It’s a Beer! It’s a Seltzer It’s … Fonio at Kiitos Brewing

On an unusually warm false spring day, I feel like I’ve won the lottery — I’m drinking a can of sold-out Fonio from Kiitos Brewing. This revolutionary quasi-beer, quasi-seltzer marks a new chapter of Kiitos’ brewing, and it has me eagerly anticipating the arrival of summer to pair with this sensational light and fruity beverage.

Kiitos’ Fonio is the first beer made in the U.S. that features 100% fonio grain, an ancient cereal grain that needs minimal water and no fertilizer to grow. The grain is traditionally grown in Guinea and other parts of Western Africa and just recently made its way onto the brewing scene, with large breweries including Guinness, Carlsberg and Brooklyn Brewery all featuring the grain in 2024.

“We decided to showcase it in its naked form,” says Kiitos production manager Patrick Bourque. “We just shot from the hip and made this beer without hops, without really anything traditional to beer except yeast, and just hoped it would work out.”

“Bringing unique products to people seems to be a way to capture people’s attention.”

Kiitos’ specialty equipment — a High Efficiency Brewing System (HEBS) — allowed them to feature the grain as a solo act. No hops, no malted barley, no wheat — just water, yeast and fonio. Fonio is so novel to international brewing that Kiitos actually got on a pre-sale waiting list to purchase it and brewed with it the day it arrived.

“Bringing unique products to people seems to be a way to capture people’s attention,” says Bourque, who has been brewing with Kiitos for just over a year. “We have this unique piece of equipment that can allow us to make different things.”

The resulting first-of-its-kind beer will be only the first of many iterations to showcase the grain in a new experimental series from Kiitos, which will counterbalance Salt Lake staples like their Big Gay Ale as well as seasonal favorites like the Pumpkin Latte.

“This version of Fonio will probably exist in some form going forward, but fonio as an ingredient is going to become a playground for us as we try different techniques, recipes, complementary flavors, usage of hops, all that stuff,” Bourque says.

“We’re trying to lean into what people come here for.”

This naturally gluten-free beer is nearly clear, and features notes of peach, lychee and passionfruit, a made-to-be pairing with Tsuki Sake (stay tuned, folks). The initial batch sold out in less than two weeks, perhaps Kiitos’ fastest-moving brew of all time. The second batch, identical to the first in recipe, should be hitting fridge shelves any day now.

Fonio joins the ranks of Kiitos’ other gluten-free offerings, of which there is always at least one on draft. Currently, they’re featuring a Gluten-Free Golden Ale made from a blend of millet, buckwheat and rice.

“It just opens up a whole world of exploration. This is the start, not the end. It’s a launching pad into better and more interesting things.”

“We’re trying to lean into what people come here for,” Bourque says, describing the soon-to-be-expanded gluten-free lineup to include a dark beer and an IPA, all thanks to the HEBS which can process millet and other gluten-free base grains.

Kiitos is currently sourcing fonio, which is approximately five times the cost of barley, from RahrBSG and hopes that its increased use will support local farmers and industry in West Africa.

“This first fonio beer is kind of a launching pad to a whole world of things that we could do with it, and while we love it and it’s very cool, we want to see what different yeasts we can use with it, what hops do with it, what dry hops do with it, maybe mixing other alternative grains into it,” Bourque says. “It just opens up a whole world of exploration. This is the start, not the end. It’s a launching pad into better and more interesting things.”

Fonio, the “naked” version, is not to be missed, but each future iteration will be worth a trip to the source — including Kiitos’ soon-to-be-open Sugar House location. Currently, Fonio (get it while it lasts!) can be enjoyed over pinball on draft and in cans at 608 W. 700 S., their original brewery.

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