Hangar 24 – The Making Of Pugachev Mocha
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MyBeer Buzz
From Hangar 24:
Here at the brewery we’re deep in the process of creating this beer, and wanted to share some pictures from our recent visit to the shared roasting warehouse of Parliament Chocolate and Augie’s Coffee Roasters, the two local craft shops whose ingredients will be included in Pugchev Mocha. It was cacao roasting day, and we shadowed Ryan Berk, founder and owner of Parliament Chocolate, as he walked us through the preparation of the cacao nibs that will be going into Mocha. Here’s a look inside the process behind just one ingredient in Mocha:
Parliament sources their cacao beans through one-on-one partnerships with farmers throughout South and Central America, and Ryan himself flies down each quarter to work alongside the farmers on both an educational and professional level. Once the beans return to Redlands they are sorted by hand, one bean at a time. Different beans will have drastically different flavor profiles, ranging from earthy and rich to bright and fruity. For Mocha we selected a well-rounded, neutral cacao that Ryan suggests will balance well with the base beer, and the future addition of coffee.
After this the beans go into the roaster, a beautiful piece of machinery which is also used by Augie’s for their green coffee beans. The roasting process Parliament uses differs for each type of cacao they receive, and many of their techniques had to be developed from scratch due to how few chocolatiers are doing this sort of bean-to-bar process. This is the point at which the wonderful smells of real, whole, dark chocolate began to wrap around us. As the beans pour out of the roaster they are sorted again, each of these selection points ensuring that only the healthiest beans end up in the final product.
Once the cacao is roasted it’s time to break the delicious bean apart from its exterior husks. The beans are run through a large grinder built by Parliament themselves, not unlike the grain mill that we use in our brewery for our malts. As they are crushed into nibs, a vacuum pulls out all of the husks, leaving behind just the roasted, delicious cacao. The smell throughout this process is amazing- deep, rich, roasting chocolate unlike anything we’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing.
All of this is only the first step in the chocolate making process. Now that the raw cacao is roasted, Parliament can begin turning the beans into chocolate bars, truffles, and all manner of other delicious confections. But for Pugachev Mocha, it’s the roasted nibs that we’re after. Five pounds of these nibs are now soaking deep within a single 25 year bourbon barrel which has been holding Pugachev’s Cobra for 14 months. Once this barrel is almost ready, we will add freshly roasted beans from Augie’s Coffee Roasters, and Mocha will be ready to bottle shortly thereafter.
Check out the Barrel Roll Club Membership page on our website if this is the first you’re hearing of it, and if you’d like to join us for an entire year of beers like Mocha, shoot us an email to grab one of the remaining slots.
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