Deciphering the Effect of Millet Type on the Structure of the Bacterial Community in an Indian Fermented Beverage

ABSTRACT Millets have garnered widespread popularity due to their nutritional value and gluten‐free nature. Many studies have shown the promising effect of fermentation on millets. Despite this, their potential in fermented food products remains largely underexplored. Traditionally, millets were widely used to prepare naturally fermented beverages. However, not much is known about the microbial profiles of these beverages. Therefore, for the very first time, we aimed to conduct a comparative investigation of the microbial composition of a millet‐based fermented beverage. The beverage was prepared using five different millet varieties, namely, pearl (PM), kodo (KM), barnyard (BM), little (LM), and finger (FM). The processing of the beverages was inspired by the traditional Indian beverage koozh. 16S amplicon sequencing was used to determine the bacterial community of the beverages. The results indicated the dominance of Firmicutes and Proteobacteria at the phylum level in all beverages; however, the ratios varied depending on the millet substrates. The genus Weissella appears to be the most dominant genus in the samples, with the exception of the LM‐based beverage. Despite microbial differences, PICRUSt functional analysis indicated stable core functional characteristics of the beverages. This study laid a foundational work to further explore millets as a substrate, particularly for the growth of lactic acid bacteria.