How to Host a Beer and Chocolate Pairing!

My new book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together is out now, and you can get it from Bean to Barstool or Amazon! In honor of the release, we’re talking today about how to host a beer and chocolate pairing at home. How do you plan it, how do you guide the event itself, and how do you give your friends a memorable evening with beer and chocolate? I’ve got you covered. Listen to this episode for all the information you need, and reach out if you have any questions!You can find recommendations for specific pairings to incorporate here.Want to hire me to run a pairing for you remotely? Get in touch. Check out David's new book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together.Follow Bean to Barstool on social media!InstagramFacebookPinterestSign up for host David Nilsen's newsletter to get regular updates!

Saturday, May 25, is World Tarot Day, and this is the perfect time to learn more about what beer and Tarot have in common. Beer writer Courtney Iseman's zine Beer Tarot: Pulling Cards, Pouring Beer, and Discovering Self is a fantastic way to learn more about both, whether you're a beer fan who's curious about Tarot or vice versa. Listen to this quick interview Courtney to learn 3 things Tarot folks might be surprised to learn about craft beer, and 3 things beer lovers might be surprised to learn about the world of Tarot.Listen to the episode for a discount code to get 30% off the Beer Tarot zine in the Bean to Barstool shop!If you're in the New York City area, head to Beer Witch in Brooklyn on June 20 (Summer Solstice) for a Tarot event—have some great beer, get a Tarot reading, meet Courtney, and get a copy of her Beer Tarot zine!Check out David's new book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together.Follow Bean to Barstool on social media!InstagramFacebookPinterestSign up for host David Nilsen's newsletter to get regular updates!

Raven Hanna lives on the big island of Hawai'i, and her backyard is a picture of what most of us see when we hear the phrase tropical paradise. She has a PhD in molecular biophysics and biochemistry, and she loves science, but she also loves her senses, and the opportunity to immerse herself in the natural world. Her book One Cacao Tree: Backyard Cocoa, Tiny Fermentations, and Chocolate Making in the Tropics is an accessible, tangible guide to every step of cacao's journey, from growing to fermenting, grinding to tempering. In this episode, Raven and David discuss the book, what it's like to be surrounded by natural wonder, how cacao grows and tastes with other botanicals, using story to make flavors memorable, and so much more.You can learn more about Raven here, and purchase her book here.You can purchase David's new book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together here. Check out David's new book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together.Follow Bean to Barstool on social media!InstagramFacebookPinterestSign up for host David Nilsen's newsletter to get regular updates!

Beer is fermented (usually) by one of two closely related species of yeast. In this quick bonus episode, we look at what how beer fermentation works, the differences between ale and lager, and how yeast and fermentation impact beer flavor. Enjoy this quick primer on beer fermentation!Check out David's new book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together.Follow Bean to Barstool on social media!InstagramFacebookPinterestSign up for host David Nilsen's newsletter to get regular updates!

Today we're looking at a fascinating collaboration between a craft chocolate maker and a craft brewery. Eric Parkes at Somerville Chocolate is a tenant in Aeronaut's building, so he makes chocolate just a short distance from where brewmaster Mark Bowers and Director of Brewing Operations Filipe Garcia are brewing beer. This has allowed for an ongoing creative exchange between these worlds, yielding unique beers made with cacao and unique chocolate bars made with beer, brewing ingredients, and cacao and other ingredients that have been first used to make beer. The relationship has allowed for creative experimentation and mutual education. In this interview, Eric, Mark, Filipe, and I discuss the benefits of this arrangement and look in detail at the beers and chocolate bars that have come from it.You can learn more about Aeronaut Brewing here.You can learn more about Somerville Chocolate and order bars here.Aeronaut beers discussed in this episode include Coco Sutra and a barrel-aged Baltic Porter with cacao.Somerville bars discussed include Hops Dark Milk, Beer Fermented Dark, and two variations of a Beer Soaked bar made with the cacao from the above-mentioned Baltic Porter. Check out David's new book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together.Follow Bean to Barstool on social media!InstagramFacebookPinterestSign up for host David Nilsen's newsletter to get regular updates!

