When Melinda Yerka came to the University in 2017 as an assistant professor in the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology & Natural Resources, she knew she wanted to work with fermenting sorghum. John Baggett, who earned his bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the University in 2015, also returned to pursue his doctorate because he wanted to study the biochemistry of fermentation. Together, and funded by $650,000 in grants, the pair are investigating new sorghum varieties emerging from Yerka’s breeding program.
They are also investigating new techniques for malting, which is a pre-brewing process that helps create the desired flavor and makes brewing proceed more efficiently, and brewing to find the best process for use by local breweries.
“Sorghum is gluten free,” Yerka said. “John, who previously conducted research and development with barley-based beer recipes at the Depot Craft Brewery and Distillery in Reno, had seen a demand for gluten-free beer.”
Grains of history
Sorghum beer has been produced in African countries for thousands of years. However, they’ve always used traditional methods, and none of those methods have been standardized or commercialized. Only recently has South Africa’s University of Pretoria begun looking into standardized, commercial methods.
In the last couple of years, University of Queensland in Australia investigated new methods, but nothing has been published, and one of their lead researchers moved to University of California, Davis last year.
“We are right on the heels of Australia in terms of developing new varieties and new malting and brewing techniques that we could use for this,” Yerka said.
In the United States, there are others studying the use of sorghum for beer, but none of them are universities, so their methods and results would be proprietary and not available for comparison by others.
Something’s brewing
Last year, the Yerka Lab received a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture – Agriculture and Food Research Initiative. The grant allowed the team to partner with the Texas-based sorghum production company Richardson Seeds to breed new varieties and examine the genetics of desired traits.
Through crossbreeding, the company had already developed varieties that grew well and had both disease resistance and high yield. But they didn’t have the means of pinpointing exactly which genes to look for to fine-tune their breeding process. So, the company provided samples of the varieties to the Yerka Lab, where Yerka, Baggett and their team sequenced the DNA and are now comparing it to the DNA of new varieties in Yerka’s breeding program. This process will help develop new sorghum varieties that are specifically tailored to commercial beer production.
“It benefits both us and Richardson Seeds because when we develop markers for specific genes in our varieties, the company can use those markers to improve their own varieties,” Yerka said.
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