Paw Paw Mixed Fermentation Saison
Fine Creek Brewing Company

We are very fortunate that the creek that gives our brewery its name also happens to be an amazing habitat for pawpaw trees. During the peak of pawpaw season, you can actually smell the fruit before you see them, parts of the forests around our creek develop a heady aroma of overripe tropical fruit, notes of brown bananas and funky mango linger in the summer air. Despite an abundance of trees, individual seasons can be fickle, but recently we were lucky enough to get our biggest harvest ever: 370 pounds of pawpaws. To compliment them, we conditioned them on a blend of Saison and Belgian Tripel.

The blend was conditioned on pawpaws for 3 months. In addition to imbuing the beer with much of their unique character, this also introduced the wild culture of microbes living on the pawpaws. This culture produced acidity, and many of the characteristics you might expect from some of our Wild Ales. Finally, we conditioned this beer in bottles and kegs for 6 months with one of our favorite isolates of Brettanomyces.

The aroma is funky and tropical with a nose that is reminiscent of cherimoya, green mango, and caramelized pineapple. The flavor is tart up front, and leads with tropical flavors of papaya and pineapple, that give way to fresh lemon and melon rind. The body is light and accompanied by a pleasant rounding carbonation that accents its dry finish.