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.

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.

Have you ever tasted smoked chocolate? Bean to bar chocolate makers are finding creative ways to infuse cacao with a diverse array of smoke flavors, and we taste several of them in this episode.

Smoke is one of the most evocative aromas in the world. It can be found in abundance in the world of craft beer, and it’s making its way into more and more bean to bar chocolate as well.