Bean to Barstool

David Nilsen

A podcast exploring the intersections of craft beer and craft chocolate.

  1. 4 UUR GELEDEN

    Beer Learning and Language with Scott Fielder and Chris Crowe

    My friends Scott Fielder & Chris Crowe have spent the past few years publicly documenting their quest to pass the Master Cicerone exam. In late 2025, Scott Fielder became just the 29th Master Cicerone in the world. Chris, his best friend and partner in this process, came close to doing the same, and is more determined than ever to pass the exam in 2026.  I sat down with Scott and Chris recently to talk about how their pursuit of knowledge through these certifications has impacted their experience and enjoyment of beer. We also talk about the vulnerability of sharing their exam preparation as publicly as they have, and how we can provide consumers with useful information without gatekeeping and using exclusionary descriptive language.  You can follow Scott & Chris here: Scott's Instagram At Your Service's Instagram Chris's Instagram The Beer Enthusiasts Instagram The Beer Enthusiasts Youtube channel Here you can find the past episodes mentioned in today's conversation: Episode 1: Personal Flavor Vocabularies Episode 16: Cultural Beer Language with Dr. J Episode 39: Everybody Is Welcome—Celebrating Beer with Em Sauter Guests: Scott Fielder hails from Long Beach, CA. He is the Quality and Education Lead at The Bruery in Placentia, CA, a beer educator with The Beer Scholar, Certified BJCP Judge, GABF judge, and a Master Cicerone. He is also a partner in the Beer pop up concept At Your Service with Advanced Cicerones Chris Crowe and Charlie Perez, as well as the co-host of The Beer Enthusiasts YouTube channel.  Chris Crowe is an Advanced Cicerone®, Director of Sales at the award-winning Radiant Beer Co., and resident beer nerd at the world-renowned Windsor Homebrew Supply. Chris co-hosts The Beer Enthusiasts with Master Cicerone® Scott Fielder, where they have published over 75 episodes of educational beer content between Instagram Live and YouTube. Chris founded At Your Service, a series of service-forward pop-ups focused on historical, cultural, and reimagined methods of serving beer with Scott and Advanced Cicerone® Charlie Perez. Chris wants to encourage you to #drinkmoredoppelbock and assures you that there is little to no resistance to doing so. 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 Pinterest Sign up for host David Nilsen's beer newsletter for regular beer musings, and the Bean to Barstool newsletter for pairings, collaborations, and maker profiles.

    1 u 22 m
  2. 17 MRT

    Elmer Pineda of Yojoa Chocolate in Honduras

    Elmer Pineda and his family grow cacao and make tree to bar chocolate in the mountains of Honduras. Taking their company name from the Volcanic crater lake where their chocolate factory is located, Yojoa Chocolate makes classic two-ingredient bars, as well as a range of inclusion bars that celebrate the agricultural bounty of their corner of the world. When I connected with Elmer over Zoom recently, a tropical rain storm was drenching his property, and you might even be able to hear it in our conversation.  In this interview we talk about the background of Yojoa Chocolate and their cacao farm, the natural landscape that provides so much flavor and inspiration to Yojoa’s bars, the importance of not only fermentation but carefully controlled drying in flavor formation, and some of Yojoa’s unique inclusion bars, like Espresso and Anis Avocado.  You can learn more about Yojoa on their website or their Instagram. Episode timeline (approximate): 2:00 - Introduction 3:30 - Yojoa summary and background 10:10 - Local microclimate 13:50 - The power of tree to bar 18:05 - Fermentation and drying 25:40 - Espresso bar 29:05 - Anis Avocado bar 33:30 - Whisky Barrel bar 39:25 - Packaging and artwork 40:40 - The story Yojoa is telling 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 Pinterest Sign up for host David Nilsen's beer newsletter for regular beer musings, and the Bean to Barstool newsletter for pairings, collaborations, and maker profiles.

    47 min.
  3. 17 FEB

    Brewing Pastry Stouts Thoughtfully with Wandering Monsters Brewing

    Today we're talking with Jason Brewer and Zac Boehnke of Wandering Monsters Brewing in Cincinnati, Ohio. While they brew a wide variety of beers well, they're best known for excellent adjunct stouts like Viator Obscura: Triple Chocolate, which has medaled at both Great American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup. In this episode, Jason and Zac talk about how they approach brewing with cacao nibs, vanilla, and other ingredients, how their high concept adjunct stouts come together, where they source their cacao, and why beers of this type are worth taking seriously and approaching thoughtfully.  You can check out the Wandering Monsters site here, or follow them on Instagram. You can listen to previous episodes mentioned in this episode here: Ethereal Confections, Somerville Chocolate, Front Porch Chocolate, Third Eye Brewing. You can check out the events mentioned in the episode here: Full Circle Brewgarden, Belgian-Style Ales. Interview timeline: 2:25 - How beer recipes are developed with adjuncts and barrels in mind 4:50 - Viator Obscura: Triple Chocolate 6:35 - Cacao husks 7:25 - Cacao origin selection 10:15 - Banana Caboose 14:25 - Storytelling with adjunct stouts 15:50 - Brownie Stout, other beers 17:15 - Vanilla 18:45 - Wandering Monsters branding 22:30 - Marketing adjunct stouts 24:15 - Their favorite of their own adjunct stouts 27:15 - Advice for other brewers on working with cacao and other adjuncts 29:00 - Brewing pastry stouts thoughtfully 33:20 - End of interview 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 Pinterest Sign up for host David Nilsen's beer newsletter for regular beer musings, and the Bean to Barstool newsletter for pairings, collaborations, and maker profiles.

    38 min.

Info

A podcast exploring the intersections of craft beer and craft chocolate.