Best David Nilsen Podcasts (2025)

1
Cacao Farming, Fermentation, & Beer with Sarah Bharath, Part 2 1:25:46

Play Pause

7d ago1:25:46

1:25:46

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 B…

1
Celebrating Oktoberfest with German Literature 1:03:59

13d ago1:03:59

1:03:59

Welcome to HopLit, a beery book podcast for everyone! HopLit hosts David & Emily discuss all things German by celebrating Oktoberfest. From a bookstack six-pack full of German authors, characters, and settings to our This Beer is Lit segment, we cheers to a tradition over 200 years in the making. In addition to Oktoberfest, we discuss recent readin…

1
Bonus: Hispanic Heritage Month Poetry Picks 16:28

21d ago16:28

16:28

Welcome to a special bonus episode of HopLit, a beery book podcast for everyone! HopLit hosts David & Emily continue celebrating September as Hispanic Heritage Month in a bonus episode featuring Hispanic voices in poetry. Each share three titles in a bonus bookstack six-pack of six different collections shedding light on the Hispanic experience in …

1
Cacao Farming & Fermentation with Sarah Bharath, Part 1 1:25:20

22d ago1:25:20

1:25:20

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 t…

1
Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month 1:07:14

28d ago1:07:14

1:07:14

Welcome to HopLit, a beery book podcast for everyone! HopLit hosts David & Emily celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15) by featuring six incredible authors and titles in this episode’s bookstack six-pack. Beyond that, David & Emily get into some recent reading, check out upcoming book and beer events, and David teases next epis…

1
Angi of ChocolateSpiel on Color and Pairing 37:05

1M ago37:05

37:05

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 chocola…

1
Camping Gone Wrong 1:20:48

1M ago1:20:48

1:20:48

Welcome to HopLit, a beery book podcast for everyone! HopLit hosts David & Emily celebrate the end of summer by sharing a Bookstack 6-pack of books featuring disastrous camping trips and summer camp vacations gone horribly wrong. In addition, the hosts of HopLit review recent readings, review the winners of the Hugo Awards, and discuss how the pand…

1
Kumi Arhin of Ofori Brothers Wine 37:19

2M ago37:19

37:19

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 t…

1
Back to School: Books Set on Campus 1:28:33

2M ago1:28:33

1:28:33

Welcome to HopLit, a beery book podcast for everyone! HopLit hosts David & Emily celebrate the imminent start of the new school year with a Back to School Bookstack 6-pack celebrating books about or set in school settings and college campuses. From campuses both real and fictional, we are sharing stories that explore our most formative years and ex…

1
Tunes and Tomes: Books About Music 1:23:49

3M ago1:23:49

1:23:49

Welcome to HopLit, a beery book podcast for everyone! HopLit hosts David & Emily continue their pop culture July series with a Tunes & Tomes Bookstack 6-pack celebrating books about music. From memoirs to music journalism and criticism to fiction, we’re sharing our favorite books about musicians and their art. In addition, the hosts of HopLit revie…

1
Summer Blockbusters! (kind of) 1:33:00

3M ago1:33:00

1:33:00

Welcome to HopLit, a beery book podcast for everyone! HopLit hosts David & Emily celebrate summer blockbusters and the relationships between movies and books, movies and beer, and books and beer. In this episode, David & Emily celebrate the 50th anniversary of Jaws and share their own film-inspired book picks in a Blockbuster Bookstack 6-pack. In a…

1
Pairing Tea and Chocolate with Estelle Tracy 1:22:24

3M ago1:22:24

1:22:24

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 bl…

1
Commemorating Juneteenth with Books & Beer 1:12:29

3M ago1:12:29

1:12:29

Welcome to HopLit, a beery book podcast for everyone! In this episode, David & Emily commemorate Juneteenth with books that look at the legacy of slavery, the end of the slavery, and what has come after it, books that show the resilience of Black authors and characters. They also offer a quick list of books for World Refugee Day. Our Bookstack 6-pa…

