6 Years of Sour Beer
We turned 6 years old this July and we’re still trying to wrap our heads around it. It feels simultaneously like yesterday and a million years ago that we were brewing 400 litre batches of heavily fruited modern sour beer from a kitchen and basement in Edinburgh.
A lot of things have changed for us since then; with bigger batches, and more releases, but a lot of things have stayed the same; like our commitment to great brewing and pushing the boundaries of what people might typically expect from beer.
Needless to say, we’re incredibly grateful to every single person who has supported us these last 6 years. It’s been a whirlwind for us at Vault City, and we couldn’t have done it with you. Here are some of our highlights as we look back on the last 12 months…
We brewed a lot of beer
Since our 5th birthday we’ve been on a brewing-spree, with 82 unique releases since last July. We stuck to our plans of releasing at least 6 new flavours every month, with the occasional extra table sour, or collaboration thrown in too. This is a huge testament to our amazing production team and to the creativity within our team and community – I mean, 82 variations of anything could be challenging, especially after 6 years!
We occasionally meet someone who’s tried almost every beer we’ve released, with the record being well over 200. If you’re one of these people, get in touch – we’d love to hear from you!
We got Stoopid
Our new Stoopid series is the epitome of Vault City - pushing the boundaries of fruiting rates and challenging what people consider as 'beer'. We set out to brew something that could stand shoulder to shoulder with hype American smoothie sour producers, and as always we wanted to dedicate the releases to the 'why can't beer just taste like beer' crowd – there are plenty of beer-y beers if that’s your bag.
Now three releases in to our Stoopid series, we've combined Strawberry & Banana, Pineapple, Banana and Blue Curacao, and most recently Passion Fruit, Mango & Banana, with copious amounts of coconut cream to create a thick, viscous mouthfeel with bright juicy-sweet flavours. Expect plenty more Stoopidity from us over the next 12 months and beyond.
We bought a brewery
This year was monumental for us, as we more-or-less crowdfunded our forever home through a mega sale, buying our very own space to transform into our brewery. If you’re wondering why we did things this way, check out our blog for all the details.
We’ve been crossing the ‘t’s and dotting the ‘i’s on the boring side of things, and are absolutely over the moon to say that we now have full planning permission on our new site as of last week.
So, over the next 12-18 months we’ll be making some serious upgrades to the new brewery, with newly laid floors, a state of the art brew kit and hopefully a swanky new office! Until that’s ready, or until our lease runs out, we’ll continue brewing from our Portobello site by the seaside.
We welcomed new faces
The team started with just 2 people, and there’s now 34 of us, with more joining later this month (and no signs of stopping). We’ve got a big new brewery to fill after all.
Alongside some new faces at the brewery, Porty and Wee Vault, we welcomed our new Commercial Director, Martin Monro, back in May, and did a quick intro in our last blog.
We went big on stouts
We make modern sour beer, it’s kind of our thing, but we’ve always brewed the occasional imperial stout. However, over the last 12 months we’ve made this a serious focus for our production output, working on new recipes and dialling in new flavours and supermarket spat-inspired atrocities for our DDF range. After scooping up several Untappd awards for best pastry stout (and the highest rated beer in the UK in 2023), we’ve made plans to brew plenty more dark beers this Christmas!
We got Unbarreled
Our Unbarreled series focuses on small batch, experimental imperial stout releases, infused with the rich flavours of freshly emptied and deconstructed barrels. By dismantling casks and shaving the inner layers from the staves by hand, we can impart a variety of flavours by soaking them in the beer as a unique rapid barrel aging method.
Why not just barrel-age the beer? We have done in the past, and will definitely do more barrel-aging in the future. This project though, in a lot of ways, is about showcasing our base stout from some of our highest ever rated beers (using DDF M*rs Bar most recently in Unbarreled V2) before any adjuncts or additions. Our method allows us to create something exclusive and limited, with subtle barrel character that melds beautifully with the complex chocolate malt aromas of our full-bodied stout.
We’ve got big plans for 2025…
We’re already planning our release schedule for next year and have some projects coming up that we’re seriously excited about. Our new brewery will be a work in progress until late 2025 but we’ll be working on a barrel store as a priority, and we’ll of course be welcoming a lot of people in for a launch party when it’s ready. If you’re one of the awesome people who helped us hit that ambitious target in March, thank you – more party comms coming soon!
So, what else is in store for Vault City? More pop-up bars, more venues and supermarket listings (with a few to announce very soon), hopefully an engine for our ice cream van, more sours, more stouts, and with any luck, 7 years of sour beer in 2025!
