Chocolate is almost universally loved, including by brewers. Often used in stouts or other dark beers, chocolate can add complexity to beer while complimenting the flavors of malt. As making good beer requires good ingredients and skilled brewers, so too does making good chocolate require the best inputs handled by expert artisans. And combining the two into chocolate beer? That’s a master class in understanding manipulating agricultural products into a culinary masterpiece.
Guests
Kelly Montgomery has been brewing beer for 28 years, beginning as a hobby while in college at Ohio State. In Kelly’s seven years as a professional brewer he has won three Brewery of Year Awards at the Great American Beer Festival with 2 different breweries (in 2018, 2019, and 2023). Most recently, he headed up a team that won Grand Master Champion, the top award at the US Open Beer Competition. Kelly is the current co-owner and head brewer at Third Eye Brewing Company and was previously Head Brewer and a current co-owner at Brink Brewing Co.
Paul Picton is a mechanical engineer who changed careers in 2013 to become a chocolate maker. Along with his wife, Marlene, and their sons, Ben and Scott, own and operate the Maverick Chocolate Co. in Cincinnati, Ohio. Their chocolate has received numerous national and international awards including nine Good Food Awards. Maverick Chocolate employs 12 people.
Paul previously was the Sales Director for MTU Aero Engines – a division of Mercedes Benz. Paul spent seven years at Delta Airlines and three years in GE Aircraft Engines. Paul mentors numerous food-based entrepreneurs in Cincinnati. He is active in his neighborhood community of Newport, Kentucky.
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