Kiitos Fonio isn't just a unique beer for Utah; it's unique in the world. Fonio is named for the drought-tolerant grass/grain that hails from West Africa—a type of millet that is able to grow without fertilizer, pesticides and irrigation. Yeah, it's that hearty and sustainable.
While Kiitos isn't the first brewery in North America to use fonio in a beer (Brooklyn Brewery and Russian River Brewing were out front on that), it is the first to make a 100 percent fonio beer in North America. Carlsberg Brewing out of Denmark created a 100 percent fonio lager, but it was only available there.
That being said, the aforementioned U.S. breweries were only able to use the West African grain for less than a quarter of the content of their versions, due to its super dense body during the brewing process.
"The mash was so thick it looked like our mash tun was full of grits," said David Jimenez, Kiitos' Head Brewer. "I've never brewed with a grain like this."
The reason Kiitos was able to get this 100 percent fonio beer to market so fast after becoming available to the United States is its unique-to-our-market mash press brewing system. A mash press can squeeze the wort (unfermented beer) from the grains instead of relying on a gravity-feed to drain the wort through a mash tun's false bottom. This allows Kiitos to utilize high percentages of similarly thick grains—such as oats, wheat and rye—alternative starches like rice or ancient grains like fonio.
"The mash press has allowed Kiitos to make all kinds of hard-to-brew beers," Jimenez said. In the past Kiitos has made 100 percent wheat and rye beers as well, with a third all-grain "difficult to brew" ale now being formulated.
Kiitos' Fonio is a very unique-looking beer, too. It is completely clear, resembling something more like a boozy seltzer or a clear sake.
"The whole brewhouse was quite shocked when we got our first look post-fermentation," Jimenez said. "We thought we really screwed up somewhere, but that's just the way it looks."
Another departure from the norm in the fonio beer was the decision to forego the addition of hops or other bittering agents from the beer. "The beer itself is incredibly fruity," said Jimenez. "We didn't want to mess with the incredible citrus and fruity qualities the fonio was throwing out."
And I concur—it would have been a crime to stifle these flavors in its debut to the world.
Jimenez is correct regarding the natural fruitiness happening here. There are some slight sake-esque fruit qualities such as apple, though not tannic at all. Yuzu makes a big appearance here as well, along with some pleasant white peach flavors. The citrus qualities are strong and up front, which provide a high drinkability factor. Combined with the clarity of beer, those qualities gave me the impression that I was completely out of the realm of an all-grain beer.
Fonio's natural fruitiness and sustainability aside, the West African grass will also find a market with those who can't, or choose not to, ingest gluten. According to Jimenez, "Fonio is gluten-free. It really is a near-perfect grain, and we here at Kiitos are just beginning to explore what we can do with it next."
As a specialty import grain, fonio isn't exactly a cheap alternative to the traditional beer malts and grains that are out there, but the team at Kiitos Brewing is ecstatic about what they've learned in this first experiment utilizing a grain known as "the seed of the universe." They look forward to it being part of not just beer culture, but life in general.
Kiitos' Fonio beer dials in at 5.0 percent ABV and is a very limited run, so if you're interested in checking out this game changing beer, I'd hit it up Kiitos sooner rather than later.
As always, cheers!