Cloudy sour millet or sorghum beer served warm in calabashes, brewed by women in northern Ghana’s Dagomba, Frafra and Kusasi towns. Pito bars double as village meeting places, and the brew is drunk within a day.
Home brewing of alcohol is licensed or restricted in most of the atlas’s readership, and the yeast is carried forward in the brewer’s own pots from batch to batch.
What goes into it
- sorghum or millet
- water
- a portion of the previous brew as starter
How it is made
Grain is soaked and sprouted over several days, dried and milled, then boiled at length. The wort sours overnight with lactic bacteria, is boiled again and cooled, and yeast carried over from an earlier batch is stirred in. It is sold the next morning, warm and cloudy and still working.
How long it takes: four to five days from grain to calabash
How it is eaten
Warm from a calabash at a pito bar, often with a bowl of groundnuts.
History
Brewed by women in northern Ghana’s Dagomba, Frafra and Kusasi towns; pito bars double as village meeting places and the brew is drunk within a day.
Frequently asked questions
What is Pito?
Pito is a wine & spirit from Ghana: cloudy sour millet or sorghum beer served warm in calabashes. Brewed by women in northern Ghana’s Dagomba, Frafra and Kusasi towns; pito bars double as village meeting places and the brew is drunk within a day.
How is Pito made?
Grain is soaked and sprouted over several days, dried and milled, then boiled at length. The wort sours overnight with lactic bacteria, is boiled again and cooled, and yeast carried over from an earlier batch is stirred in. It is sold the next morning, warm and cloudy and still working. It takes four to five days from grain to calabash.
Can I make Pito at home?
No, and the atlas gives no method for it. Home brewing of alcohol is licensed or restricted in most of the atlas’s readership, and the yeast is carried forward in the brewer’s own pots from batch to batch.
What goes into Pito?
Sorghum or millet, water, a portion of the previous brew as starter.
How is Pito eaten?
Warm from a calabash at a pito bar, often with a bowl of groundnuts.
