Bean to Barstool – Details, episodes & analysis

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 intended for chemistry students. It’s a GE course for non-STEM majors.

I met Robyn through our mutual friend Jorge Torres. Jorge took Robyn’s class, and he’s been a long time listener and supporter of Bean to Barstool. Jorge reached out to me a while back to share his excitement about this class, and about the unexpected way Robyn’s research has overlapped with our interests here at Bean to Barstool: she ran a study a few years back looking at caffeine and theobromine levels in coffee and chocolate beers, respectively. 

Robyn was kind enough to sit down with me to talk about her research, but primarily to discuss her innovative chemistry of chocolate class, and how chocolate and the sensory process can be used in an educational setting to make a complicated subject more approachable. We also hear from Jorge about his own experience as a student in the class.

Guests:

Robyn Araiza began her studies at CSU San Marcos (CSUSM) in the Literature
department but was inspired and mentored by CSUSM professors to eventually earn her B.S. in Chemistry and later, her Master of Science in Chemistry. She is currently a PhD student in Analytical Chemistry under the mentorship of Dr. Kevin Schug at the University of Texas at Arlington, while on CSUSM teaching faculty in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. She is also a Science & Conservation Research Associate with the San Diego Botanic Garden, supervising scientists on SDBG medicinal plant research collaborations. As the CSTEM Mentoring and Outreach Fellow much of her time is also dedicated to mentorship, community education, and outreach. Her roles include being a Super STEM Saturday Coordinator, and Faculty Director of the CSTEM Professional Mentoring Program and Blueprints Peer Mentoring Program, focused on mentorship and career development for students in the program. Her passion for early childhood outreach has led to work with The Center for Research and Engagement in STEM Education as well as helping create STEM focused Girl Scout merit badges. She’s also teaches “Chemistry of Chocolate”, an upper division GE course that attracts 200+ students annually from every imaginable major. As a passionate advocate for equity in STEM, Robyn is committed to diversifying instructional strategies both inside and outside the classroom. She consistently seeks innovative ways to inspire students and share her enthusiasm for the sciences.

Jorge Torres is the associate producer of the Capital of Craft Podcast, a member of the San Diego Brewers Guild Education Committee, and a U.S. Navy Reservist. Passionate about community and storytelling, he serves the industry through writing and building meaningful connections. A San Diego native, he loves celebrating the people and history that shape his city’s renowned craft beer scene.

Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together.

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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 Chocolate Festival. You can listen to my full preview of the festival here. 

Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together.

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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 buildings and the foliage and the cemeteries—it all felt like it was just draped in this elegant decay. I haven’t been back, sadly, but would love to revisit it now after having seen a lot more of the world and see how the city has changed, but more importantly, how I’ve changed and how my impressions of a place change with that.

Christopher Nobles is a lifelong New Orleans resident, and at Piety & Desire Chocolate he brings elegance and indulgence to his range of bars and confections. In true Big Easy style, many of them incorporate alcoholic beverages from some of the city’s new generation of producers. We talk about the flavors of New Orleans, its personality, and how it all makes its way into his chocolate.

You can learn more about Piety & Desire Chocolate and order their bars on their website, or follow them on Instagram.

Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together.

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In this episode of Bean to Barstool Bite Sized we talk with Kyle Spears, the head brewer for Carillon Brewing Company in Dayton, Ohio. Carillon is housed on the grounds of Carillon Historical Park, and is the only brewery in the country on the grounds of a historical museum. Their beer is brewed entirely using techniques and replica equipment from 1850. Kyle is a trained historian, and here he talks about the importance of tasting these beers in the context of the museum, the time period their seeking to recreate, and some of the unusual beer recipes they've brought back to life.

You can read an article on Carillon Brewing here, or listen to a longer interview with Kyle and fellow Carillon brewer Dan Lauro here.

Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together.

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We're doing something a little different for today's episode. Bean to Barstool is all about stories, and today we're retelling a classic American ghost story,  The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The story provides the inspiration for New Holland Brewing Ichabod Pumpkin Ale, so grab your favorite pumpkin beer and join us for this haunting tale.

The music for this episode was performed on clarinet by Yosi Nilsen, with some special effects added.

Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together.

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Bean to Barstool host and Advanced Cicerone David Nilsen has written and published a guide to pairing craft beer and craft chocolate, and it's for sale now on the Bean to Barstool website.

This 70-page, full-color zine provides all the information you need to begin pairing craft beer and craft chocolate. The zine provides basic information on how beer and chocolate are made and how to taste them properly, then explains the process for pairing the two and how to plan and lead your own pairing at home. 54 pages of style-by-style guidelines and recommendations provide careful instructions for picking the right chocolate to pair with each beer style.

You can purchase the zine here.

Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together.

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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.

Bean to Barstool host David Nilsen just got back from covering the Great American Beer Festival in Denver for PorchDrinking, as well as the Denver Rare Beer Tasting. While he was in Denver, he attended PorchDrinking's 10th anniversary festival, hosted a beer and chocolate pairing at Lady Justice Brewing, and stopped in at many of Denver's best breweries, including Jagged Mountain Brewery, Our Mutual Friend, Cerveceria Colorado, and Wah Gwaan Brewing.

