Behind the whiskey / FILM 18 / 37 SECONDS
The Pawpaw Experiment
A few gallons of fruit. An idea worth trying.
By Old Treasure · September 7, 2026
From our recorded conversations at Whiskey Thief.
BEHIND THE CONVERSATION
A few gallons of fruit. An idea worth trying.
Lisa talks about small fruit-spirit experiments at Whiskey Thief, including peach and pawpaw. There’s pulp to work with, a small still for research, and no certainty yet about what the idea might become.
There are seedlings in the story, too, planted with a much longer view. These are experiments she describes in conversation, rather than bottles offered here. The pleasure is hearing a maker think about what to try next.
Read the full film transcript
Do you think you guys will do anything else here? We've done brandy since I got here. We did peach brandy and we did a really small amount of pawpaw brandy. Oh, that's interesting. How'd it turn out? Turned out great. Pawpaw brandy was so good. And we had this much because they only sent us a few gallons of pulp. And Kelly ended up having to distill it on the air still up in the R&D space because it wasn't enough to run through. We've picked up some pawpaw trees from them and we'll plant— Kelly's babying them over here and we'll plant them out here. That's cool. It's good. It's delicate. It's really nice.
Story adapted from the accompanying filmed conversation. Guest makers describe their own experiences and methods; these are not production specifications for Old Treasure.
