Research Asks: Work the Field Can Move Forward
This is not our internal to-do list. It's the public list of work that would move gluten-free brewing forward, written specifically enough to act on. You don't need permission, credentials, or a relationship with us to take one. You need a kettle or a lab and the discipline to write down what happened.
How to respond: contact us with what you did and what happened. A useful report names what you changed, what you held steady, what you measured, and the result — including failures, which are often worth more than successes. Contributors get credit under whatever name they choose; results that contradict us are the most valuable kind.
The asks
| # | Ask | Who can run it | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hop varieties against sorghum malt | Homebrewers | Open — seeking testers |
| 2 | Tavern Ale honey load and timing | Homebrewers | Open — seeking testers |
| 3 | MP1 at homebrew scale | Homebrewers | Open — seeking testers |
| 4 | MP3: the maltose mash, and why MP1 won | Pilot breweries, advanced homebrewers | Open — seeking testers |
| 5 | Run the proposed evaluation standard | Malt laboratories | Open — seeking review |
| 6 | How far can enzyme doses come down? | Production breweries | Open |
| 7 | How far can the 190°F baseline come down? | Production breweries, pilot systems | Open |
| 8 | Sorghum malt data from anywhere | Anyone with records | Open — standing |
Ask 1 — Hop varieties against sorghum malt
The question. Do some hop varieties genuinely clash with sorghum malt, or is that impression an artifact of the beers we happened to brew?
Why it matters. Twenty years of commercial brewing produced a consistent field impression — German varieties integrated well, Saaz clashed — that has never been tested. If it's real, it changes hop selection for every gluten-free brewer. See Hops and Yeast for Sorghum Malt.
What would count. One 100% sorghum malt wort, split, each half bittered and finished with a different variety, everything else held steady. Tasting notes from more than one palate. Two or three independent reports would settle it.
Ask 2 — Tavern Ale honey load and timing
The question. How much honey, added when, produces the balance in Tavern Ale Version A?
Why it matters. It's the one number that was never recorded in a beer worth reconstructing — and honey timing (flameout vs whirlpool vs fermenter) changes whether it reads as aroma, sweetness, or nothing.
What would count. Brew version A at 1 lb, 2 lb, and 3 lb per 5 gallons — or split one batch across honey timings — and report where the balance lands. A version that beats ours gets published as version B with your name on it.
Ask 3 — MP1 at homebrew scale
The question. Does our production protocol actually work at 5 gallons, and where does it break?
Why it matters. The translation is arithmetic on a production process, and arithmetic isn't a brew day. Nobody has validated it.
What would count. Efficiency, mash behavior, runoff time, gravity, fermentation curve, and what you'd change — plus your equipment description, so results are comparable.
Ask 4 — MP3: the maltose mash, and why MP1 won
The question. Does a protease rest plus a fungal-alpha coolback produce a materially better beer from sorghum malt than the glucoamylase finish — and why did Bard's abandon it?
Why it matters. MP3 was written and played with at Bard's; MP1 won, and the reasons were never recorded. Everything downstream of wort sugar profile — fermentation behavior, body, drinkability — rides on this.
What would count. Same recipe, same malt, MP1 vs MP3, side by side. FAN, wort sugar profile (HPLC if you can get it), fermentation curves, and honest sensory comparison. A documented failure is as useful as a success here.
Ask 5 — Run the proposed evaluation standard
The question. Does the external-enzyme reference mash in GFB-SME work as a practical evaluation method?
Why it matters. The field evaluates sorghum malt with instruments built for other questions. A proposal nobody runs is just an opinion in a nicer font.
What would count. A lab running the reference mash on two or more malts and reporting friction — what was ambiguous, what wouldn't reproduce, what should change. Criticism is the deliverable.
Ask 6 — How far can enzyme doses come down?
The question. Our published doses are conservative production insurance. How much can be removed before conversion, runoff, or fermentation suffer?
Why it matters. Enzymes are a real line item. If half the dose works, that's money back for every gluten-free brewer — and nobody has published the curve.
What would count. Staged reduction across batches on one malt and system, tracking conversion, iodine result, runoff, gravity, and attenuation. Report the point where something broke.
Ask 7 — How far can the 190°F baseline come down?
The question. The 190°F, 60-minute hold is deliberately conservative — 30 minutes worked in most runs. Where is the real boundary?
What would count. Controlled alternatives across multiple batches and multiple malt lots, judged on liquefaction, viscosity, iodine, extract, runoff, fermentation, and repeatability. One clean batch is encouraging; it isn't a baseline.
Ask 8 — Sorghum malt data from anywhere
The question. What else exists? Screening data, malt analyses, brewing trials, failed programs, dusty spreadsheets from a project that ended.
Why it matters. We published everything we hold because the North American record is nearly empty. Ours can't be the only surviving data.
What would count. Any dataset with its methods and units, whatever its age or format. We'll publish it with attribution, or help you publish it yourself. Negative results and abandoned programs included — especially those.
Status vocabulary
Open — nobody is known to be working on it. Seeking testers — we're specifically looking for people to run it. Seeking review — a proposal needs technical criticism more than data. Under evaluation — results are in hand and being worked through. Closed — answered, with the page updated to say so. Superseded — the question changed.
An ask leaving this list should leave a mark on a published page. That's the whole point.
Related
- Research Library — the data behind the questions
- Proposed Standards — proposals that need criticism
- Homebrew: The Research Bench — where several of these asks get run
- Contribute Research — what happens to what you send