You've already gulped craft beer and sipped artisanal pour-over. So naturally you've moved on to nitro cold brew. At least, Starbucks hopes you have—or that you will. Later this summer, the coffee giant will start dispensing this slightly sour, vaguely effervescent, nitrogen-infused version of cold coffee at 500 US stores. Selling coffee that's dispensed like beer might seem like no big deal. But for the world's biggest coffee chain, it'll be a logistical feat.

Nitro cold brew actually combines two sets of expertise—coffee made slowly with cold water, and then run through a nitrogen-powered tap. In a sense, it's a combination of coffee nerdery and obscure craft beer snobbery, powered by local, artisanal-aspiring coffeehouses. Sales jumped 338.9 percent between 2010 and 2015, according to Starbucks' market research, largely spearheaded by Portland-based Stumptown Coffee Roasters (owned by Starbucks rival Peet's Coffee and Tea). So it's no surprise that the world's largest coffee chain would want to get in on the action. But the big question is how Starbucks will manage to scale so much fizz.

In fact, Starbucks already makes cold-brew in house, soaking beans for 20 hours. Adding nitrogen and dispensing it from a tap makes for a certain kind of coffee house theater, giving you a creamy pour that looks more like a Guinness. It's a performance that requires a lot of equipment, and it's neither cheap nor simple to maintain.

The big question is how Starbucks can scale so much fizz.

A single nitro cold brew coffee tap system involves a lot of parts, from the tubes and nozzles to the kegs themselves, which will hold the cold brew but also the nitrogen. Those tap systems can run about $500 to $1,000 a pop, says John Craven, CEO of BevNet, a trade publication that covers the beverage industry. Add that up across 500 stores and you're looking at up to half a million dollars toward equipment alone to serve a cold coffee drink that's slated to be available right at the end of summer, just before people start pining for pumpkin spice lattes.

Highwire Coffee Roasters in the San Francisco Bay Area started serving its Howling Wolf nitro coffee a little over a year ago, enlisting the help of a local brewery. The fizzy, cold drink is a hit at the local farmers' markets, says Cody Gordon, Highwire's wholesale manager. But while Highwire runs just about half a dozen nitrogen kegs and coffee taps in one city, Starbucks plans to install 500 of them, each requiring constant maintenance.

As part of the roll-out, Starbucks has been working with nitrogen keg vendors to set up a system for picking up and dropping off spent kegs. But managing kegs isn't easy. Baristas will have to go through training on how to clean, sanitize, and switch out new kegs, tubes, and nozzles.

Each of the pilot stores will have a two-tap system installed, says Holly Shafer, a Starbucks spokesperson—one for regular cold brew coffee and one for nitrogen. You'll be able to order your drink with or without the velvety bubbles, but meanwhile baristas will have to fill kegs somewhere in the back of the cafe. That's fine for coffee, but not nitrogen: All that gas under pressure is dangerous.