Eric Parkes at Somerville Chocolate is a tenant in Aeronaut Brewing's building, 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.

Today we’re talking with Brad Kintzer, the chocolate maker at TCHO Chocolate in Berkeley, California. In our conversation, we discuss TCHO's corporate ownership, how they source their cacao, nthe flavor labs TCHO has established in many cacao growing regions to work with growers on a mutually-informed flavor lexicon, and TCHO’s relationship to craft beer, both through the cacao nibs they provide to brewers through BSG (Brewers Supply Group), and through direct collaborations with breweries like Fieldwork and Faction. These collabs have resulted in some really unique chocolate beers, and most recently, a beer chocolate bar called Hoppy Hour made with Cascade, Centennial, and Chinook hops.

In this Bite Sized episode we hear from AJ Wentworth from Chocolate Conspiracy. AJ loves craft beer almost as much as he loves craft chocolate, and has collaborated with several breweries around the Salt Lake City area on beers and bars that blur the flavors lines between beer and chocolate, including bars made with Uinta Baba Black Lager, Level Crossing Soul Rex Doubla IPA, and Kiitos Coffee Cream Ale. We talk about his development process for those bars and working with the bold flavors of Double IPA.

In this episode David Nilsen talks with Arron Liu of Chocobien in Hong Kong. Chocobien is a bean to bar chocolate company that produces many truly unique bars that employ flavors and ingredients from other artisan food and beverage segments, including beer, whiskey, coffee, sake, tea, and more. Arron talks about the ideas behind these bars, the partnerships and processes that went into their development, and the satisfaction this curious and creative maker finds in achieving the flavors he could only hold in his imagination at the start of each experiment.

AJ Wentworth, the founder and chocolate maker for Utah’s The Chocolate Conspiracy, loves craft beer almost as much as he loves craft chocolate, and he’s partnered with several Salt Lake City craft breweries on a series of beer-infused craft chocolate bars, including a bar with Uinta Brewing’s Baba Black Lager. In today’s episode, AJ and beer writer David Nilsen discuss his partnerships with neighboring breweries, his process for infusing beer flavors into his bars, the burgeoning Salt Lake City beer and chocolate scenes, and his background in raw cuisine.

In this episode of Bean to Barstool Bite Sized we talk with Tyler Cagwin, co-founder and chocolate maker at Nostalgia Chocolate in Syracuse, New York. Tyler loves craft beer almost as much as he loves craft chocolate, and has a particular affinity for IPAs, so he decided to infuse a chocolate bar with the character of Chinook hops from The Bineyard hop farm. Here Tyler talks about the process for developing his Hop Aged bar.

Corina Gimenez is the founder and chocolate maker of Xoco by Corina, a bean to bar chocolate company in Norway. Corina is from Venezuela, and she uses Venezuelan cacao in dialogue with Norwegian culinary ingredients in her range of unique bars. Her 3 Bean Stout bar is made in collaboration with Lervig Beer. Their 3 Bean Stout is an Imperial Stout brewed with cacao beans, vanilla beans, and tonka beans, and Corina makes her bar with the beer. Listen in as Corina explains the spirit and the process behind this excellent beer-infused chocolate bar.

Beer and chocolate belong together. In today’s episode we’ll look at a number of recent chocolate and beer collaborations, including beers made with ethically-sourced cacao and craft chocolate made with beer or beer ingredients. Hopefully you discover some new tasting experiences to try out, or if you’re a brewer or chocolate maker, some inspiration for a new project. Just be sure you let me know about it.

Omnom Chocolate in Reykjavik, Iceland is known not only for its delicious and creative bean to bar chocolate, but for the colorful packaging and marketing that presents the spirit of Omnom to consumers. Listen in as founder Kjartan Gíslason talks about the spirit behind Omnom and his collaborations with Icelandic craft breweries.

Tyler Cagwin at Nostalgia Chocolate makes bean to bar chocolate for a living, but he loves craft beer too. He recently partnered with The Bineyard hop farm to make a chocolate bar with Chinook hops. He always worked with Meier’s Creek Brewing to provide cacao for a Chocolate Porter. Hear from Tyler in this new episode.

What could be better for Father Day’s than bean to bar chocolate bonbon bars made with amazing craft beer? French Broad Chocolates in Asheville, North Carolina, have once again partnered with Burial Beer on a series of four “bean to bonbon” bars, and they’re as complex, elegant, and indulgent as the beers they’re made with.

In today’s episode we talk about and taste through French Broad’s bonbon bars made with beers from Burial Beer.

In this episode, we talk with Xoco by Corina, a bean to bar maker who is partnering with Lervig Beer, a prominent Norwegian craft brewery, to create 3 Bean Stout Chocolate, a 70% dark chocolate bar that is perhaps more evocative of the Amazon than the Arctic, but nonetheless demonstrates the tapestry of influences that make beer and chocolate so exciting.

Sara Ratza loves plants. She got into chocolate making after getting into herbal medicine, and she brings that plant wisdom and love for green, growing things to the art of chocolate making at Ratza Chocolate. Listen in as she talks about her philosophy behind using these botanical ingredients.

The use of chocolate in beer and vice versa goes beyond adding cacao nibs to a Porter or Stout or infusing a dark chocolate with the same styles. Hear from a brewer & a chocolate maker going way beyond the basics for chocolate & beer crossovers.

Malt is the foundational ingredient of beer, but it’s an afterthought for most craft beer fans. A new group of small, artisan malt houses are returning character to brewing malt, and that malt is popping up in unexpected places—including bean to bar chocolate bars.

A brewery and a chocolate maker in Asheville, North Carolina, are creating beautiful new flavors together.