Bean to Barstool

Bean to Barstool host David Nilsen recaps 2025 by looking at what made this year difficult and what made it worth it, and also shares his favorite beer experiences and craft chocolates from the year. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. Follow Bean to Barstool on social media! Instagram Facebook Pinter...

In today's episode, We’re talking with Joanne Mumbey, a rising voice in beer education and beer and food pairing. Joanne is a Certified Cicerone and, newly as of this month, a certified pommelier, and she's the founder of BeyLoved Pairings , through which she leads curated beer and food pairings that go beyond the European cuisines that are typically found at beer dinners to incorporate...

We just got back from the second annual Midwest Craft Chocolate Festival in Rushville, Indiana, where I gave several talks, Bean to Barstool had a table set up, we met a ton of great people, and of course came home with a bunch of great chocolate. Listen in as David recaps the festival, shares what makes it special, and talks about the bars he grabbed at the fest. Check out David's book Pairi...

Today’s guest uses craft chocolate as a way to introduce people to a subject they might otherwise feel intimidated by: chemistry. Professor Robyn Araiza teaches at California State University San Marcos. She leads a class called the Chemistry of Chocolate, which was first created by her colleague Dr. Jackie Trischman about a decade ago. The important thing about this class is that it’s not really...

In this bonus episode of Bean to Barstool, I reflect back on my recent trip to Mexico to judge at Copa Cerveza Mx and the great beer and chocolate I had while I was there, and discuss what I love about beer judging and what you should and shouldn't take away from beer award results.  The Copa Cerveza Mx awards list can be found here . I also briefly talked about the upcoming Midwest Craft Cho...

The second annual Midwest Craft Chocolate Festival will take place in the beautiful small town of Rushville, Indiana, on November 21-22. The MCCF was brought to reality by Dustin Cornett, the owner of Chocolat Cafe and organizer of the Craft Chocolat Challenge , along with a talented team and the wonderful folks of Rushville. For the second year, Bean to Barstool will have a booth in the vendor sp...

Today I'm sharing the second in my two part conversation with cacao agronomist Sarah Bharath about cacao farming and fermentation and some overlaps with beer.  You can listen to part one of the conversation here . Listen in as Sarah and I discuss these topics! Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together....

Cacao agronomist Sarah Bharath has become one of my closest friends in the craft chocolate world, and she's been on Bean to Barstool a couple times before. (You can listen to those conversations here and here .) Today I'm sharing the first of a two part conversation Sarah and I had recently about cacao farming and fermentation. Rather than getting technical (though there is certainly a l...

Angi at ChocolateSpiel takes visual appreciation of chocolate to a new level, using color to make each of her chocolate bars an edible piece of art. Her colorful bars are eye-catching, and they invite folks to try bean to bar chocolate who might not otherwise have taken the plunge. In this episode I talk with Angi about how and why she uses chocolate as a canvas for color, as well as pairing choco...

Kumi Arhin is doing something new in wine: he's bringing the flavors of his homeland in Ghana to American wine, offering a Riesling made with Lake Erie region grapes accented by Ghanaian ginger. His innovative Ofori Brothers Wine honors winemaking tradition but caters to members of the West African diaspora in the U.S., providing familiar flavors that speak of home.  The name Ofori Brothers h...

In this episode, chocolate pairing expert Estelle Tracy walks us through making various loose leaf teas and pairing them with craft chocolate. Along the way, she explains what tea is and the basics of different common types of good tea. Teas tasted and paired in this episode: Highland white tea, Jade oolong, Matcha, Hojicha, Genmaicha, and Honey black. You can learn more about Estelle at her 37 Ch...

Third Eye Brewing Company, with locations in Sharonville and Hamilton on the north side of Cincinnati, have won numerous awards at the Great American Beer Festival, World Beer Cup, and many other beer competitions. Led by brewmaster Kelly Montgomery, they've medaled in styles as diverse as Scotch Ale, Pumpkin Beer, and Milk Stout, but they've had particular success with chocolate beers....

Welcome to Bean to Barstool Bite Sized, where we spend about 5 minutes with some of our favorite people from craft beer and craft chocolate. Today we hear from Dorothy Neary, one of the founders and chocolate makers at NearyNogs Chocolate in Northern Ireland. In this clip, Dorothy talks about the influence of Irish music on much of her chocolate making and shares the stories behind a few specific...

