A chocolate maker and a beer brewer in the Margaret River region of Western Australia have joined forces to create a chocolate stout.

The innovative pair, who work out of the Eagle Bay micro brewery, use the husks of roasted cocoa beans to add a unique flavour to the dark beer.

ABC Rural reporter Olivia Garnett caught up with head brewer Nick d’Espeissis and local wine-turned-chocolate maker Josh Bahen to hear about the unusual creation.

“Because there is quite an amount of dark malt, you get both the chocolate and coffee flavours. It looks like mush but smells delicious,” Nick told ABC Rural.

The husks are approximately 70 per cent from Brazil’s Baha’i Estate, while the remaining husks are from Madagascar’s Sambirano Valley; a region known for growing high-flavour cocao.

“The Madagascar is very fruity and citrusy, and the Brazil is a lot darker and chocolaty,” Josh said.

The chocolate stout trend has beengrowing steadily in the US for a fewyears now, and an increasing numberof entrepreneurs are jumping onthe bandwagon throughout Europe,canada and South Africa.

“Husks are a product we have no usefor so if we can get some sort of valueout of it, it would be good,” Josh toldABC Rural.

“It’s used a lot as garden mulch, butwe thought we could do somethingbetter with it because there is somuch flavour in the husk.”