Indie Collaborations
3 years ago, we launched our first Indie Collaboration with 3 of our top independent customers. The idea was simple; we work with a huge selection of amazing independent bars, bottle shops, taprooms and restaurants, and we wanted to highlight their importance in the craft beer industry. We wanted to give something back while working with them on a fun (sometimes silly) sour beer recipe. As always, we offer a 30% discount on the beer and 2 weeks’ exclusivity to our collab partners to help showcase their amazing venues to our followers.
Indie Collabs So Far…
Back in July 2022, we reached out to The Caledonian Craft Beer Merchant, House of Trembling Madness and Thirsty Cambridge to brew our first ever Indie Collab session sour. We worked with them on some initial ideas and loved the sweet shop themes that kept coming up. For this session sour, we didn’t want to bang the same old 𝒅𝒓𝒖𝒎, 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒌 to what we know, or take on the challenge alone. So, with their help, Raspberry Vanilla Lollipop was born. And it was absolutely delicious.
Next up, in July 2023, we launched our next Indie Collab with our pals at Craft Bar, The Hanging Bat and Hop Shop Aberdeen at Westhill Service Station ltd. Once again, when we asked for their ideas they started taking inspiration from the iconic old school sweets and we were happy to oblige…
With Raspberry Blueberry Bubblegum Bottles, nostalgia comes in waves, alongside sweet-sour aromas of raspberry, blueberry, bubblegum and zingy sherbet. If that isn’t enough to get your taste buds tingling, we turned this modern sour beer electric blue to resemble our favourite sweets, and it resulted in our most ‘liked’ Instagram post to date.
In July 2024, we recruited our pals at Grunting Growler, R&G's Beer Vault and The Dead Crafty Beer Company for our Indie Collaboration. We wanted to recreate something iconic, and our proclivity for bright coloured beers made Mountain Dew a perfect idea, endorsed by our American pal Jehad, from Grunting Growler.
There was a mountain of zesty citrus, tangy sweetness and an extra kick of caffeine in every sip of our soda-inspired sour beer, brewed in celebration of our 6th birthday.
In November last year we launched our first ever Winter Indie Collab, with our pals at Inn Deep, The Town Mouse and Jars Bar.
Damson Plum Cobbler was a rich pastry sour perfectly balanced with the sweet and tart notes of damson plum and blackberry. With a hint of cinnamon and smooth, creamy lactose, you could almost taste the irresistible flavours of a freshly baked cobbler cooling on the windowsill.
Summer Indie Collab 2025
Now you’ve heard the history and you’re all up to date on our Indie Collab series, it’s perfect timing to tell you about our summer 2025 collaboration, in celebration of Vault City turning 7.
Dreamed up in collaboration with some of the finest independent craft bars and bottle shops in the UK, our pals from Joule in Manchester, Kill the Cat in London and Craft Beer Bottle Shop in Perth headed to our Edinburgh brewery to create this ultra-refreshing session sour.
Eazy Breezy, the first of our 7 birthday beers to be announced is a bright & breezy nod to those long summer days before your back hurt just from sitting up too quickly, conditioned on zingy lime juice, zest and juicy melon.
Where to get it
As with all our Indie Collab releases, we’re giving 2 weeks’ exclusivity to our collab partners, so the best place to try it early is to head to any of the three venues in Manchester, London and Perth, Scotland. Then from July 22nd, all our usual stockists will have our birthday beers available and we’ll have exclusive bundles on the Vault City web shop.