Thanks Joni, Gary, for your replies. Gary, this is way out of my area of expertise, but I had no idea that a grain's growing region made a difference for the brewing. If this would apply to proso, would it also apply to fonio? Of course the latter is produced in the tropics (semi-arid and highland, mainly). so the timing would have other considerations. Don DO, EL, MI, US NAMA On Sun, Jul 26, 2026 at 2:24 PM Gary Wietgrefe via Collab < collab@lists.millets2023.space> wrote:
My proso for beer message accidentally got sent before I finished and I didn't have a beer.😃
My point 3: Proso is drought tolerant and is not produced in the same regions and under the same growing conditions that favor malting barley and wheats. Proso cannot be planted early because it is very frost sensitive. Proso is a warm season crop grown in the semi-arid U.S. Plains under generally low humidity conditions. Proso is almost exclusively grown as dryland production--not irrigation.
If breweries are looking for alternative grains to make beer, they should not be trying to source proso in the same geographies nor under the same growing conditions as producing the most plump malting barley and wheat....Gary Wietgrefe
On Sun, Jul 26, 2026 at 12:13 PM Gary Wietgrefe <gww374@gmail.com> wrote:
It is really hot outside as I am reading this. I want a millet beer!
*Why isn't more proso used for beer*?
1. Brewing Science suggests proso beer "...*regions, where the appropriate growing conditions for cereals like wheat, barley, among others, are not met*." Proso Millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) a Sustainable Raw Material for the Malting and Brewing Process: A Review | BrewingScience <https://brewingscience.de/index.php/brewingscience/article/view/475 . 2. What are agronomic conditions for producing the best malt barely? The University of Idaho suggests:
https://content-hub.uidaho.edu/api/public/content/23b1b877a04247d98a296e8126...
- "Plant early to avoid moisture stress." - "Any moisture stress will limit spring barley yields." - " Schedule irrigations to maintain 50% or greater available soil moisture for most growth periods."
3.
On Sun, Jul 26, 2026 at 9:44 AM Joni Kindwall-Moore via Collab < collab@lists.millets2023.space> wrote:
cool
On Sun, Jul 26, 2026 at 7:43 AM Don Osborn via Collab < collab@lists.millets2023.space> wrote:
I'm not a beer drinker, but as an advocate for millets, I can't help but be interested in the prominent roles of two of them in brewing of beers: proso millet and fonio. Of course, for ages people have been fermenting various millets, like grains in general, to make different types of alcoholic beverages. However I think that among millets, only proso and fonio
are
prominently used make the kind of clear beers that are served on tap or bottled/canned. (There have been experiments with pearl millet, notably in India.)
Searching online, I found no articles comparing the two. So it would be great to hear from anyone who has tried both.
In the meantime, I'll pass on the AI summaries (sorry) offered by Duckduckgo and Google, respectively. These are the short descriptions. In each case, one can click for more info)::
"Proso millet beer and fonio beer differ primarily in their base ingredients and flavor profiles. Proso millet beer is made from proso millet, which has a more earthy taste, while fonio beer, made from fonio grain, offers unique fruity notes and a lighter, more refreshing flavor"
https://duckduckgo.com/?ia=web&origin=funnel_home_website&hps=1&q=compare+pr...
"Proso millet beer and fonio beer are both unique, gluten-free ancient grain brews, but they differ significantly in origin, flavor profiles,
and
processing demands. Fonio beer offers vibrant tropical fruit notes like lychee and requires no milling, whereas proso millet beer utilizes a traditional commodity grain requiring specialized malting or processing to convert starches."
https://www.google.com/search?q=compare+proso+millet+beer+and+fonio+beer
Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance
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-- Author, Gary W. Wietgrefe, https://www.RelatingtoAncients.com/ Enjoy Wietgrefe's (pronounced "wit' grif") dozen books, patents, and international research on millets, agronomy, cultural changes, travel adventure, poetry, and history.
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