In this episode, we talk with Christopher Nobles of Piety & Desire Chocolate in New Orleans. I visited New Orleans a very long time ago on a college road trip, and a lot of my images from that trip are still so sharp and clear. My impression of the city was that it didn’t feel like it could exist in the United States, like it existed in a parallel version of the US or in a foreign country. The...

In this episode, we talk with Greg & T from Front Porch Chocolate in Montana. They've crafted many of their excellent inclusion bars—Including Chai Rose, Fig & Cherry, and Strawberry Lemon—with beer pairing in mind, and here we talk with them about the concepts behind their bars and the beer pairings they've designed for each.  The bars we discuss include: Orange Thyme Strawberry...

For our 100th full length episode of Bean to Barstool, we're talking with an old friend and supporter of the pod, Estelle Tracy. Estelle leads chocolate tastings and pairings through her business, 37 Chocolates, and in this episode we're tasting and pairing the adventurous bars from her new curated collection. Which wines and beers do we pair with a bar inspired by Beijing lamb skewers?...

In this episode, we talk with Dorothy Neary of NearyNogs Chocolate in Northern Ireland. We discuss the importance of music in Irish culture and how it's influenced several of their chocolate bars, the use of distinctly Irish ingredients like gorse flower and seaweed, and the beautiful natural landscape around their factory that influences them creatively. We also discuss their use of Irish wh...

In this episode we talk with Michael Beans of Namesake Coffee in Dayton, Ohio. Michael and his wife and business partner, Jessica Beans, run Namesake with thought and intention, infusing their personalities into every aspect of their business. They want to remove the intimidation factor from good coffee, eliminating the snobbery and gatekeeping that can keep people from seeking out good coffee, bu...

Diego Hernandez started Diego's Chocolate at Lake Atitlan in Guatemala in 1990. Diego and his family are of Tz’utujil Mayan heritage, and he adapted his abuela's sipping chocolate recipe into a unique format—rolls of untempered chocolate, often made with unique inclusions. All of the cacao and inclusions are grown in Guatemala. In this episode, we talk with Nico Silverman, Diego's U...

I recently talked with Serge Savchuk, owner and chocolate maker at Vaka Chocolate in London, Ontario. We talked about the inspiration behind his spirits-infused or -inspired bars, including bars made with whisky, absinthe, gin, and rum, using spirits from North of 7 Distillery and Junction 56 Distillery. We also talked about what motivates him in developing unique inclusion, like his unexpected di...

Much of Tandy Peterson's life and career has been shaped by fire, from childhood memories of camping to working as a chef in a fine dining restaurant that cooked exclusively over fire. When she started making craft chocolate, she chose the name Embers as a nod to point when a cooking fire is perfectly cooked down, a moment of perfection.  In this episode we talk with Tandy Peterson of Embers...

In today's episode, we talk with Lucia Carrillo—founder and head brewer at Cervecería Itañeñe in Mexico City, a very small brewery that’s big on flavor, often using ingredients from Mexican culinary traditions, or even endemic to the country—and her partner Rodrigo Romo, who also brews at Itañeñe and works at Tout Chocolat making craft chocolate bars and bon bons, pastries, and coffee at its...

In this episode, we talk with Jenny Risner-Wade, owner and chocolate maker at Yellow Bird Chocolate, and her husband, Ben Wade, co-founder and brewer at Albion Malleable Brewing Company, both in Albion, Michigan. When a chocolate maker and a brewer share a home and a life, ideas can flow back and forth and lead to unique collaborations. In this case, collaborations have included Unnecessary Evil,...

I love beer flights.  One of the things that makes craft beer so much fun is its sheer variety of styles, interpretations of those styles, and ways of using those styles for flavor experimentation. A flight is an opportunity to explore. A flight board might have an Abbey Dubbel, a Munich Dunkel, an ESB, and a Biere de Garde, taking you on a sensory trip to Belgium, Germany, England, and France a f...

The Chimay line of Belgian ales are brewed at Scourmont Abbey in bucolic Chimay, Belgium, under the supervision of the Trappist monks who call the abbey home. The monastery was founded in 1850 and has been brewing and selling beer to support the upkeep of the property and the lives of the brothers since 1862.  Many Belgian beer styles pair beautifully with craft or bean to bar chocolate, and the b...