At a previous brewery, he acquired unprocessed pawpaws, which took him and four others a whole day to process—leaving them “a sticky, worn-out mess.”

Pawpaws make a splash in local beer

But when Greenwood heard that Sig Luscher could get preprocessed pulp from Kentucky State, he changed his mind.

W hen it comes to making beer, Kentucky State University pawpaws are the best.

Each year, Frankfort brewery Sig Luscher creates a limited-time pawpaw sour beer— in 2020, it sold out within hours.

"And I'm glad we did," he said.

Getting the pawpaws from Kentucky State, the only fully funded pawpaw research program in the world, took the “guesswork” out of the processing, Luscher said— and it creates a really good beer.

Founder Tim Luscher considered the “very underutilized fruit” a “no-brainer,” but brewmeister Dylan Greenwood had used pawpaws before— and had sworn them off. At a previous brewery, he acquired unprocessed pawpaws, which took him and four others a whole day to process—leaving them “a sticky, worn-out mess.”

“When people first try it, it almost kind of blows their mind because they can’t figure out what flavor they’re actually getting,” Luscher said.

35

At the base of pawpaw beer is a sour beer— not overly sour, but enough tartness to balance out the pawpaw’s sweetness. The fruit comes in during the last 20 percent of the fermentation process— a process that Greenwood and Luscher have explained to Kentucky State students as part of the Fermentation and Distillation Certificate program.

After the several-week fermentation process, pawpaw beer—“a very good, unique product,” Luscher said—is ready to be enjoyed, made from pawpaws grown just down the road at Kentucky State.

2020 was an unusual year in many aspects, but also in the world of fruit production. Warm spring temperatures caused an early bloom for our pawpaw trees, followed by temperatures of 25circ and 26circ F on April 15-16 and 28circ F on May 9, when trees were in full bloom. This, unfortunately, caused a near complete loss of the pawpaw fruit crop in 2020, only the second time in the program's 25-plus year history that this has occurred. Fortunately, we were able to continue other research efforts, with graduate students conducting studies on fungal leaf spot management in pawpaw and winter chill hour requirements for pawpaw growth and flowering, which has previously not been examined in pawpaw and is important information for growers in southern regions that do not experience cold temperatures in winter. A study looking at the use of tree shelters for newly planted pawpaw trees was conducted, showing that the use of tree tubes improves growth and survival of young pawpaw trees in the field, which will be incorporated into our practices and grower recommendations. Several hundred new pawpaw trees were planted in Kentucky State's breeding orchards for evaluation. These seedlings are the result of crosses of disease-resistant, high-yielding, flavorful cultivars, and will be evaluated over the coming years for potential cultivar release. The Kentucky State pawpaw breeding and evaluation program has resulted in three cultivar releases thus far: KSU-Atwood™, KSU-Benson™, and KSU-Chappell™.

which will be incorporated into our practices and grower recommendations. Several hundred new pawpaw trees were planted in Kentucky State's breeding orchards for evaluation. These seedlings are the result of crosses of disease-resistant, high-yielding, flavorful cultivars, and will be evaluated over the coming years for potential cultivar release. The Kentucky State pawpaw breeding and evaluation program has resulted in three cultivar releases thus far: KSU-Atwood™, KSU-Benson™, and KSU-Chappell™.

36