Jolly Pumpkin La Parcela is not your typical pumpkin beer. Brewed with pumpkin, pumpkin spices, and cacao nibs, this mixed-fermentation, sour, oak-aged pumpkin ale is a fall beer for folks who don’t think they like pumpkin spice beers.

Brewers have long used cacao nibs in a variety of beer styles to create or accent chocolatey flavors. Cocoa Supply, a company started in Ecuador, is now importing shelf-stable cacao fruit pulp, hoping to turn brewers on to parts—and flavors—of the cacao fruit that have previously been unavailable in North America.

Third Eye Brewing Double Astral is an Imperial Stout brewed with cacao nibs from Maverick Chocolate. It’s a familiar concept, but it’s beautifully executed in this Great American Beer Festival gold medal-winner.

The Great American Beer Festival and Denver Rare Beer Tasting give craft beer fans the chance to taste some of the best beers in the country, including many chocolate beers brewed with cacao. Here were Bean to Barstool host David Nilsen’s favorites.

Rabid Brewing’s annual Feast of the Goat Queen celebrates all things weird and wondrous. Described as a Ren Faire for Fae Folk, it features burlesque, wrestling, fire dancing, and more. It also marks the release of Crown of Horns Chocolate Cream Ale brewed with Malah Na Bulong Philippine cacao.

Wolf’s Ridge Brewing in Columbus, Ohio, uses single origin cacao from Ethereal Confections to brew a range of creative chocolate beers.

Austin Jevne of Humble Forager Brewery will always remember the night he visited an Amish maple sugar shack in Wisconsin to source maple syrup for Sugar Shack Diaries, a decadent Imperial Stout brewed with Ecuadorian cacao, Mostra coffee, Mexican vanilla, and maple syrup.

Atlanta beer writer Ale Sharpton and New Belgium Brewing have partnered on Piano Keys, an elegant Imperial Stout brewed with ethically-sourced cacao nibs and vanilla. The beer has given Ale and New Belgium the opportunity to host events and start conversations that have invited new fans into the world of craft beer, and—most importantly—helped those newcomers see a place for themselves in craft beer.

Tyler Cagwin makes bean to bar chocolate at Nostalgia Chocolates in Syracuse, New York, and he provides cacao for area craft breweries as well.

Brett Smith at Branch & Bone Artisan Ales in Dayton, Ohio, uses cacao from bean to bar chocolate maker Violet Sky Cacao in South Bend, Indiana, for his chocolate Imperial Stouts. Here’s the story of how the partnership began.

While beer writer David Nilsen was in Denver for Great American Beer Festival week, he sought out great chocolate beers all over the city. From the Great Mexican Beer Fiesta to the Denver Rare Beer Tasting to GABF, these were the best chocolate beers in Denver.