Third Eye Double Astral’s Latest Chapter
by David Nilsen
Kelly Montgomery at Third Eye Brewing in Cincinnati, Ohio, has more major beer awards for chocolate stouts and other flavored stouts than just about anyone. Third Eye Double Astral, an imperial stout brewed with cacao nibs and vanilla, has won medals at the Great American Beer Festival, U.S. Open Beer Championship, and Ohio Brewers Cup. I’ve written about the beer on this blog previously here, and interviewed Kelly about brewing with cacao here.
In late 2025, Kelly reached out to me about brewing a special batch of Double Astral to revamp the concept. He wanted some guidance on options for cacao origins that might push the beer to even greater heights. I had one in mind and had been hoping a brewery would bite on it.
Last spring, I shared the story of Kemu Farms, a cacao farm in Liberia run by Otis Kemutambah and his family. The story of how Otis came to start a cacao farm in his homeland is a fascinating one, and when I finally got to taste a chocolate bar made with his cacao (made by Dustin Cornett at Chocolat Cafe) I was deeply impressed. Beyond being delicious, I was immediately struck by how suitable the flavors were for brewing—warm and approachable but still nuanced, with notes of gentle baking spices, toasted brioche, and cashew butter. These would likely complement the malt flavors of a complex, well-brewed stout without creating clashes. It would provide a rich, classic “chocolatey” foundation but with subtle nuances.
I pitched using Otis’s cacao to Kelly, and he was on board. The challenge now would be getting enough of it to brew with, and in time for Kelly’s timeline for brewing the beer in March. Kemu is still a young cacao farm, and Otis is only bringing back a small amount of cacao when he visits. He could get us 30 lbs, which would be lighter than that after roasting. Dustin would not have time in his production schedule to reprise his role as roaster, so I reached out to Hans Westerink at Violet Sky, who has been roasting cacao for Kelly’s beers for the past year.
For the batch size Kelly would be brewing, the 30 lbs of beans Otis could supply would not be enough to fulfill the recipe for this beer on its own. We talked with Hans, and settled on Haiti PISA nibs to make up the difference. While this beer has previously been brewed with just Haitian nibs and been delicious, our hope was that the more classical profile of the Liberian cacao and the nuances between the two would bring it even more into focus. Otis and Hans got to work, and the nibs arrived at Third Eye just in time.
After brewing the base beer and allowing it to finish primary fermentation (you can hear more about what goes into writing the recipe for a good chocolate stout in this interview with Kelly), it was ready to spend a few days resting on our nibs. We would use a total of 60 lbs of nibs—Just over 20 lbs from Otis in Liberia, and about 40 lbs from Haiti. Upon opening the sealed bags of Otis’s cacao fresh from Violet Sky, notes of chocolate muffin and faint caramelized banana greeted us. Kelly divided the nibs into a number of mesh bags to be suspended in the conditioning tank to steep for 3-4 days. The bags were tied off to the racking arm in the tank, and 10 gallons vanilla extract were dumped in as well. Over the next several hours, after the tank was thoroughly purged of oxygen, the beer was pumped in.
This finished batch of Double Astral is both robust but still expressive and light on its feet. Soft berry notes and vanilla-soaked dark chocolate leap from the glass, more layered flavors of rich melted dark chocolate, caramelized sugar, burnt caramel, and even a hint of strawberry floating around the finish. There’s enough bitterness on the finish to keep the beer from coming across too sweet.
If you’re in the area, the beer is currently available at the Third Eye taprooms and can be found in cans around the area as well. If you’re in the brewing industry and will be attending the Craft Brewers Conference in Philadelphia in a couple weeks, you can taste this batch at the Lallemand booth on the expo floor.
