Bean to Barstool Podcast | Sarah Bharath on Cacao Fermentation (Ep. 59)

Many people don’t realize chocolate is a fermented food. Before we can make chocolate from cacao, that cacao has to undergo a fermentation process. This process is usually spontaneous, meaning the microbiotic cultures that carry out cacao fermentation are not manually added to the fermentation substrate but instead occur naturally. That doesn’t mean it’s a hands off process. A great deal of knowledge and expertise both traditional and technical is required to yield the best results. The entire process has much in common with spontaneous fermentation used in brewing Lambics and many Wild Ales.

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | Estelle Tracy on Pairing Wine and Chocolate

Pairing beer and chocolate is one of the major topics of Bean to Barstool. Chocolate can pair beautifully with a wide variety of grown-up beverages, however, and most people probably think of wine for this role first. Estelle Tracy leads wine and chocolate pairing events professionally. She comes to this not as a stuffy expert but as a curious observer who has learned along the way, following her senses to new areas of knowledge and expertise without losing the joy of discovery.

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | Honey Beer & Honey Chocolate

Honey beer styles are more popular than ever, but they aren’t new. There were several beverages in antiquity that were fermented from honey, many of which have survived today. Mead is fermented entirely from honey, while Braggot is basically a hybrid of beer and mead. In recent history, Belgian brewers have proven adept at brewing Biere de Miel, less a style than a group of beers that incorporate honey. And from there, modern craft brewers have started putting honey into more and more styles.

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | Hi-Wire Brewing’s 10W-40 Chocolate Imperial Stouts

In this episode, host David Nilsen talk with brewers at Hi-Wire Brewing in Asheville, North Carolina, about 10W-40, a family of Imperial Stouts brewed with French Broad Chocolates cacao, Dynamite coffee, and Ugandan vanilla. He talks with Peter Batinski, head brewer at Hi-Wire’s South Slope location in Asheville, where he trials many of Hi-Wire’s beers and leads innovation; and Hank Marshall, head brewer at the Big Top, Hi-Wire’s production brewery near Biltmore Village in Asheville. Peter and Hank talk about developing new variants of 10W-40, the process of brewing the base beer, the dozens of 10W-40 variants, and the related beers that have sprung off from the 10-dub family.

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | Wolves, Sons & Ethereal Confections

In this episode we talk with Chris Davison of Wolf’s Ridge Brewing and Colin Vent of Seventh Son Brewing, both in Columbus, Ohio, who use quality cacao in a variety of their beers. Both brewers source their cacao from Ethereal Confections with Ethereal Confections in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, and we’ll also talk with Marisa Allen and Michael Ervin of Ethereal, who also provide cacao to a variety of other breweries.

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | Arcelia Gallardo of Mission Chocolate on Brazilian Chocolate & Beer

In this episode we talk with Arcelia Gallardo, the founder and chocolate maker at Mission Chocolate in Sao Paolo, Brazil. Arcelia has taken a long and winding road to making world class chocolate in Brazil, and as she’ll explain, her own journey is interwoven with the growth of the cacao industry and bean to bar chocolate scene in Brazil over the last decade. Arcelia also talks about the exciting craft beer scene in Brazil right now, and its relationship to cacao.

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | Beer and Chocolate Language

In this episode of Bean to Barstool, we explore the differences in the descriptive language used for beer and chocolate, and look at ways these worlds could be bridged. Host David Nilsen talks with beer writer Randy Mosher, Burial Beer co-founder and CEO Jess Reiser, chocolate writer Megan Giller, French Broad Chocolates co-founder Jael Skeffington (Jael Rattigan at the time), and chocolate retailer and educator London Coe about beer and chocolate language and why it matters.

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | Smoke in Beer & Chocolate

In this episode of Bean to Barstool, host David Nilsen talks with Caleb Michalke of Sugar Creek Malt in Indiana, an artisan malthouse providing a range of unusual smoked malts for smoked beer. We also talk with Natalie Suwanprakorn of Xoconat in Bangkok, Thailand, and Eric Parks of Somerville Chocolate in Somerville, Massachusetts, who are both introducing smoke flavors to their bean to bar chocolates.

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | Nicole Hewat of World Tree Chocolate

In this episode of Bean to Barstool, David Nilsen talks with Nicole Hewat, founder of World Tree Chocolate. World Tree offers curated chocolate boxes based on flavor preferences, but Nicole is also an artist, and she has used cacao in various forms for watercolor paintings as well as illustrations for a book about the cacao-growing and chocolate-making process. During our conversation we talked about flavor and the tasting experience, her process for creating her paintings, and the way flavor can interact with our emotions and the art we take in during the tasting process.

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | Ratza Chocolate

Sara Ratza loves plants. She’s a certified Holistic Health Practitioner, and she got into chocolate making through herbal medicine. She brings that plant wisdom and love for green, growing things to the art of chocolate making at Ratza Chocolate. Sara incorporates a variety of botanicals into her bars, including hops, an interest carried over from her love for craft beer.

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | Lust & Chocolate with Author Michele Hauf

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, David Nilsen decided to sit down with author Michele Hauf, who has written a romance novel themed around craft and bean to bar chocolate called Lust and Chocolate. During their conversation, they talked about her process for writing the book, her own journey into craft chocolate, and whether or not chocolate is really an aphrodisiac.

