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 particular success with chocolate beers. Their Double Astral Chocolate Imperial Milk Stout won gold as the best chocolate beer in the country at GABF in 2023.
In May 2025, I led an event with Kelly at Third Eye's Hamilton location called Chocolate, Beer, & Chocolate Beer. We led attendees through a tasting of Double Astral and Dark Aura (a chocolate peanut butter Imperial Stout), and a pairing of two of Third Eye's non-chocolate beers (details below) with two craft chocolates, before a tour of the brewery and the barrel cellar.
In this episode, Kelly and I talk about brewing with cacao, working with Maverick Chocolate and Violet Sky Chocolate, collaborating with River North Brewery in Denver, writing beer recipes with cacao or barrel-aging in mind, and pairing with craft chocolate. Listen in as one of the best brewers of adjunct stouts in the country shares his expertise!
You can learn more about Third Eye Brewing on their website, or follow them on Instagram.
Beers discussed in this episode include:
Double Astral—10.8% Imperial Stout brewed with Madagascar Bourbon vanilla, Violet Sky Haitian cacao nibs, an lactose.
Dark Aura—10.4% Imperial Stout brewed with Maverick Haitian cacao nibs and peanut butter.
Celestial Death—10.2% Black Barleywine brewed with TCHO Ghana cacao nibs, in collaboration with River North Brewery.
Pairings from the Chocolate, Beer, & Chocolate Beer event:
First Pairing:
Beer: Funky Fresh v.9—4% fruited sour with passionfruit, prickly pear, and pineapple.
Chocolate: Theo & Philo 65% Philippine Dark Chocolate with Green Mango and Salt.
Second Pairing:
Beer: Jelly Brain v.1—7.2% Milkshake IPA with pineapple and toasted coconut.
Chocolate: Definite 75% Dominican Republic Finca Elvesia Dark Chocolate with Dominican Rum.
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.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!