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AboutDavid Nilsen, Author at PorchDrinking.com

Posts By David Nilsen

Bean to Barstool Podcast | Pairing Standard-Strength Porters and Stout with Craft Chocolate

October 2, 2024 |

In this bonus episode, David Nilsen explains which types of craft chocolate to seek out and which to avoid when pairing with standard-strength Porters and Stouts.

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | Monica Rogan of Goodnow Farms

September 25, 2024 |

Few names in craft chocolate carry as much esteem as Goodnow Farms. Tom and Monica Rogan founded the company in Sudbury, Massachusetts, in 2015, and they cover pretty much the full spectrum of what bean to bar chocolate is all about in their portfolio of chocolate bars, including elegant single origin bars, classic inclusion bars with coffee, nuts, or fruit, unusual inclusions like caramelized onions or green Sichuan peppers, and bars made in collaboration with craft alcohol producers.

In this episode, Monica and host David Nilsen talk about those collaborations with distilleries and cideries, the compatibility of coffee and cacao, developing unique flavor concepts, and how Tom and Monica find the right profile to let single origin beans sing.

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | Looking Back, Looking Forward

September 5, 2024 |

Bean to Barstool celebrated its 4th birthday in August. The Bean to Barstool podcast and blog have focused on the intersections between craft beer and craft chocolate, with interviews with brewers, makers and growers, deep dives on flavors, ingredients and processes, discussions of pairings and collaborations and the cultural overlaps between these artisan worlds. In this anniversary episode, David Nilsen looks back at the initial idea behind the site and podcast, what’s changed over the years and what the plans are for continuing to grow Bean to Barstool.

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | Pairing Fruited Sour Ales with Craft Chocolate

August 28, 2024 |

Sour ales are a fantastic platform for fruit flavors. The acidity of the base beers dovetails with the brightness of the fruit and can help sell the flavors of the fruit more authentically. There are challenges to pairing these beers though, and most of them are related to variability of the beers themselves: there are so many different ways to make fruited sour ales. In this bonus episode of Bean to Barstool, David Nilsen walks through the different types of fruited sour ale and explains which types of craft chocolate to seek out and which to avoid when pairing with them.

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | Pairing Fall Styles with Craft Chocolate

August 21, 2024 |

The arrival of fall means the arrival of fall seasonal beer styles. Fortunately for us, fall beer styles like pumpkin beer and Oktoberfest can pair great with craft chocolate, and today we’re going to talk about some of my favorites and recommendations to check out.

Pumpkin ales, Märzen, Festbier, and even fresh hop and wet hop beers can be paired with craft chocolate. Listen to this bonus episode to learn which bean to bar chocolate bars will work best with each seasonal style.

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | Bonus: All About Beer Fermentation

August 14, 2024 |

Beer is usually fermented by one of two closely related species of yeast. In this quick bonus episode, Advanced Cicerone© David Nilsen look at 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!

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | Coffee, Chocolate & Beer in Panama

August 7, 2024 |

In this episode of Bean to Barstool, host David Nilsen talks with Franz Zeimetz of Lost Origin Coffee Lab and Casa Bruja brewery and Jaime Pérez of Bocao chocolate, all from Panama. They discuss the state of craft chocolate, craft beer, and coffee in Panama, and a series of experiments and collaborations they’ve pursued between these three worlds. Franz has used raw cacao fruit from Jaime in a mixed-fermentation Saison, and is experimenting with various cacao and coffee fermentations, including some using brewing yeast or hops. Listen in as they talk coffee, chocolate, and beer in Panama.

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | Bonus: All About Hops

July 31, 2024 |

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 all about hops!

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | Pairing Spirits & Chocolate with Shay Pal

July 24, 2024 |

While host David Nilsen mostly pairs craft chocolate with craft beer here at Bean to Barstool, there’s a world of great beverages out there for pairing with great chocolate. David’s good friend Shay Pal seems to have paired bars with most of them through her adventurous tasting and traveling. In this episode, Shay and David discuss how she approaches pairing with craft chocolate, how she avoids getting overwhelmed by the choices in front of her, and how she selects which spirit, wine, coffee, or cocktail to pair with any given bar. This is a fun conversation filled with curiosity, a trait that defines Shay. Follow along as David and Shay discuss pairing spirits and chocolate!

