Somerville Chocolate & Aeronaut Brewing

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 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 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:
- Cocoa Sutra, a Milk Stout made with cacao nibs
- A barrel-aged Baltic Porter conditioned two ways: one on vanilla and lightly roasted Ecuadorian cacao nibs, one on heavily roasted Ecuadorian cacao nibs

Somerville bars discussed in this episode include:
- Hops Dark Milk, a dark milk bar infused with Citra and Mosaic hops
- Beer Dark Chocolate, a 65% bar made with cacao nibs that were added during primary fermentation on Aeronaut beers such as Cocoa Sutra
- Two variations of a Beer Soaked 65% dark chocolate bar, one made with the vanilla and lightly roasted Ecuadorian cacao from the corresponding above mentioned Baltic Porter, one made from heavily roasted Ecuadorian cacao nibs from the other version of the Baltic Porter

The music for Bean to Barstool is by indie folk musician Anna ps. You can find out more about Anna’s music in the show notes or at her website annapsmusic.com, where you can also get in touch to book her to play at your brewery or other establishment.