As I highlighted several months back, this was a summer of sour Berliner Weisse beers, tart and salty goses, and thirst-quenching radlers and shandies. And as these lower alcohol, often funky and fruity beers enter the mainstream, I started to think that we’re not so far off from a possible new trend: kombucha-craft beer hybrids.
Kombucha, a fermented, fizzy tea often flavored with fruit and spices, can be an acquired taste. It’s tart and vinegary and might result in a double-take for first-time sippers. It also contains live bacteria and yeast and is lauded for possible health benefits, such as help with digestion and immune system support. Now, as small-batch kombucha makers open up across the country, craft brewers are experimenting with funky hybrids.
Hoppy Leaf-Crooked StaveIn Dallas, Four Corners Brewing Co. partnered with Holy Kombucha to create Holy Rooster Prickly Pear Kombucha Beer, a 2.8 percent ABV blend of Holy Kombucha’s Prickly Pear booch and Four Corners beer. Earlier this year, Crooked Stave in Denver, Colorado, collaborated with nearby Happy Leaf Kombucha, Denver’s first dedicated kombucha brewery. Their booch-beer blends include Crooked Stave’s Vieille barrel-aged saison with Happy Leaf’s rose and ginger, lemon, hibiscus and ginger, and prickly pear kombuchas, all of which were poured on draft at Crooked Stave’s tasting room (pictured at top). Kombucha makers are also finding inspiration in beer: Urban Farm Fermentory in Portland, Maine, makes a dry-hopped kombucha, as well as tart kombucha-cider blends.