Adjuncts, Inclusions, and a World of Flavor in Beer & Chocolate

By David Nilsen

Beer and chocolate both have long traditions built around using a very limited number of specific  ingredients. Beer, for the last few hundred years of its history, has been brewed primarily with malted barley (and sometimes a few other grains) and hops, in addition to the requisite water and yeast. Chocolate can be made with nothing more than cacao, though sugar is a common enough second ingredient that you’ll sometimes hear classic dark chocolate referred to as “two-ingredient chocolate.” (There is one other ingredient that has earned “classic” status in chocolate: milk powder, which is used to make milk chocolate. More on that in a bit.)

That said, both beer and chocolate can make great companions for other flavor ingredients, and this is part of why craft beer and craft chocolate have seen so much creativity in recent years.  

Let’s talk about some of those ingredients and the overlap between them in craft beer and craft chocolate.

Learning Terms

First off, let’s discuss the words we use to refer to these additional ingredients in each segment. 

In beer, we refer to anything beyond those four base ingredients mentioned above as adjuncts. Historically, that word referred only to alternative fermentable sugar sources besides malt, but in recent years it’s grown to encompass any extra ingredient, including ones added only for flavor (you’ll occasionally hear purists complain about this semantic shift, but what’s done is done). 

In chocolate, we refer to additional ingredients as inclusions. It is, frankly, a more appealing and approachable word than the one we use in beer, so if anyone wants to help me start a movement to change Adjunct Stout to Inclusion Stout, let me know.

Some of the most common adjuncts and inclusions are shared between beer and chocolate, so let’s look at at few.

Milk

Chocolate—As discussed above, milk powder gets used to make milk chocolate. Despite what you might be thinking if you’re new to craft chocolate, milk chocolate is entirely respectable and it is perfectly acceptable to enjoy it. Dark chocolate isn’t inherently better, it just showcases chocolate’s base ingredient—cacao—more directly.

Beer—In beer, milk gets used in the form of lactose (milk sugar). Lactose has actually been used for more than a century in the Milk Stout style (sometimes called Sweet Stout or Cream Stout). Lactose isn’t fermentable by traditional brewing yeasts, so it stays in the beer after fermentation. It adds some gentle sweetness, and can lend a subtle impression of creaminess. In recent years, lactose has been added to more styles as a way to support other flavor ingredients. It’s common to find it in dessert-themed beers, and in Milkshake IPAs and Milkshake Sours, both made with fruit.

Vanilla

Chocolate—Vanilla is so common in chocolate it’s practically a foundational ingredient for many types as this point. While you won’t find it in single origin dark chocolate, it’s in many inclusions bars of all types, and is very common in milk and white chocolate. A handful of bars highlight vanilla as a standalone inclusion.

Beer—While vanilla was likely used in some of the early Mesoamerican beers also brewed with cacao, it’s a relatively recent addition to modern beer. Vanilla is commonly used in dessert-inspired beers. While vanilla itself is not sweet, we’re so used to having it in desserts that our brains immediately start thinking sweet when we smell or taste it, so it can help sell the dessert impression of these beers.

Alternative Sugars

Chocolate—while classic cane sugar is used in most of the situations where sugar is added to chocolate, many craft makers often use more characterful sugars in special bars. Common examples include maple and unrefined sugars like piloncillo. Honey is difficult to work with, because liquids can’t be added during the chocolate-making process.

Beer—Folks are often surprised to learn that special candi sugars are used in some of Belgium’s most revered abbey ale styles, both to boost alcohol content without increasing body and to contribute flavor and color to the beer. Beyond this, maple and honey are very commonly used in brewing. These will usually be added before fermentation so most of the sweetness will be fermented out, leaving only flavor and aroma behind, but a small amount might be added after fermentation is complete to lend subtle sweetness.

Coffee

Chocolate—Chocolate and coffee were made for each other. Their similar fermentation and roasting processes leave them with very complementary flavors, and it’s not uncommon to find each used in the tasting notes for the other. Coffee is a very common inclusion in craft chocolate.

Beer—The dark malts that give Porters and Stouts their color and roasty flavors are roasted in a very similar way to how coffee beans (and cacao) are roasted, and take on similar flavors—coffee is a common flavor descriptor in these styles. That makes coffee a natural and common adjunct for Porters and Stouts. It’s also not uncommon to find coffee used more delicately in lighter, paler beers to really showcase the aroma of these beans.

Each Other

Ever have malted milk balls as a kid? Those are made with malt powder, which is made from malted barley. Many craft makers today make bars or other treats with malt powder, and at least one uses malt powder from a popular craft maltster. Additionally, there are several bars made with hops, malt kernels, or beer itself. Beer chocolate is a whole thing, and it’s awesome.

One of the most common adjuncts in beer? Cacao itself. The base ingredient for chocolate is used in a wide range of beers to contribute a chocolatey flavor, either by itself or with other ingredients to simulate dessert flavors. Also, cacao fruit itself is now sometimes being used to highlight this tangy, bright tropical fruit.

And then there’s…everything else

If it’s edible, it’s probably been added to a chocolate bar or a beer at some point. Everything from wood smoke to breakfast cereal to insects to mushrooms to baked goods have been used in both, as well as the entire range of fruits, herbs, spices, and other botanicals.

This can be awesome, because foods and beverage traditions change over time, rules are arbitrary, and the freedom to use whatever a maker or brewer can get their hands on can unleash amazing creativity and remarkable flavor experiences. It can also be…less than awesome. Sometimes experiments don’t work, sometimes execution is not commensurate with ambition, and sometimes products get created for hype that don’t necessarily represent a lot of passion or craftsmanship. 

In short, beers and chocolates with unusual ingredients can be really good, really bad, or somewhere in between—just like every other kind of beer and chocolate.

Some purists in both fields lament the rampant use of these extra ingredients, and this is often from a very admirable and important desire to preserve tradition and classic styles.

But here’s the thing: you can love both.

You don’t have to choose between preserving and celebrating tradition and encouraging and delighting in experimentation. You can love classic lagers and Pastry Stouts, you can love regal single origin dark chocolate and exotic inclusion bars, and you can love obscure historical recreations and zany, boundary-pushing explorations. There are different times for each, and sometimes different audiences for each.

Me? I love it all when it’s well-made. 

So, there’s the low-down on adjuncts and inclusions, two different words for the same basic idea. As in so many other ways, beer and chocolate have so much in common.