This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aim to inform readers across the state.
Salt Lake City’s Kiitos Brewing prides itself on its one-of-a-kind beers.
“We recently became the second brewery in the history of humankind to make a 100% Fonio beer,” said Andrew Dasenbrock, president and CEO of Kiitos Brewing.
Fonio is a resilient, drought-resistant wheat grown in West Africa. And brews made with it don’t look like other beers. There is no resemblance to a brown hue. Instead, the Fonio beer is nearly translucent with a distinctive taste, with hints of lychee and white grape.
“It’s the most expensive grain we’ve ever purchased, because it is coming from West Africa,” Dasenbrock said. “They’ve already kind of signaled that the price that we had been quoted will not likely be the price when it arrives.”
That price swing is because of the Trump administration’s tariffs. In April, the president slapped tariffs on about 90 countries. Since then, some products have been exempted while other tariffs have been postponed. The administration says trade agreements with some impacted countries are being negotiated.
Despite those talks, the effects of any tariffs still hang over the craft beer business. For Dasenbrock, the rapidly changing landscape makes it difficult to pinpoint what his expenses will be.
“Day by day, it’s 10%, it’s 50%, it’s 1,000%. Oh, no, wait, just kidding, it’s 10%,” he said. “It’s virtually impossible to predict what your costs are going to be in an environment like that.”
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