CUSTOM CRAFT GRAIN SOLUTIONS
We merge tradition with innovation for end-to-end craft solutions that produce flavorful grains with a story. We collaborate with thoughtful mills, maltsters, brewers, distillers, bakers, and chefs.
SELECT, GROW, CLEAN, COLLABORATE
Watch the Videos
Grain R&D has been featured in TV programs, podcasts and various media stories.
Click below to check out a few recent features.
What We Do
Since 2012, we’ve been at the forefront of the craft grain movement helping to repatriate flavorful heritage and ancient grains while pioneering the end-to-end processes for a sustainable craft grain economy. We are passionate about flavor.
SELECT
We select grains based on flavor, color, and nuance with an effective end use in mind.
GROW
We manage the entire growing process to ensure clean, sustainable practices.
CLEAN
Our cutting-edge , custom cleaning facility provides food grade, craft cleaning.
COLLAB
We work directly with you to add value and story to your products you serve.
SOSSAMAN FARMS X GRAIN R&D
Our Story
After 6 years of helping to pioneer the heritage grain movement in Arizona and across the country, Sossaman Farms took a critical step forward with the launch of a new project, Grain R&D. This unique project establishes a first of its kind, true end-to-end craft-driven grain infrastructure and supply chain featuring direct collaboration with the culinary community.
Grain R&D encompasses the entire process of grain from Seed Selection, Cultivation, and Harvest, to Precision Cleaning, Storage and End-use Collaboration with brewers, distillers, bakers & chefs.
During the journey of the first 6 years, it became clear that without building a new infrastructure based on craft targets like flavor and nutrition, bottlenecks from the existing centralized, industrial grain system would always create roadblocks for the meaningful scaling and accessibility of the heritage grain movement. Grain R&D bridges the gap by merging tradition with technology for a sustainable future.
Perhaps no other food requires collaboration more than grains. Grain R&D is built for partnerships. We work with Brewers, Distillers, Malsters, Mills, Chefs, Bakers and Farms to help create meaningful products full of connection, flavor and craft.
End-to-end custom craft grain solutions
WITH FLAVOR AS AN ESSENTIAL TARGET
Current Products
All of our wheats, ryes and barleys are grown locally in the state of Arizona using clean, sustainable practices. We proudly partner with the Nature Conservancy to help preserve the water in the Verde River. Additionally, we love partnering with indigenous Native American tribes. All of our products are identity preserved, with traceability from end to end.
Please send us an email or use the contact form to check availability and request a price quote for your project.
White Sonora Wheat
One of the oldest surviving wheat varieties in North America, brought to the Sonora region by Jesuit missionary Padre Eusebio Kino around 1685 and tended for generations by Tohono O'odham communities before being revived by food historians in the 1980s. Grown locally in Arizona, this soft heritage wheat delivers a naturally sweet, buttery flavor with a clean, mild character — no bitterness, with a gentle whole-grain creaminess prized in Southwestern baking.
Excellent for pastries, tortillas, flatbreads, pie crusts, and biscuits; also valued as a craft beer adjunct for its gentle sweetness and soft mouthfeel.
QC Red Wheat
A high-performing hard red spring wheat grown locally in Arizona — a genuine rarity, as HRS varieties are typically concentrated in the Northern Plains states of Montana, the Dakotas, and Minnesota. With protein levels of 12–14% and exceptional gluten strength, it delivers a robust, deeply nutty, heartily "wheaty" flavor with excellent structural depth. The ideal choice for artisan sourdoughs, bagels, pizza crusts, croissants, and any application demanding strong gluten development and lasting structure.
Emmer (Farro Medio)
Domesticated in the Fertile Crescent roughly 10,000 years ago, emmer is among humanity's most ancient cultivated grains — a staple of early Egyptian and Roman civilizations still grown today much as it was in antiquity. This hulled wheat requires traditional dehulling before use and delivers a distinctly nutty, slightly sweet flavor with notes of graham cracker and cinnamon, with a pleasantly chewy texture and excellent structural integrity.
Lower gluten but higher protein content makes it ideal as a sourdough inclusion (up to 30–40%), fresh pasta, grain salads, risottos, and rustic flatbreads.
Rouge Bordeaux
Organic Non-GMO Yellow Corn
A premium sweet yellow corn grown in Arizona using clean, sustainable practices, offering bright, fresh-milled sweetness with earthy, nutty undertones that intensify beautifully when stone-ground. Milled into grits, cornmeal, or polenta, this variety delivers traditional Southwestern corn character at its finest — rich, warming, and deeply satisfying. When cracked, it is a foundational ingredient in bourbon and whiskey mash bills, contributing distinct corn-forward flavor and body to distillates.
Organic Non-GMO Blue Corn
An heirloom variety with centuries of deep roots in Southwestern and Indigenous agriculture, cultivated for character and complexity rather than commodity yield. More earthy and less sweet than yellow corn, with a rich flavor profile featuring nutty, creamy, and subtly sweet notes alongside hints of dark fruit and gentle spice — characteristics that translate beautifully into craft distilling. A mainstay in our distilling customers' bourbon mash bills; also produces exceptional blue cornmeal and traditional blue corn tortillas.
A French heritage landrace from the Bordeaux region with roots dating to the 14th century — at its peak grown across 75% of French departments, it nearly vanished after WWII industrialization before being preserved through dedicated seed-saving. Its distinctive reddish-bronze kernels produce flour with layered aromas of cinnamon, toasted grain, and baking spice, with mellow sweetness and deep complexity. High protein (~15%) and extensible gluten make it exceptional for artisan hearth breads, naturally leavened sourdoughs, pizza dough, and specialty pastry applications.
Developed at the University of Saskatchewan's Crop Development Centre and registered in 1999, Copeland ranked as the #1 malting barley variety by acreage from 2016–2022 — the industry benchmark for consistent, high-quality malting performance. It delivers excellent modification, high extract yield, and a clean, neutral malt profile with subtle pale grain character, allowing hop and fermentation flavors to take center stage. The go-to choice for pale ales, lagers, pilsners, and any craft beer style requiring a pristine, low-color malt base.
Copeland 2 Row
Malted Grains
We also offer a selection of specialty malted grains. Visit our sister company Homestead Malting to explore the full range of available malted varieties.
CUSTOM COLLABORATIONS
Who We’ve Worked With
Let’s Collaborate
Connect with us
19101 E. Ocotillo Rd.
Queen Creek, AZ 85142
GRAIN R&D is a Sossaman Farms project, a 100-year-old heritage farm in Queen Creek, Arizona.
Use the contact form to connect with us and discover how a collaboration with Grain R&D can enhance the value and craft of your next project.