Hops are the primary seasoning in beer, but what actually Are hops, and how are these used? In this quick bonus episode, we look at what hops are, how they're used, when they're added during the brewing process, and how they impact beer flavor. Enjoy this quick primer on hops!Check out David's new book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together.Follow Bean to Barstool on social media!InstagramFacebookPinterestSign up for host David Nilsen's newsletter to get regular updates!

Nick Davis makes bean to bar chocolate at One One Cacao on the northeast coast of Jamaica. The cacao trade on the island has been tainted by a colonial past of slavery and oppression, but is now being reclaimed as farmers and makers take back agency. Nick shares his thoughts on the good and bad of inclusions, the challenges and opportunities in Jamaican cacao and chocolate, the historical and modern impacts of colonialism on both, and how making chocolate has allowed him to reclaim some of his family’s story and power that had been taken by that colonial harm. I’m so grateful to Nick for his time and his insights, and I think you’re going to enjoy this conversation as well.Mentioned in the episode are Grenada Chocolate, Dandelion Chocolate, Baiani Chocolate, and Bean to Bar Brasil, among others. Nick also mentions Sarah Bharath of Meridien Cacao, who has appeared on the show several times. You can listen to those conversations here, here, and here. Guest bio: Nick Davis started One One Cacao as a bean to bar then tree to bar chocolate company in 2016. Based in Jamaica, he moved from the U.K. (where his parents settled in the ‘60s) to the island as a journalist. He did a story on Mott Green and the legendary Grenada Chocolate Company and the rest is his-story.  Check out David's new book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together.Follow Bean to Barstool on social media!InstagramFacebookPinterestSign up for host David Nilsen's newsletter to get regular updates!

Welcome to Bean to Barstool Bite Sized, where we spend about 5 minutes with some of our favorite people from craft beer and craft chocolate. In today's Bite Sized we hear from Arcelia Gallardo from Mission Chocolate in Sao Paulo, Brazil. When Arcelia first moved to Brazil and began making bean to bar chocolate, the quality of the Brazilian cacao that was available at the time was not great, but she was committed to working with it. After her friend at Chocolate Maya in Santa Barbara tasted one of Arcelia’s two ingredient bars and suggested the cacao wasn’t quite ready for that challenge, Arcelia decided to set her chocolate apart by using the natural bounty of Brazil, employing fruits and nuts that were unique to the new culture she found herself in. Here’s Arcelia to talk about the steps that led to working with ingredients like cupuacu and baru nut.You can find out more about Mission Chocolate here order their bars through Bar & Cocoa here.You can listen to my full episode with Arcelia here.Check out David's new book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together.Follow Bean to Barstool on social media!InstagramFacebookPinterestSign up for host David Nilsen's newsletter to get regular updates!

Today we’re talking with Brad Kintzer, the chocolate maker for TCHO Chocolate in Berkeley, California. In our conversation, we discuss TCHO's corporate ownership and how they source their cacao. We also talk about the flavor labs TCHO has established in many cacao growing regions to work with growers on a mutually-informed flavor lexicon for chocolate, and to improve quality. We spend about the last third of the interview talking about TCHO’s relationship to craft beer, both through the cacao nibs they provide to hundreds of brewers through their relationship with BSG (Brewers Supply Group), a major ingredient provider, and through direct collaborations with breweries like Fieldwork and Faction. These collabs have resulted in some really unique chocolate beers, and most recently, a beer chocolate bar called Hoppy Hour made with Cascade, Centennial, and Chinook hops. Listen in as we talk with Brad Kintzer at TCHO.You can learn more about TCHO and purchase their bars here, and you can purchase the Hoppy Hour bar specifically here. Check out David's new book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together.Follow Bean to Barstool on social media!InstagramFacebookPinterestSign up for host David Nilsen's newsletter to get regular updates!

Hops get a lot of buzz from beer lovers because of their expressive, fruity aromas and flavors, but malt is really the foundational ingredient of beer. You can technically brew beer without hops (though all commercial examples contain them), but you can’t brew it without malted grain, and the different malt varieties offer a dazzling rainbow of potential colors, aromas, flavors, and textures for building a new beer. So what is malt, how is it made, how is it used in brewing, and what flavors and characteristics does it provide for beer? In this bonus episode, we talk all about the basics of malt.Check out David's new book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together.Follow Bean to Barstool on social media!InstagramFacebookPinterestSign up for host David Nilsen's newsletter to get regular updates!