Branch & Bone’s Elegant Chocolate Beers with Violet Sky Chocolate’s Cacao

By David Nilsen

Branch & Bone Artisan Ales in Dayton, Ohio, has been using cacao from Violet Sky Chocolate in its chocolate beers since 2020, a relationship that began when a friend opened a Violet Sky chocolate bar during a collaboration brew day.

“We were up brewing with Chris Betts at Transient Artisan Ales in Michigan, and he brought out a bunch of Violet Sky bars,” recalls Branch & Bone co-founder and head brewer Brett Smith. “We started tasting them, and it was just mind-blowing.”

Brett had already brewed quite a few high-concept Stouts since opening Branch & Bone in 2018, but had been using a more generic provider until that fateful brew day. He reached out to Hans Westerink at Violet Sky to find out how he could use their cacao. Hans is a huge fan of craft beer, and began asking Brett questions about the cacao he would need. 

“He asked what I wanted, so I told him about the other ingredients I was putting in the beer,” says Brett. “He asked how I wanted the cacao to taste, and I told him I wanted it nutty. He was like, I can do that.”

The beer was Modern Business Hymns, an 11.5% Imperial Stout with cacao nibs, pistachio, and cinnamon. Brett already has the idea for the beer before talking to Hans, so when he received his first order of cacao, he brewed with it right away. He added the cacao before adding the pistachios and cinnamon, and says it tasted so richly chocolatey he wanted to leave it as is. The beer rested on the nibs for a total of six days, and he used 15 lbs. of nibs in the 7 bbl batch.

Complex and Strong

Hans sent him a blend of Ugandan and Guatemalan cacao, the latter from Monte Grande in the Central American country. He sources his cacao through Uncommon Cacao.

Listen to my interview with Emily Stone of Uncommon Cacao here:

“That’s kind of my blend I’ve been doing for breweries,” Hans explains. “I find the blends are just more balanced for a beer. They come through as more chocolatey. Part of that is roast profile. I always roast cacao darker for beer than for making chocolate.”

While he has at times used Ghanan cacao instead of Ugandan in the blend, he has a particular affinity for Guatemalan origins, and has made bars from numerous Guatemalan origins.

“Guatemalan cacao is really strong,” he says. “It’s very robust and intense and kind of tannic. Some chocolate’s just boring to me, but this is really complex.”

Hans likes beer so much he almost ended up with Violet Sky Brewing instead of Violet Sky Chocolate.

“I was actually thinking about opening a brewery,” he recalls when discussing how his small batch bean to bar chocolate company got started. “I first discovered cacao because I was home brewing and I was making a chocolate beer.”

He’s particularly fond of complex sour and mixed fermentation beers, and would love to see one brewed with his cacao, though such a collaboration hasn’t happened yet. He first approached Transient because he was a fan of their beer, noting the popularity of their big dessert-style Stouts.

Transient’s best-known beer brewed with Violet Sky cacao is Bowser, a behemoth barrel-aged  Imperial Stout weighing in over 13% ABV, and Junie, an Imperial Stout brewed with salted caramel.

Enjoy this Moment

Modern Business Hymns was a success, and has been brewed each fall since its first release. It’s a curious flavor concept, but Brett has a deft and restrained hand at using flavor ingredients together in an elegant way. Aromas of pistachio pudding, maraschino cherry, and vanilla hit first, with fudgy and slightly acidic chocolate just beneath, all cradled in the muscular arms of Stout’s own layers of chocolate and subtle coffee. It’s thick and luxuriously creamy, but not cloyingly sweet, with the acidity of the cacao providing a roundness to curb the sweet body.

Brett next brewed Campfire Candle, a s’mores-inspired version of his Black Candle Imperial Milk Stout. The beer was brewed with graham crackers, vanilla, and cacao, and bumped up the dosage on the latter to 20 lbs. per batch. Vanilla can often run away with s’mores inspired beers, but Brett uses it just as an accent here. He has since brewed Skinwalker, a chocolate Imperial Stout with chili peppers, and Trails, an Imperial Stout with cacao and nothing else, highlighting the quality of the cacao he gets from Hans.

“He really knows what he’s talking about, so he’s someone I have a lot to learn from,” Brett says. “That’s always a good thing for us.”

Beyond his expertise with cacao, Hans has a passion for using flavor as a way to help people savor individual moments. That concept is built into the name of his business.

“Violet Sky is a symbol for a beautiful moment in time, something that’s precious and fleeting and you’ve got to pay attention to. Enjoy this moment,” he says. “When someone opens a bar and tastes it, I really want them to be taken into the present moment.”

Brett agrees, and wants to use his beer to capture the sensory beauty of the ingredients he uses, including cacao.

“You smell all these beautiful things, and I want to find a way to put that in a bottle.”

You can listen to my full interview with Brett and Hans here: