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New studies on microbial populations on grain
===Malted Barley===
Most historical studies on microbe populations on malt have been done using lab media such as agar plates, which are thought to not be as effective at analyzing the overall population as recent DNA sequencing approaches, such as "454 amplicon pyrosequencing". A recent study took this approach to measuring microbial bacterial diversity on barley and malt(fungi was not analysed). This study looked at two malting houses during two different years (2010 and 2011). It found that on malt, the largest communities of bacteria were found to include ''Enterobacter'', ''Sphingobacterium'', ''Weissella'', ''Lactobacillus'', ''Lactococcus'', ''Streptococcus'', ''Acinetobacter'', and ''Strenotrophomonas'', ''Leuconostoc'', ''Pseudomonas'', ''Wautersiella'', ''Cryseobacterium'', ''Curtobacterium'', and ''Propionobacterium'' <ref name="Lievens2">[Bacterial community dynamics during industrial malting, with an emphasis on lactic acid bacteria. A. Justé, S. Malfliet, M. Waud, S. Crauwels, L. De Cooman, G. Aerts, T.L. Marsh, S. Ruyters, K. Willems, P. Busschaerta, B. Lievens. 2014.]</ref>.
Interestingly, the study also found that the majority genera of microbes was different between the two years sampled. In 2010, there were more ''Firmicutes'' species (which includes LAB) and more 'Actinobacteria'', and less ''Bacteroidetes''. In 2011, there were fewer of both ''Firmicutes'' and ''Actinobacteria'', but more ''Bacteroidetes'' <ref name="Lievens3">[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mttD027PMU Bart Lievens - Bacterial community dynamics during industrial malting, at the Belgian Brewers Conference 2015.]</ref> (~15 mins in).