Things Craft Chocolate Fans Are Surprised To Learn About Craft Beer
I’ve found craft chocolate fans to be some of the most adventurous and curious in the craft food and drink world, but many still haven’t dipped their toes into craft beer (not, like, literally…that would be gross). Some of that is because of the cultural image beer has long suffered under as a simple, bland drink not worthy of attention, and some of it is because of the exact opposite: the sheer variety of beer styles can be confusing and overwhelming.
If you’re a chocolate fan curious about beer, here are a few things craft chocolate fans are often surprised to learn about craft beer:
It’s an agricultural product.
In the craft chocolate world, we understand the importance of cacao—the foundational ingredient of chocolate—and the farmers and farm laborers who grow and process it. Did you know beer is an agricultural product as well though? The foundation of beer is grain. This is usually barley, but wheat, rye, corn, rice, spelt, and other grains get used as well. These have a lot of genetic diversity, and they can be malted—a process that prepares the grain for brewing—in a wide variety of ways to yield unique sensory characteristics. Hops—the main seasoning in beer—are actually flowers that grow on a climbing bine. Hops are bred to have distinctive sensory properties, and there are over a hundred commercially available varietals that produce aromas and flavors ranging from floral to herbal to fruity.
It can have many of the roasted flavors of chocolate.
The dark malts that give Porters, Stouts, and other dark styles that color are roasted in a rotating drum roaster very similar to how coffee beans and cacao beans get roasted. In fact, there is evidence the first drum roaster was adapted from earlier coffee roasters. The chocolatey and coffee-like flavors common in these beers come from those roasted grains, and the “roasty” flavors we associate with dark beer styles, coffee, and chocolate are largely derived from this roasting process.
Some of the same fermentation organisms are involved.
Cacao typically undergoes a spontaneous fermentation after it’s harvested. A whole slew of microorganisms are involved, but the backbone of the fermentation involves an initial alcoholic fermentation with Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast, and a subsequent acetic fermentation by Acetobacter bacteria, which convert that ethanol into acetic acid. “Sac C” as it is often called by brewers also goes by a more common name: ale yeast. Ale styles are fermented by this yeast species, while lagers are fermented by a related species called Saccharomyces pastorianus. Also, some beer undergo a spontaneous fermentation much like cacao, with a similar zoo of microorganisms involved.
It’s a lot more than just IPA.
If you only have a casual familiarity with craft beer, it’s easy to think it’s all IPAs, all the time. IPAs are by far the most popular family of beer styles in craft beer, and the best of these beers can be delicious! But there is so, so much more variety in the craft beer world than just these hoppy styles. There are over a hundred recognized styles of beer, many of them with centuries of tradition behind them. There are farmhouse ale with rustic, spicy yeast flavors, complex sour ales, easy-drinking lagers, Belgian abbey ales with layers of dried fruit and spice notes, bold Stouts with flavors of chocolate and coffee, and just about everything in between. Look past the IPA noise and there’s a world of variety here.
It's the best pairing beverage on the planet.
No shade on wine or any other beverage (we love them all), beer is the most versatile pairing beverage in existence, with the variety to deal with any dish you can throw at it. Salads, seafood, savory meat dishes, cheese, desserts, any global cuisine you can think of…there are beers to pair with all of them. Oh, and chocolate? Yeah, it pairs great with that too.
It can be brewed with cacao.
Brewers love to experiment with unique ingredients to create new flavor concepts, from fruits to coffee to foraged botanicals. One of the most popular “adjuncts” (what beer folks call inclusions) is cacao, normally used for making chocolate. Brewers typically use cacao in the form of nibs, but husks and even cacao pulp can be used as well. While many of these chocolate beers are Porter or Stout styles that have existing roasty flavors (see above), brewers are also experimenting with adding cacao to sour ales, pale wheat beers, Belgian ale styles, and others. We cover this a lot on Bean to Barstool, so check out our chocolate beer archives here.
Beer is for everyone.
Beer has long has a reputation as a “man’s drink,” whatever the hell that is. It isn’t. It’s a whoever-you-are’s drink. Ancient beers were brewed on just about every continent, by folks of many different races, both men and woman. And that’s true today too! While craft beer gained an unfortunate—and, sadly, often deserved—reputation for being a bro-y boy’s club—and a pretty white on at that—for much of its history, that has been steadily changing in recent years (women and persons of color have always been involved, but they’ve sometimes had to fight to be). Groups like Pink Boots Society, National Black Brewers Association, Beer Is For Everyone, and many others are working to make craft beer a more inclusive and diverse space, and its a more exciting industry for it.