In this unscripted episode, David shares his favorite beers and experiences of GABF week, with particular emphasis on the week's best chocolate beers.

Breweries with beers discussed in this episode also include Radiant Beer, Dogfish Head, Boston Beer, Verboten Brewing, Denver Beer, Wibby Brewing, Wayfinder Beer, Bonesaw Brewing, Seedstock Brewery, Marble Brewing, Two Roads Brewing, Left Hand Brewing, Cerebral Brewing, Partake Brewing, Ceria Brewing, Avery Brewing, and Corporate Ladder Brewing.

Chocolate makers and cacao sources mentioned include Ethereal Confections, Chocolate Alchemy, TCHO, Cultura Chocolate, and Miette et Chocolat. 

Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together.

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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.

“Horror is emblematic of everything we’re doing and feeling, but it gives us the safe space to discuss it.”

Spooky season is upon us, and today we’re talking with two brewers for whom spooky season lasts the entire year. Eilise Lane is the founder and head brewer at Scarlet Lane Brewing Company in Indiana. As you’ll hear in the interview, Eilise is obsessed with horror movies and literature, and books in general, and uses Scarlet Lane to celebrate all things macabre. Josh Hull is a brewer at Scarlet Lane who is also a screenwriter and filmmaker. His new horror comedy Glorious is available for streaming now on Shudder. 

The three of us discuss our love for horror and how that theme gets celebrated in fun ways at Scarlet Lane, how Eilise comes up with the ideas for her beers, and Josh’s process for writing the grimy but delightful cosmic horror movie Glorious.

Scarlet Lane beers discussed in this episode include Dorian Espresso Stout and its variants, Sammy Terry Kölsch, and Glorious Cosmic Ale. 

Horror movies discussed in this episode include Scream, Aliens, Halloween, Dracula, Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Anna and the Apocalypse, Jaws, Tremors, Deep Blue Sea, Midsommar, Nope, Prey, Hard Candy, and of course Glorious.

You can check out Glorious on Shudder with a subscription or free trial.

The music for this episode is from the song “200 Miles” by my dear friend, indie folk musician Anna ps. You can find out more about Anna’s music in the show notes or at her website annapsmusic.com, where you can also get in touch to book her to play at your brewery, cafe, or other establishment.

Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together.

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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.

In this episode of Bean to Barstool Bite Sized we talk with Dr. J. Nikol Jackson-Beckham, the principle behind Crafted for All, a consultancy that helps craft beverage companies and organizations be more inclusive, equitable, and just, as well as the founder and executive director of Craft by EDU, a nonprofit whose mission is to champion those same goals in craft beer through education and professional development. I spoke with Dr. J. last year about descriptive tasting language for beer, how culturally informed those vocabularies can be, and how the tasting experience can be used to invite newcomers into craft beer. 

Recent articles by beer writers Mark Dredge and Courtney Iseman.

You can listen to the full interview with Dr. J. here.

Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together.

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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.

“Uncommon cacao is telling the story of the power of connection.”

In this episode we talk with Emily Stone, the founder and CEO of Uncommon Cacao, a group of Transparent Trade cacao operations with offices in the U.S. and Europe and operations at numerous cacao origins. Uncommon supplies cacao for hundreds of bean to bar chocolate makers and, indirectly through their bean to bar partners, quite a few craft breweries as well. Emily is passionate about the people and stories behind these cacao origins, and here we talk about those origins, what led Emily to start Uncommon, and the importance of full, two-way transparency in the cacao supply chain.

Chocolate makers mentioned in this episode include Ritual, Taza, Dick Taylor, Dandelion, Raaka, French Broad, Ratza, Videri, and Ethereal Confections.

If you want to learn more about Uncommon Cacao, you can visit their website. They just released their annual transparency report here if you wish to read it. You can also follow them on Instagram.

The music for this episode is from the song “200 Miles” by my dear friend, indie folk musician Anna ps. You can find out more about Anna’s music in the show notes or at her website annapsmusic.com, where you can also get in touch to book her to play at your brewery, cafe, or other establishment.

Emily Stone is the Founder and CEO of Uncommon Cacao, a group of Transparent Trade cacao operations including Maya Mountain Cacao (Belize), Cacao Verapaz (Guatemala), and Uncommon offices in the U.S. and Europe. Emily spent 2010-2017 living in Belize and Guatemala developing the specialty cacao value chain operations and working directly with producers. Now based in the U.S., Emily leads Uncommon Cacao's work supplying delicious, high quality, transparently-sourced cacao from 12+ countries for hundreds of craft and premium chocolate makers globally. Emily is an Ashoka Fellow and Unreasonable Fellow, and a recipient of the FCIA Recognition of Excellence in Outstanding Contribution at Origin in Sustainability of Fine Chocolate.

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!
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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.