Spring Brewsletter
Spring was a busy time for Vault City, with events and new series launching, collabs with legendary breweries like 3 Sons & Thornbridge (plus in-market collabs across some of our top export countries, and a tank-load of Untappd awards.
Meanwhile, Joe, Our National Account Manager headed to Denmark to launch a Danish favourite while Martin our Commercial Director and Ben, Our London-based Business Development Manager hopped the channel to France, attending festivals and tap takeovers following the launch of Tarte Tatin, our French-inspired apple pastry sour.
Sweet Shop Series Launch
We started the month like any other, getting all nostalgic about our favourite flavours and sharing that fun with our community…
Katie our Marketing Assistant hosted the launch of our Sweet Shop Series at the iconic Bains Retro Sweets, bringing the beers straight into the kind of setting that inspired them. Surrounded by shelves of classic sweets, it felt like the perfect place to pour these. Jonah our Production Lead hosted a tasting on the night, talking through the beers and the thinking behind them while everyone got stuck in. A proper way to introduce the latest Sweet Shop releases.
Tarte Tatin Takeovers
Following their graduation from Sour School at The Wee Vault, our tiny Edinburgh taproom, the team from L’ Atlante helped brew Tarte Tatin, our caramelised apple tart pastry sour, inspired by a classic French story of the Tatin sisters and the creation of a new dessert. Fast-forward to March, Martin and Ben made their way to France at separate points to attend festivals and host Meet the Team events launching this unique French beer.
Ben spent a lovely long weekend in France attending tap takeovers and the annual V&B Tasting Day – an event hosted by one of our French importers getting to showcase the latest and greatest beers from the breweries they work with.
The first tap takeover was at Le Bièrographe, and was a joint takeover with local brewery Vieilledent. Ben then hit the road to Bordeaux and attended another tap takeover at Le Sur Mesure for a joint takeover with Gross and Dupont. Finally Sunday and Monday were spent at the V&B Tasting Days, meeting managers from V&B's all over France and sampling Tarte Tartin, Stoopid, Triple Fruited Mango and our 3 Sons Imperial Breakfast Stout collab; Triple Stacked Lumberjack.
Pippurikarkki – Our latest Finnish Sour Beer
We’re always looking to take inspiration from unexpected places, and we knew we had to nail this following the success of last year’s Finnish collab; Blueberry Pie. After sampling lots of well-known Finnish candies, we loved Tyrkisk Peber most of all (think a blend of jolly ranchers and liquorice flavours), a perfect sweet to transform into a Vault City sour.
Brewed in collaboration with our importers Brukett, it brings together layers of sweet, juicy strawberry with sharp lemon juice and a distinct hit of liquorice that sets it apart.
The result is a bright, lip-smacking sour that moves between sweet and tart, with a hint of nostalgia for our Finnish fans. We launched the first kegs at Craft Beer Helsinki at Wanha Satama around mid-March with cans landing in 120 Alko stores nationwide the week after.
Sjampanjebrus
Brewed in collaboration with Væskebalancen, Sjampanjebrus launched across Denmark in March in both keg and can.
Inspired by the classic Champagnebrus ice lolly, this release leans fully into that hit of summer nostalgia. Bright green in the glass, it brings together crisp grape and juicy pear notes that feel instantly recognisable, while taking the original flavour profile in a slightly more refined direction. By pulling back the sweetness and introducing a sharper, tarter edge, the result is a sour that’s light, refreshing and seriously easy drinking.
To mark the occasion, Joe headed over for a run of tap takeovers and tastings, bringing the beer (and his terrible jokes) directly to the people and giving a closer look at how this nostalgic favourite was reimagined.
Appeltjes van Oranje
Our final in-market collab, made exclusively for the Dutch market, is Appeltjes van Oranje. Webrewed up this idea with our pals and importer, Elings Craftbeer Company to mark King's Day and of course, the World Cup.
It’s a subtle fruited sour with the fresh taste of crisp apple and juicy orange. This combination creates a beautiful balance between light acidity and sweet citrus, resulting in a super refreshing finish. The perfect thirst quencher for spring/summer 2026!
Dripping in Berries
In March, we released one of our most indulgent beers to date, a milkshake ale literally dripping with blueberries, strawberries, blackberries and cherries. Built around huge additions of unfermented fruit and elevated lactose levels, this was an experiment in pushing fruiting rates to the limit (and a trial of a different and more neutral yeast versus our housed mixed culture, resulting in a thick, creamy beer that leans fully into its sweet, dessert-like character. Sourness was kept intentionally low to let the gentle acidity of the fruit take centre stage. It’s currently sitting at 4.38/5 on Untappd so there’s a strong chance we’ll be dripping again in the near future!
Triple-Stacked Lumberjack Breakfast with 3 Sons Brewing
One of our most exciting collaborations to date, and our 2nd collab with Corey at 3 Sons. Triple-Stacked Lumberjack Breakfast brought together their iconic Lumberjack series with our love for all things rich and decadent. The result was an imperial stout triple stacked high with waffle, pancake and maple syrup character, pouring thick and sweet.
After chatting with Corey, we utilised a long boil to increase stickiness and fullness then loaded this up with maple syrup in the boil and maple syrup post-ferm (pasteurising to ensure no refermentation) for a full-on and decadent maple bomb.
Then, at the tail end of March our team headed to Thornbridge for our first ever collab together. We helped them brew up a big west coast IPA coming soon and of course, we’re taking them for a walk on he sour side, paying homage to their flagship beer…
Untappd Awards 2025
Last but certainly not least, following an exciting 12 months at Vault City, our brewery picked up a whopping 28 Untappd Awards along the way.
Highlights included Best Pastry Stout and Best Smoothie Sour in the country, alongside Bronze, Silver and Gold in the Table Sour category. It’s a strong reflection of the range we’re building, from full-bodied, high-ABV stouts to lower-ABV session and table strength sours that still deliver 4s and 5s on Untappd. More than anything, it’s a credit to the great work happening on the production side, with the team having work tirelessly to get our new site up and running, all while consistently pushing for quality and consistency.
Spring shaped up to be a busy few months, with plenty going on across releases, events and everything in between, but Summer is already looking just as marvellous 👀