1
The Award-Winning Chocolate Beers of Third Eye Brewing 46:40

4M ago46:40

46:40

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 p…

1
Bite Sized: Dorothy Neary of NearyNogs Chocolate 5:39

4M ago5:39

5:39

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 ma…

1
Piety & Desire Chocolate In New Orleans 44:42

4M ago44:42

44:42

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 …

1
Celebrating Pride Month with Books & Beer 1:14:40

4M ago1:14:40

1:14:40

Welcome to HopLit, a beery book podcast for everyone! In this episode, David & Emily sit down for the first episode of HopLit, a beery book conversation with zero snobbery. In this first episode, David & Emily kick off June by discussing LGBTQIA+ authors, characters, and narratives, as well as different Pride events happening at bookstores and brew…

1
Front Porch Chocolate 1:06:03

4M ago1:06:03

1:06:03

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 i…

1
Pairing and Tasting with Estelle Tracy (Episode 100!) 1:03:25

5M ago1:03:25

1:03:25

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 …

1
Chocolate, Music, and Irish Whiskey with NearyNogs Chocolate 50:27

5M ago50:27

50:27

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 crea…

1
Drinking Intentionally with Namesake Coffee 1:07:53

6M ago1:07:53

1:07:53

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 tha…

1
Nico Silverman of Diego's Chocolate 57:22

6M ago57:22

57:22

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 …

1
Chasing Wonder with Serge Savchuk of Vaka Chocolate 37:06

7M ago37:06

37:06

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 d…

1
Roots Forged In Fire—Tandy Peterson of Embers Chocolate 49:29

8M ago49:29

49:29

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 ep…

1
"How Great Is Mexico?" — Cervercería Itañeñe & Tout Chocolat 57:12

8M ago57:12

57:12

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 ba…

1
Yellow Bird Chocolate & Albion Malleable Brewing 38:45

8M ago38:45

38:45

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 cas…

1
Flights Across America with Joel Geier 48:45

9M ago48:45

48:45

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 …

1
Bonus: Pairing the Beers of Chimay with Craft Chocolate 11:29

10M ago11:29

11:29

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 beautiful…

1
Kathryn Laverack and Victoria Hopper on Cacao & Chocolate Cocktails 53:42

10M ago53:42

53:42

Chocolate educator Kathryn Laverack of Cocoa Encounters and The Brown Cow pub proprietor Victoria Hopper have partnered on numerous chocolate and drink pairings, and events highlighting chocolate or cacao cocktails. I recently sat down with Kathryn and Victoria to ask them about the union of cacao and spirits, what they’ve learned from each other, …

1
Bite Sized: Nick Davis of One One Cacao 6:17

11M ago6:17

6:17

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 Nick Davis, the founder and chocolate maker at One One Cacao in Jamaica. In this clip, Nick talks about some of the challenges facing cacao farmers and laborers in Jamaica, what needs to cha…

1
Zadkiela Rios on Pairing Beer, Chocolate, and Other Indulgences 41:12

11M ago41:12

41:12

Zadkiela Rios is a chemical engineer by training and a brewing professional by trade. Zadky isfrom Venezuela originally and is currently working in Australia, and she's best known to beer, beverage, and chocolate fans on Instagram as @Zadky_Beer_to_Bar. She and I have followed each other for years, and it’s been fun to not only follow her interest …

1
Midwest Craft Chocolate Festival: Cacao, Farming, & Flavor in the Heartland 44:49

11M ago44:49

44:49

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 gro…

1
Coffee, Cacao, Cocktails, and Curiosity with Charlene Cabioch 45:00

12M ago45:00

45:00

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. Charlen…

1
Every Bean Has a Story: Monica Rogan of Goodnow Farms 45:49

1y ago45:49

45:49

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,…

1
Bite Sized: 5 Minutes with Raven Hanna 5:15

1y ago5:15

5:15

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 Raven Hanna, a molecular biochemist and biophysicist and the author of the book One Cacao Tree: Backyard Cocoa, Tiny Fermentations, and Chocolate Making in the Tropics. In this clip, Raven t…

