Summer Round-Up
If there's one word to describe this summer at Vault City, it's busy.
From international collaborations, festivals and tap takeovers to award-winning beers and a milestone birthday celebration, the last few months have been packed full of beery goodness. Here's a look back at everything we've been up to this summer.
Celebrating Eight Years of Vault City
This summer marked a major milestone as Vault City turned eight years old.
To celebrate, we revisited the Vault City archives and reimagined eight beers from across our journey, spanning 2018 to 2025. Each beer was given a brand-new twist, creating a special collection that reflects both where we've come from and how far we've pushed our brewing over the years (sometimes too far, probably).
Taking Sour School on Tour
Earlier this summer, Marco "The Sour-Slinger" (called by nobody), one of the team behind the bar at the Wee Vault, was on the road visiting customers and hosting events in Manchester, Sheffield, Coventry and Cardiff.
The trip was a great opportunity to showcase the Vault City base beer (our foundation), connect with sour lovers across the UK, and give them the chance to create their own bold, fruit-forward flavours that define modern sour beer. From tastings and tap takeovers to meeting customers face-to-face, Marco helped spread the sour love far and wide this summer!
Bake-Off: Inspired by Desserts Around the World
Our new Bake-Off Series brought together four breweries from across the globe, four iconic desserts and a collection of beers inspired by some of our favourite sweet treats.
Drawing inspiration from Japanese mochi, New York cheesecake, colourful Thai desserts and Scotland's own cranachan, the series celebrates flavours that blur the line between dessert and beer. Plus we barrel-aged a smoothie sour for the first time ever. No one asked for it, but we did it and we'll likely do it again.
It's A Kind Of Magic
To celebrate the biggest-ever Edinburgh Fringe show from the team behind Insane Magic, we teamed up with Cameron Gibson, Elliot Bibby and Luke Osey to create Razzle Dazzle.
Packed with juicy raspberry and zesty lime, the beer was designed to capture the energy and spectacle of Fringe season. An addition of edible glitter makes every pour a performance in itself, creating a beer that's bold, playful and impossible to ignore.
Monsieur Froid: A Special Collaboration with V&B
Just over a year ago, we began working with Alexandre Lecart to supply Vault City beers directly to V&B stores across France.
That partnership reached a new milestone this summer when Vault City was selected as the only brewery to collaborate on V&B's 25th anniversary beer.
The V&B team travelled to Edinburgh to brew 7,500 litres of a bespoke beer inspired by the nostalgic Mr Freeze ice pops. Named Monsieur Froid, the beer will launch across V&B stores throughout France this September and represents another exciting chapter in our growing international presence. We have a small number of cans available for our web shop launching soon. Keep your eyes peeled 👀
A Summer of Festivals
From Copenhagen and Finland to Bristol and London, we've spent the summer sharing our latest releases and connecting with beer lovers at some of the industry's biggest events. This summer has seen the Vault City team travel all over the place, pouring beer and meeting you all across the UK, Europe and Beyond!
London Craft Beer Festival
One of our biggest activations of the year took place at London Craft Beer Festival.
Working alongside Happy Endings LDN, we created two unique festival exclusives: a 4.8% Iron Brew Sour Sorbet and an 8% Chocolate Stout Soft Serve.
Alongside beer slushies, GLOOP bottle pours and a packed festival bar, we served more than 1,000 portions of beer-inspired ice cream across the weekend.
It was one of the most ambitious event activations we've undertaken and a testament to the effort of our brewing, sales, marketing and operations teams.
A Record-Breaking Year on Untappd
This year brought some incredible recognition from the global craft beer community across Untappd.
Vault City was officially ranked as the fourth most checked-in brewery in the world on Untappd's 2026 Recappd Awards, which is absolutely mind-blowing for us as a brewery that started in someone's kitchen...
To be mentioned alongside some of the biggest names in craft beer is an extraordinary achievement and one made possible by the support of our amazing community around the world!
London Craft Beer Festival Success
The top-rated Vault City beers were:
- GLOOP Sour: Strawberries & Cookies & Cream (4.55/5)
- GLOOP: Biscoff Shake (4.52/5)
- GLOOP Sour: Melted Tropical Creamsicle (4.48/5)
- Year 2: 999g/L (4.46/5)
- PUNCH: Mandarin, Mango & Pineapple (4.43/5)
Creating a Buzz
This summer, Gavin and Katie our content duo spent a day with The Scottish Bee Company to learn more about the award-winning Scottish heather honey featured in Bake-Off: Cranachan.
Brewed in collaboration with Azvex Brewing Company, the whisky barrel-aged smoothie sour combines juicy fruit, creamy lactose and heather honey with beer aged in ex-Speyside whisky barrels, creating layers of oak, vanilla and whisky character.
The visit provided a fascinating insight into the work being done to support bee populations and biodiversity across Scotland.
Great Taste Awards
We finished summer on a high with the Great Taste Awards.
For the first time in Vault City's history, we picked up a coveted 3-Star Great Taste Award for Raspberry Sour, the highest rating available. Strawberry Sundae and AF Peach Cobbler also impressed the judges, each earning 2 Stars.
The judging panel praised Raspberry Sour for its vibrant fruit character, intensity of flavour and refreshing balance, while Strawberry Sundae was recognised for its smooth mouthfeel and drinkability.
AF Peach Cobbler also received great feedback, with judges highlighting the impressive balance of sweet and sour flavours and expressing surprise that the beer was alcohol-free!
As we head into autumn, we're looking forward to stout season, autumnal spiced sours and more. With plenty of exciting beers, events and collaborations still to come, we're not slowing down anytime soon.