AboutDavid Nilsen, Author at PorchDrinking.com
David Nilsen
Bean to Barstool Podcast | Zadkiela Rios on Pairing, Tasting & Teaching
November 13, 2024 | David Nilsen
In this episode, host David Nilsen talks with Zadkiela Rios about pairing beer and chocolate, how tasting and loving other beverages gives her a broader perspective, the role of travel in expanding her flavor vocabulary, and how her science background informs her tasting experiences.
Bean to Barstool Podcast | Midwest Craft Chocolate Festival
October 30, 2024 | David Nilsen
The inaugural Midwest Craft Chocolate Festival will take place Friday-Saturday, November 22-23 in the small town of Rushville, Indiana. This is a really unique event in the world of craft chocolate. Most of our festivals are in big cities on the coasts—New York, Seattle, San Francisco—but craft chocolate is all about cacao, the farms where it’s grown, and the farmers and farm workers who grow it, so where better to hold a celebration of chocolate than a farming community in America’s heartland?
Bean to Barstool Podcast | Coffee, Cacao, Cocktails & Curiosity with Charlene Cabioch
October 11, 2024 | David Nilsen
While the bean in Bean to Barstool primarily refers to cacao for chocolate, and the barstool to craft beer, we have also covered craft coffee and spirits on this podcast periodically, and we’re looking at doing that more often going forward. Today’s guest brings both of those worlds together, giving new meaning to the name Bean to Barstool. Charlene Cabioch is a barista and mixologist from France who has a deep knowledge of both specialties, and has professional awards to prove it. She was a winner at the Aeropress World Championship in 2019, and the Coffee in Good Spirits Championship for coffee-infused cocktails in 2021 and 2023.
Bean to Barstool Podcast | Pairing Standard-Strength Porters and Stout with Craft Chocolate
October 2, 2024 | David Nilsen
In this bonus episode, David Nilsen explains which types of craft chocolate to seek out and which to avoid when pairing with standard-strength Porters and Stouts.
Bean to Barstool Podcast | Monica Rogan of Goodnow Farms
September 25, 2024 | David Nilsen
Few names in craft chocolate carry as much esteem as Goodnow Farms. Tom and Monica Rogan founded the company in Sudbury, Massachusetts, in 2015, and they cover pretty much the full spectrum of what bean to bar chocolate is all about in their portfolio of chocolate bars, including elegant single origin bars, classic inclusion bars with coffee, nuts, or fruit, unusual inclusions like caramelized onions or green Sichuan peppers, and bars made in collaboration with craft alcohol producers.
In this episode, Monica and host David Nilsen talk about those collaborations with distilleries and cideries, the compatibility of coffee and cacao, developing unique flavor concepts, and how Tom and Monica find the right profile to let single origin beans sing.
Bean to Barstool Podcast | Looking Back, Looking Forward
September 5, 2024 | David Nilsen
Bean to Barstool celebrated its 4th birthday in August. The Bean to Barstool podcast and blog have focused on the intersections between craft beer and craft chocolate, with interviews with brewers, makers and growers, deep dives on flavors, ingredients and processes, discussions of pairings and collaborations and the cultural overlaps between these artisan worlds. In this anniversary episode, David Nilsen looks back at the initial idea behind the site and podcast, what’s changed over the years and what the plans are for continuing to grow Bean to Barstool.
Bean to Barstool Podcast | Pairing Fruited Sour Ales with Craft Chocolate
August 28, 2024 | David Nilsen
Sour ales are a fantastic platform for fruit flavors. The acidity of the base beers dovetails with the brightness of the fruit and can help sell the flavors of the fruit more authentically. There are challenges to pairing these beers though, and most of them are related to variability of the beers themselves: there are so many different ways to make fruited sour ales. In this bonus episode of Bean to Barstool, David Nilsen walks through the different types of fruited sour ale and explains which types of craft chocolate to seek out and which to avoid when pairing with them.
Bean to Barstool Podcast | Pairing Fall Styles with Craft Chocolate
August 21, 2024 | David Nilsen
The arrival of fall means the arrival of fall seasonal beer styles. Fortunately for us, fall beer styles like pumpkin beer and Oktoberfest can pair great with craft chocolate, and today we’re going to talk about some of my favorites and recommendations to check out.
Pumpkin ales, Märzen, Festbier, and even fresh hop and wet hop beers can be paired with craft chocolate. Listen to this bonus episode to learn which bean to bar chocolate bars will work best with each seasonal style.
Bean to Barstool Podcast | Bonus: All About Beer Fermentation
August 14, 2024 | David Nilsen
Beer is usually fermented by one of two closely related species of yeast. In this quick bonus episode, Advanced Cicerone© David Nilsen look at how beer fermentation works, the differences between ale and lager, and how yeast and fermentation impact beer flavor. Enjoy this quick primer on beer fermentation!
Bean to Barstool Podcast | Coffee, Chocolate & Beer in Panama
August 7, 2024 | David Nilsen
In this episode of Bean to Barstool, host David Nilsen talks with Franz Zeimetz of Lost Origin Coffee Lab and Casa Bruja brewery and Jaime Pérez of Bocao chocolate, all from Panama. They discuss the state of craft chocolate, craft beer, and coffee in Panama, and a series of experiments and collaborations they’ve pursued between these three worlds. Franz has used raw cacao fruit from Jaime in a mixed-fermentation Saison, and is experimenting with various cacao and coffee fermentations, including some using brewing yeast or hops. Listen in as they talk coffee, chocolate, and beer in Panama.
Bean to Barstool Podcast | Bonus: All About Hops
July 31, 2024 | David Nilsen
Hops are the primary seasoning in beer, but what actually Are hops, and how are these used? In this quick bonus episode, we look at what hops are, how they’re used, when they’re added during the brewing process, and how they impact beer flavor. Enjoy this quick primer all about hops!