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | Maple Beer & Chocolate

Maple is a part of life in eastern North America. In this episode, you’ll hear from Canadian and American bean to bar chocolate makers and American craft brewers who use maple sap, sugar and syrup local to their areas in thoughtful, nuanced maple chocolate and maple beer. All of them had memories that tied the flavor of maple into the stories of their lives, and today you’ll hear how evocative the smells and flavors of maple can be. Read More

Bean to Barstool Podcast | Wood, Beer & Chocolate

What do trees taste like, and can you make beer and chocolate with them? In this episode of Bean to Barstool, David Nilsen talks with multiple experts to unlock how the flavor of wood impact beer and chocolate. Listen as Marika Josephson of Scratch Brewing, chocolate writer Shay Pal, Marika Josephson of Map Chocolate, and The Flavor of Wood: In Search of the Wild Taste of Trees from Smoke and Sap to Root and Bark author Artur Cesar-Erlach discuss how trees influence some of our favorite indulgences.
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Zine Review | Pairing Beer & Chocolate by David Nilsen

Disclaimer: The author of this zine, David Nilsen, writes for PorchDrinking. 

Becoming incredibly good at something takes a lot of time, effort and patience. In our constant need for instant gratification and expectation to be perfect at something the first time you do it, it becomes more and more rare to find a true expert. Do you think that a master woodworker was making a canoe during their first time using an oscillating saw? Or an Advanced sommelier knew how to tell what region of France a grape was from when they were 21? No. That’s why when someone shares their expertise and encourages others to learn from the time and effort they have put in, it’s a gift.

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | The Chocolate Conspiracy’s Beer-Infused Bars

AJ Wentworth, the founder and chocolate maker for Utah’s The Chocolate Conspiracy, loves craft beer almost as much as he loves craft chocolate, and he’s partnered with several Salt Lake City craft breweries on a series of beer-infused craft chocolate bars, including bars with Uinta Brewing Baba Black Lager, Kiitos Brewing Coffee Cream Ales and Level Crossing Brewing Soul Rex Double IPA.

In today’s episode, AJ and beer writer David Nilsen discuss the partnerships The Chocolate Conspiracy and neighboring breweries, his process for infusing beer flavors into his bars, the burgeoning Salt Lake City beer and chocolate scenes and his background in raw cuisine.

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | Loon Chocolate

There are countless similarities between the worlds of craft beer and bean to bar chocolate, and few people know that as well as Scott Watson. Scott was a professional craft brewer in the 1990s when craft beer was just beginning to gain national attention. After leaving the craft beer world, he eventually discovered bean to bar chocolate and founded Loon Chocolate.

In this episode of Bean to Barstool, Scott shares his memories of brewing craft beer, what makes him love chocolate making, and the numerous ways in which these two artisan industries remind him of each other.
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Bean to Barstool Podcast | New Zealand Beer & Chocolate with Luke Owen Smith

New Zealand beer and chocolate writer Luke Owen Smith has worked in both the craft beer and craft chocolate industries in this island nation, giving him insight into what these artisan industries have in common and what they can learn from each other. In this episode, Luke and Bean to Barstool host David Nilsen discuss pairing beer and chocolate, New Zealand beer and chocolate, the challenges and opportunities for both in a small market, and how craft chocolate can learn from craft beer’s growth and its mistakes.
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Bean to Barstool Podcast | Favorite Beers & Chocolates of 2022

Join David Nilsen for a look back at some of his favorite beers and chocolates of 2022. David is joined by special guests Tristan Chan, Courtney Iseman, Em Sauter, Ale Sharpton, Ruvani de Silva, Luke Owen Smith, Emily Stone, Shay Pal, and Hazel Lee for a look back at their favorites as well.

After you’ve listened to the show, we’d love to hear your own favorite beers from the last year. Share your favorites with us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook!

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | Videri Chocolate’s Partnerships with Craft Breweries

In this episode David Nilsen talks with Sam Ratto, the founder of Videri Chocolate in Raleigh, North Carolina. Videri is celebrating its 11th anniversary on December 15. Videri makes a full line of single origin and inclusion bars, as well as bonbons and other confections, and they also provide cacao in various forms for numerous breweries in the craft beer hotbed of North Carolina.

Here we hear Sam talk about his ongoing delight in chocolate and his partnerships with a number of craft breweries. We also hear from Sean Lilly Wilson of Fullsteam Brewery and Lauren Woods Limbach of New Belgium Brewing.

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Bean to Barstool Podcast | Curating Chocolate Playlists with Cocoa Runners

“I passionately believe that if we want to save the planet and be healthy we have to go back to savoring and not scoffing.”

In this episode David Nilsen talks with Spencer Hyman, co-founder of Cocoa Runners. Cocoa Runners is a website that sells many of the world’s finest craft chocolate bars, including bars from over 150 makers from over 40 countries. Prior to Cocoa Runners, Spencer was the COO of last.fm, and the playlist curation experience he gained there informs his work at Cocoa Runners, where he sees himself curating chocolate playlists of sorts for folks who may want some guidance when it comes to picking out their next great chocolate discovery.

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