Cacao for Brewing and Spirits

Cacao and fermentation were made for each other. Long before it ever met sugar or a mold, cacao was fermented, roasted, and refined — a process not unlike what you do in the brewhouse or the stillroom. When you bring it into your craft, you’re working with an ingredient that already knows how to transform.

Our Brewers Blend was built for that transformation. It’s a specially roasted and winnowed mix of cacao chosen for clean extraction, rich chocolate character, and none of the mess that comes from dumping a bar of chocolate into the boil. It’s been tested and tuned by brewers and distillers alike — the result is deep cocoa flavor without the fat or haze that ruin head retention and clarity.

Use it like any botanical: think about timing, temperature, and contact.

In beer, add it late in the boil or in secondary for a smoother chocolate note; in spirits, steep it as you would coffee or vanilla — short if you want brightness, long if you want fudge and roast. It pairs beautifully with vanilla, chili, barrel char, and darker malts, but the surprise is how well it works in lighter styles too.

Whether you’re building a cacao stout, a whiskey infusion, or a one-off experiment, this category is where to start. Each product here is roasted and prepared for brewing and distilling, ready to bring chocolate’s full spectrum — nutty, earthy, fruity, and dark — into your next creation.

Read more about brewing with cacao and John’s deep dive on brewing with chocolate.