The favorite beer and chocolate pairings of 2023 from beer writer and Advanced Cicerone David Nilsen.

Tyler Cagwin of Nostalgia Chocolate loves craft beer as much as chocolate, and he’s brought the two together in his Hop Aged 70% dark chocolate bar aged on Chinook hops.

Beer and chocolate have an agriculture problem. The problem, of course, isn’t the agriculture of these products itself—the agricultural traditions and innovations that make beer and chocolate possible are robust and thriving. The problem is the invisibility of that agriculture, and the impact that invisibility has on the public understanding of both products.

Learning about bean to bar chocolate origins or craft beer styles can be confusing, and rigid definitions and guidelines can be helpful. They can also limit our understanding of nuance and variation. How can we use them without being bound by them?

In a small room at Allagash Brewing Company in Portland, Maine, sits a coolship, a vessel for cooling wort in the open air. Each year on All Hallows Eve, that wort will be laden with the essence of crushed pumpkins and molasses, and the invisible lifeforms haunting the Allagash coolship room will descend upon a steaming seasonal liquid to make their contribution to one of the most unusual pumpkin beers in the country.

Jolly Pumpkin La Parcela is not your typical pumpkin beer. Brewed with pumpkin, pumpkin spices, and cacao nibs, this mixed-fermentation, sour, oak-aged pumpkin ale is a fall beer for folks who don’t think they like pumpkin spice beers.

Brewers have long used cacao nibs in a variety of beer styles to create or accent chocolatey flavors. Cocoa Supply, a company started in Ecuador, is now importing shelf-stable cacao fruit pulp, hoping to turn brewers on to parts—and flavors—of the cacao fruit that have previously been unavailable in North America.

Third Eye Brewing Double Astral is an Imperial Stout brewed with cacao nibs from Maverick Chocolate. It’s a familiar concept, but it’s beautifully executed in this Great American Beer Festival gold medal-winner.

What do hops and cacao have in common when it comes to terroir?

The Great American Beer Festival and Denver Rare Beer Tasting give craft beer fans the chance to taste some of the best beers in the country, including many chocolate beers brewed with cacao. Here were Bean to Barstool host David Nilsen’s favorites.

Pumpkin beer and craft chocolate can pair beautifully together! Here’s Bean to Barstool host David Nilsen’s guide to pairing pumpkin beer and chocolate, with specific bars to check out!

Coffee and chocolate have a lot in common. Hans Westerink at Cloud Walking Coffee & Violet Sky Chocolate in South Bend, Indiana, is one of several makers working with both ingredients and bringing them together in creative ways.

Craft beer and craft chocolate have a lot in common. Here are 10 things craft beer fans are often surprised to learn about bean to bar chocolate.

What are hops, how are they used in brewing beer, and what tastes, flavors, and aromas do they contribute? Advanced Cicerone David Nilsen explains the basics of hops.

Belgian Witbier and Bavarian Hefeweizen are both standard strength wheat ales with expressive fermentation flavors, and while they hail from different national traditions, pairing guidance for both with chocolate is pretty similar. Let’s look at how these two similar styles of beer perfect for summer can be paired with craft chocolate.

Rabid Brewing’s annual Feast of the Goat Queen celebrates all things weird and wondrous. Described as a Ren Faire for Fae Folk, it features burlesque, wrestling, fire dancing, and more. It also marks the release of Crown of Horns Chocolate Cream Ale brewed with Malah Na Bulong Philippine cacao.

Mission Chocolate’s Two Rivers dark chocolate bar is a bean to bar chocolate made by Brazilian craft chocolate maker Arcelia Gallardo. It tells the story of the Meeting of the Waters, the birth of the Amazon River, and the meeting of cultures at Mission Chocolate.

At Fu Wan Chocolate in Taiwan, Warren Hsu is using beer yeast and other ingredients to infuse he bean to bar chocolate bars with unique flavors.

Beer is brewed with malted barley (usually), but what is malt, and what are the malt enzymes that make brewing possible? This short article explains the basics of brewing enzymes and what they do in the brewing process.

Cleveland Chocolate Company founder Rebecca Hess works with excellent cacao from Uncommon Cacao in her bean to bar chocolate bars, and she roasted cacao nibs for Noble Beast Brewing for their pastry stouts and chocolate beers.