Bean to Barstool Podcast | Pairing Spirits & Chocolate with Shay Pal
July 24, 2024 | David Nilsen
While host David Nilsen mostly pairs craft chocolate with craft beer here at Bean to Barstool, there’s a world of great beverages out there for pairing with great chocolate. David’s good friend Shay Pal seems to have paired bars with most of them through her adventurous tasting and traveling. In this episode, Shay and David discuss how she approaches pairing with craft chocolate, how she avoids getting overwhelmed by the choices in front of her, and how she selects which spirit, wine, coffee, or cocktail to pair with any given bar. This is a fun conversation filled with curiosity, a trait that defines Shay. Follow along as David and Shay discuss pairing spirits and chocolate!
Bean to Barstool Podcast | How to Pair IPAs with Craft Chocolate
July 17, 2024 | David Nilsen
IPAs are the most popular family of beer styles in craft beer today, they aren’t the first beers most people think of for pairing with craft chocolate. While IPAs can pair beautifully with craft chocolate, it’s not an effortless pairing. IPAs present challenges that can lead to chocolate pairings with harsh, bitter, astringent, and/or clashing flavor qualities. In this bonus episode, we’ll look at some common styles of IPA, discuss their sensory attributes, and discuss chocolates to seek out and chocolates to avoid when planning pairings with each. Let’s pair IPAs with craft chocolate!
Bean to Barstool Podcast | Defining “Craft” with Clay Gordon
July 3, 2024 | David Nilsen
There might not be a more loaded term in beer and chocolate than “craft.” What does it mean, who gets to use it, and who gets to decide who does or doesn’t fall under its umbrella? Is craft about size and ownership? Is it about processes and ingredients? Is it some other ineffable quality? There is no perfect answer, and the parameters and stakes are different for both beer and chocolate, but it’s a fascinating topic for discussion.
In this episode David Nilsen talks with Clay Gordon, one of the most respected names in the world of craft chocolate, to discuss the meaning of craft, how the term’s usage and meaning differ in the beer and chocolate worlds, how tasting and judging have influenced beer and chocolate differently, and, toward the end, how we both approach chocolate pairings with beer and other beverages.
Hop Seasons | What Happens at a Small Hop Farm Throughout the Year
June 28, 2024 | David Nilsen
In the year-long agricultural cycle of beer’s main ingredients, hop harvest gets all the glory. Fresh hop and wet hop beers fill shelves and taplists every fall, a celebration of craft beer’s trendiest ingredient. Brewers flock to the Pacific Northwest (or their local hop yard) to evaluate the season’s best lots and choose hops for the coming year. Most of our “seasonal” beer styles today are nods to tradition rather than agricultural dictate, but these beers are different, a hold out from a time when brewing schedules and beer styles were guided by the growing calendar.
Bean to Barstool Podcast | Moksa Brewing’s Pastry Stouts with Cory Meyer
June 26, 2024 | David Nilsen
Moksa Brewing in Rocklin, California (just outside Sacramento), is one of the country’s most prolific and best producers of Pastry Stouts. These usually high alcohol and high gravity Stouts use ingredients like cacao, coffee, vanilla, and others to recreate the flavors of beloved desserts or create whole new flavor concepts. Moksa’s Pastry Stouts are indulgent but precise.
In this episode we talk with Moksa head brewer Cory Meyer about how he works with cacao, vanilla, and other adjunct ingredients, how he sources single origin examples, and how the Moksa team comes up with the concepts for these dessert beers.
Bean to Barstool Podcast | Bonus: All About Malt
June 19, 2024 | David Nilsen
Hops get a lot of buzz from beer lovers because of their expressive, fruity aromas and flavors, but malt is really the foundational ingredient of beer. You can technically brew beer without hops (though all commercial examples contain them), but you can’t brew it without malted grain, and the different malt varieties offer a dazzling rainbow of potential colors, aromas, flavors, and textures for building a new beer.
Bean to Barstool Podcast | How to Host a Beer & Chocolate Pairing at Home
May 29, 2024 | David Nilsen
Bean to Barstool host David Nilsen’s new book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together is out now. In honor of the release, David talks in this latest episode of Bean to Barstool about how to host a beer and chocolate pairing at home. How do you plan it, how do you guide the event itself, and how do you give your friends a memorable evening with beer and chocolate? We’ve got you covered.
Growing Change: Small Growers Adapt to a Shifting Craft Beer Market
May 28, 2024 | David Nilsen
Craft beer grew at an impressive rate in the decade preceding the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, from 1,813 U.S. breweries in 2010 to 9,092 in 2020, according to the Brewers Association. As it grew, it pulled a number of supporting industries up wthe
ith it, perhaps most notably small-scale ingredient growers and suppliers. The number of small hop farms in the U.S. increased from 68 in 2007 to 817 in 2017 (according to figures published by Penn State University), and member count of the Craft Maltsters Guild grew from eight companies when the guild was founded in 2013 to 67 by 2022.
Bean to Barstool Podcast | One Cacao Tree with Raven Hanna
May 8, 2024 | David Nilsen
Raven Hanna lives on the big island of Hawai’i, and her backyard is a picture of what most of us see when we hear the phrase tropical paradise. She has a PhD in molecular biophysics and biochemistry, and she loves science, but she also loves her senses, and the opportunity to immerse herself in the natural world. Her book One Cacao Tree: Backyard Cocoa, Tiny Fermentations, and Chocolate Making in the Tropics is an accessible, tangible guide to every step of cacao’s journey, from growing to fermenting, grinding to tempering.
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