Brewing Up Something Special with Hard Lines
At Vault City, we love pushing the boundaries of flavour when it comes to sours and stouts. So, when we had the chance to collaborate with Hard Lines Coffee Roasters, a roastery from Wales known for incredible coffee and 'Cuppy' (our new favourite mascot), it was a no-brainer. This isn’t just about infusing coffee into beer; it’s about finding the perfect beans to enhance depth, aroma, and complexity. Hard Lines is a firm favourite among our team and has powered us through many a long day, and now we get to share that love in liquid form.
The Perfect Match: Coffee Meets Stout
We tasted, we slurped, we found the perfect beans. Cupping is how we dialled in the best coffee—assessing acidity, sweetness, and mouthfeel to make sure every sip works in harmony with our latest decadent duo and extension of our Crema stout series.
Let's Get Cupping
Being a brewer and geeking out about coffee seems to be a common theme among the production staff at Vault City. This is more-or-less spearheaded by Angus, cupping enthusiast and Head of Production. We sampled a number of options from our pals at Hard Lines but dialled it down to just 4 for the cupping session.
We trialled House Party and Peru Ukuku which we ultimately went forward with, but also enjoyed Canton Blend and Mexican Union San Pedro.
Canton Blend, named after Hard Lines very own café is a combination of three different coffees giving it the perfect balance of body, sweetness and acidity. In their own words; it's a super tasty all-rounder.
Mexican Union San Pedro, from Mexico’s Oaxaca region delivers a profile that’s rich, smooth, and packed with flavour. The chocolatey notes worked well with both stout bases but we found House Party and Peru Ukulu felt like the best fit to enhance the vanilla pods and rich caramel notes.
The Beans Behind the Brews
Hard Lines House Party, a Brazilian coffee packed with nutty cocoa, molasses, dried cherries, and a hint of vanilla, takes Vanilla Crema to the next level. The natural vanilla pods from Madagascar, Uganda, and Papua New Guinea are carefully cut open to release rich flavour compounds, working in perfect harmony with the beer.
Hard Lines Peru Seasonal Coffee brings vibrant red fruit, cherry, toffee, and toasted biscuit notes—flavours that instantly screamed salted caramel. A pinch of sea salt amplifies the sticky sweetness while balancing the beer’s decadent profile, making this an irresistible combo.
The Stout Duo: Bold, Decadent, Delicious
Salted Caramel Crema dials up the indulgence with a rich blend of chocolate malt, wheat, oats, Weyermann® Carafa® Special III, and Melanoidin, finished with brown sugar and Belgian dark syrup for deep caramel and toffee layers.
Vanilla Crema balances pale and chocolate malts with wheat, oats, and Crystal malts to create layers of dark chocolate and biscuity undertones with a velvety-smooth mouthfeel. Additions of vanilla pods from Madagascar, Uganda and Papau New Guinea balance the delicate bitterness from roasted coffee and East Kent Goldings hops.
Brewing with Coffee: The Hop Rocket Effect
We used what's known as a Hop Rocket (due to its shape) to infuse our stouts with our chosen coffee, essentially circulating the liquid through mountains of whole beans. This begins pulling in deep, rich flavours without overpowering the base stout. The same process was used again for sliced vanilla beans in our Vanilla Crema brew. The result is a smooth, balanced beer that brings out the best in both coffee and stout.
The Final Sip
Our collaboration is now live and we're excited for everyone to try it! Vanilla Crema and Salted Caramel are currently rating at 4.4 and 4.28 on Untappd so the initial reception has been really positive. Check out Hard Lines website here for some awesome merch and equally awesome coffee - the perfect pairing for our decadent stout duo!