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | How to Pair IPAs with Craft Chocolate

July 17, 2024 |

IPAs are the most popular family of beer styles in craft beer today, they aren’t the first beers most people think of for pairing with craft chocolate. While IPAs can pair beautifully with craft chocolate, it’s not an effortless pairing. IPAs present challenges that can lead to chocolate pairings with harsh, bitter, astringent, and/or clashing flavor qualities. In this bonus episode, we’ll look at some common styles of IPA, discuss their sensory attributes, and discuss chocolates to seek out and chocolates to avoid when planning pairings with each. Let’s pair IPAs with craft chocolate!

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | Defining “Craft” with Clay Gordon

July 3, 2024 |

There might not be a more loaded term in beer and chocolate than “craft.” What does it mean, who gets to use it, and who gets to decide who does or doesn’t fall under its umbrella? Is craft about size and ownership? Is it about processes and ingredients? Is it some other ineffable quality? There is no perfect answer, and the parameters and stakes are different for both beer and chocolate, but it’s a fascinating topic for discussion.

In this episode David Nilsen talks with Clay Gordon, one of the most respected names in the world of craft chocolate, to discuss the meaning of craft, how the term’s usage and meaning differ in the beer and chocolate worlds, how tasting and judging have influenced beer and chocolate differently, and, toward the end, how we both approach chocolate pairings with beer and other beverages.

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Hop Seasons | What Happens at a Small Hop Farm Throughout the Year

June 28, 2024 |

In the year-long agricultural cycle of beer’s main ingredients, hop harvest gets all the glory. Fresh hop and wet hop beers fill shelves and taplists every fall, a celebration of craft beer’s trendiest ingredient. Brewers flock to the Pacific Northwest (or their local hop yard) to evaluate the season’s best lots and choose hops for the coming year. Most of our “seasonal” beer styles today are nods to tradition rather than agricultural dictate, but these beers are different, a hold out from a time when brewing schedules and beer styles were guided by the growing calendar.

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | Moksa Brewing’s Pastry Stouts with Cory Meyer

June 26, 2024 |

Moksa Brewing in Rocklin, California (just outside Sacramento), is one of the country’s most prolific and best producers of Pastry Stouts. These usually high alcohol and high gravity Stouts use ingredients like cacao, coffee, vanilla, and others to recreate the flavors of beloved desserts or create whole new flavor concepts. Moksa’s Pastry Stouts are indulgent but precise.

In this episode we talk with Moksa head brewer Cory Meyer about how he works with cacao, vanilla, and other adjunct ingredients, how he sources single origin examples, and how the Moksa team comes up with the concepts for these dessert beers.

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | Bonus: All About Malt

June 19, 2024 |

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.

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | How to Host a Beer & Chocolate Pairing at Home

May 29, 2024 |

Bean to Barstool host David Nilsen’s new book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together is out now. In honor of the release, David talks in this latest episode of Bean to Barstool 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? We’ve got you covered.

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Growing Change: Small Growers Adapt to a Shifting Craft Beer Market

May 28, 2024 |

Craft beer grew at an impressive rate in the decade preceding the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, from 1,813 U.S. breweries in 2010 to 9,092 in 2020, according to the Brewers Association. As it grew, it pulled a number of supporting industries up wthe

 

ith it, perhaps most notably small-scale ingredient growers and suppliers. The number of small hop farms in the U.S. increased from 68 in 2007 to 817 in 2017 (according to figures published by Penn State University), and member count of the Craft Maltsters Guild grew from eight companies when the guild was founded in 2013 to 67 by 2022.

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | One Cacao Tree with Raven Hanna

May 8, 2024 |

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.

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Mixed Results: How Sour Ale Producers Make the Numbers Work

May 6, 2024 |

Mixed-fermentation, long-aged sours are among the most prestigious styles in all of beer. The esoteric flavors and lore of Belgian Lambic styles have inspired countless American brewers to look beyond conventional fermentations in search of mystery and glory. It’s an expensive but esteemed branch of brewing, and one upon which many reputations have been built. The only problem? Hardly anyone seems to be buying these beers anymore.

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | Somerville Chocolate & Aeronaut Brewing

April 17, 2024 |

In this episode of Bean to Barstool, 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 Brewing’s building in Somerville, Massachusetts, 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 host David Nilsen discuss the benefits of this arrangement and look in detail at the beers and chocolate bars that have come from it.

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | Nick Davis of Jamaica’s One One Cacao

April 3, 2024 |

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.

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