1
Bonus: How To Pair Standard-Strength Porters and Stouts with Craft Chocolate 9:20

1y ago9:20

9:20

Standard-strength Porter and Stout styles such as American Porter, English Porter, Oatmeal Stout, Milk Stout, Irish Stout, and some American Stouts feature roasty flavors and aromas from the presence of roasted malts. These grains are roasted similar to how coffee beans and cacao beans get roasted, and take on many of the same flavor notes—coffee a…

1
Looking Back, Looking Forward: 4 Years of Bean to Barstool 26:22

1y ago26:22

26:22

Bean to Barstool celebrated its 4th birthday in August, and today host 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. Thanks to everyone who has listened so far. We're looking forward to what's ahead! Check out David's book Pairi…

1
Bonus: Pairing Fruited Sour Ales with Craft Chocolate 10:42

1y ago10:42

10:42

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 mak…

1
Bite Sized: Brian Simpson of Riverbend Malt 5:55

1y ago5:55

5:55

Hey, everyone. 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 Brian Simpson of Riverbend Malt in Asheville, North Carolina. I spoke with Brian all the way back in 2020 for this podcast, but we met up recently for a beer when he was passi…

1
Coffee, Chocolate, & Beer in Panama with Franz Zeimetz of Lost Origin Coffee Lab & Casa Bruja and Jaime Pérez of Bocao 58:28

1y ago58:28

58:28

In this episode we talk with Franz Zeimetz of Lost Origin Coffee Lab and Casa Bruja brewery and Jaime Pérez of Bocao chocolate, all from Panama. We 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 Jai…

1
Bite Sized: Hi-Wire Brewing 10W-40 5:54

1y ago5:54

5:54

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 Hank Marshall and Peter Batinski at Hi-Wire Brewing in Asheville, North Carolina. Hi-Wire brews an Imperial Stout line called 10W-40, made with French Broad Chocolate cacao, Dynamite coffee,…

1
Pairing Spirits and Chocolate with Shay Pal 37:32

1y ago37:32

37:32

While I mostly pair craft chocolate with craft beer here at Bean to Barstool, there's a world of great beverages out there for pairing with great chocolate. My good friend Shay Pal seems to have paired bars with most of them through her adventurous tasting and traveling. In this episode, Shay and I discuss how she approaches pairing with craft choc…

1
Bonus: How To Pair IPAs with Craft Chocolate 14:30

1y ago14:30

14:30

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 flav…

1
Judging, Pairing, and the Definition of Craft with Clay Gordon 1:20:22

1+ y ago1:20:22

1:20:22

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 a…

1
Moksa Brewing's Pastry Stouts with Head Brewer Cory Meyer 30:32

1+ y ago30:32

30:32

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 a…

1
How to Host a Beer and Chocolate Pairing! 29:44

1+ y ago29:44

29:44

My new book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together is out now, and you can get it from Bean to Barstool or Amazon! In honor of the release, we’re talking today 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 gi…

1
Bonus: Beer Tarot for World Tarot Day with Courtney Iseman 9:49

1+ y ago9:49

9:49

Saturday, May 25, is World Tarot Day, and this is the perfect time to learn more about what beer and Tarot have in common. Beer writer Courtney Iseman's zine Beer Tarot: Pulling Cards, Pouring Beer, and Discovering Self is a fantastic way to learn more about both, whether you're a beer fan who's curious about Tarot or vice versa. Listen to this qui…

1
The Wonder of One Cacao Tree with Raven Hanna 45:57

1+ y ago45:57

45:57

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 C…

1
Bonus: All About Beer Fermentation 7:27

1+ y ago7:27

7:27

Beer is fermented (usually) by one of two closely related species of yeast. In this quick bonus episode, we look at what 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! Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Brin…

1
Somerville Chocolate & Aeronaut Brewing 54:25

1+ y ago54:25

54:25

Today we're looking at a fascinating collaboration between a craft chocolate maker and a craft brewery. Eric Parkes at Somerville Chocolate is a tenant in Aeronaut'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 ongoi…