2026. https://glutenfreebrewer.com/research/production-data/midwest-2019-grain-nutrition

Source and Validation Notes

Transcribed from the laboratory's March 8, 2019 reports (one per malt; as-received and dry-weight columns). Values are the lab's as reported; results reflect the submitted samples only. The laboratory is named because Bard's commissioned and owns the analyses and the site already credits its role in the methodology survey; no endorsement is implied.