Beer Espresso: Craft Beer And Artisan Coffee All In One Cup

Starbucks has done it with its beer and wine blends available in 70 stores nationwide. With the growing popularity of craft beer and artisan coffee, Food Beast reports Goose Island Beer Company partnered with Intelligenstia Coffee and came up with two new flavours of beer espressos: Bourbon County Macchiato and Bourbon County Black Eye.

Located at Elk Mountain Hops Farm, Northern Idaho's leading brewery company manufactured beer-based coffee brew. Goose Island's Brewing Innovation Manager Mike Siegel tells Food Beast the original coffee radler created by Intelligenstia Coffee's Jesse Raub and Jay Cunningham was a mix of 3 oz cold-brewed Kurimi Ethiopia Single Origin and 19 oz Goose Island Wheat ale.

"I don't think anyone is making espresso and beer drinks with great espresso equipment, carefully filtered water and really well trained baristas," said Cunningham. "Add to the fact that we had a keg of Bourbon County [Stout] to use too, it just doesn't happen very often."

Mixed with the radler, the Bourbon County Macchiato aka White Rushing is a blend of 2 oz Bourbon County Stout, 1 oz Black Cat Espresso and 1 oz steamed milk. The Bourbon County Black Eye is for those who like it strong --- with 3 oz Bourbon County Stout and 1 oz Black Cat Espresso.

Too bad these beer espresso drinks are only served exclusively for both companies on each of their special occasions.

What is possible, though, is finally taking a sip of the interesting brew that includes two of the newest and most innovated beverages: specialty coffee and craft beer.

According to The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) 2014 report, 51% of the coffee market now prefer specialty coffee over non-specialty cups. Further, the Brewers Association also reported the spike of craft beer popularity in 2014 which doubled from 5.7% of market share in 2011 to 11% in 2014. This amount equals to about 22 million beer barrels or 44 million kegs.