Fresh Out The Oven: Introducing The Bake Off Series
FRESH OUT THE OVEN
Our new Bake-Off Series brings together four breweries from around the world, four iconic desserts, and a collection of beers inspired by some of our favourite sweet treats. From pillowy Japanese mochi and creamy berry cheesecake to colourful Thai desserts and Scotland's own cranachan, this series celebrates the flavours that make us come back for another bite. Or in our case, another sip.
Sorry Mary Berry or should we say Mary Beer-y? We'd rather drink our desserts.
NOTES FROM JOE
We asked Joe, Vault City's residentChief Sipper (patent pending), to share some insight into how these collaborations came together, why we chose these desserts, and what made each brewery the perfect pairing for the Bake-Off Series.
UCHU BREWING
This one started after trying one of UCHU's matcha beers and becoming slightly obsessed. Matcha brings layers of earthy complexity, vibrant green colour, and an unmistakable character that felt perfect for a Vault City twist. From there, we landed on mochi as the dessert inspiration, giving our brewers an excuse to get experimental. We loaded the brew with rice (half a tonne, to be exact) to recreate the soft, pillowy texture that makes mochi so beloved, creating a beer that's bright green, seriously smooth, and unlike anything we've brewed before.
EVIL TWIN BREWING
Working alongside the team at Evil Twin, we wanted to capture everything we love about the classic New York Cheesecake. Big additions of juicy berries bring rich jammy sweetness while tangy rhubarb cuts through with just the right amount of sharpness. Sweet, tart, creamy and completely over the top. Exactly how cheesecake should be.
SAMATA BREWING
When we first tried Samata's wonderfully weird beers, we knew we'd found our people.
Inspired by a classic Thai dessert, this collaboration gave us the chance to experiment with sago pearls, a completely new ingredient for the brewery. The result is a beer with a uniquely soft texture and heaps of tropical dessert character.
And because this is a Samata collaboration, we couldn't stop there.
Enterspirulina.
Part flavour adventure, part questionable colour decision, part absolute masterpiece.
AZVEX BREWING
Considering Adam from Azvex is Scottish, and we've somehow never brewed a Cranachan-inspired beer before, this collaboration practically wrote itself. Of course, we couldn't just make a Cranachan beer. Known for pushing boundaries across multiple styles, Azvex gave us the perfect excuse to do the same, resulting in Vault City's first-ever Barrel-Aged Smoothie Sour. Heathenous? Perhaps. Delicious? Absolutely.
Alongside heaps of Scottish honey and fruit, we aged a portion of the beer in Speyside whisky barrels, layering in notes of vanilla, oak and whisky character that bring the dessert inspiration to life. It's bold, decadent and proudly Scottish.
ART OF DESSERT
With four beers inspired by iconic desserts, the artwork needed to be every bit as colourful as the liquid inside.
Enter Edinburgh-based illustrator and designer Heather Fletcher.
She brings a playful, mixed-media approach to everything she creates. With a background in Graphic Design from Edinburgh Napier and a Master's in Game Design & VR from Glasgow School of Art, she now works across branding, packaging and illustration projects, blending hand-drawn artwork with digital design.
For the Bake Off Series, Heather looked to vintage travel postcards, retro recipe cards and local landmarks for inspiration, creating a collection that's packed with colour, character and plenty of sweet treat nostalgia. Each label was hand-illustrated and inspired by the beer inside, giving every can its own personality while keeping the series feeling unmistakably Vault City.
Three words to describe the artwork? Sweet. Playful. Colourful.
THE FINAL SLICE
Whether you're drawn to vibrant matcha mochi, jammy berry cheesecake, colourful Thai desserts or a barrel-aged cranachan, there's something for every sweet tooth in this year's Bake-Off Series.
