The goal was to create a stout worthy of the name Double Deep Fried Churros. At a recent planning meeting inside Edinburgh’s Vault City Brewing, the production team gathered to smell and taste different adjuncts, which they hoped would make the dark ale match the exact flavor profile of a churro dipped in hot oil. Three different coffee blends were considered alongside nearly a dozen varieties of cinnamon (or cassia bark) from various countries, including Sri Lanka and China.

The coffee and bark were passed around to all staff members — administration as well as brewers — and then tasted with the base beer, a high gravity stout, which is in a separate tank to their sours which have the same house mixed culture that has remained steady over the years, to the point that it clearly defines the character of Vault’s beers. Production manager Angus Morison was drawn to one specific Chinese cassia because of the spicy florals it offers, which he believed is almost exactly like the sweet taste of a churro. Others weighed in, with the goal of steering the target flavor to work in harmony with the base stout.

Decisions were made and the adjuncts were tested again, this time after a go in the brewery’s hop gun to see if the drink hits exactly what his customers want. Morison says that each recipe is fine tuned to target the body, sweetness, acidity and ABV desired for each beer before the usual brewing levers, such as mash temperature and grist ratios, are adopted. 

It may be an industrial estate just outside Edinburgh, but all this tinkering to match the correct flavor profile feels very Willy Wonka. 

SO STOOPID

Vault City has polarized the United Kingdom’s drinking scene, particularly on British social media and among beer geeks. The seven-year-old brewery creates sours and stouts that cause drinkers to either jump up in rage or sign up as avid fans. 

Photo Courtesy of Vault City.
Photo Courtesy of Vault City.

In a world where some drinkers decry silliness, Vault City leans into their processes and flavors with a knowing wink. The tagline for its range of Stoopid fruited sours came verbatim from a social media comment: “Why can’t beer just taste like beer?” 

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To mark the brewery’s sixth anniversary in 2024, Vault City released a Double Deep Fried Caterpillar Cake Stout. At 14.5% ABV, it was inspired by a Scottish chip shop experience, where workers will deep fry just about anything. In this case, a children’s party cake shaped like the 16-legged insect named Colin was fried in batter, twice. For those who have had the delightful dessert, the beer tastes like the real thing, just in liquid form. A roughly 75 barrel batch sold out in two weeks. 

This is not accidental or luck. The exact flavor of every beer they brew — from the caterpillar pastry stout to the Iron Brew sours (an alcoholic version inspired by the orange Scottish soda) — is decided months in advance. If it doesn’t hit the team’s precise flavor goals it becomes a drain pour, even if it would still earn high marks from drinkers.

DREAM MAKERS

Vault doesn’t have a head brewer (the roles are shared by Jeremy Fox and Morison) and everyone works a four-day week. It all started in 2018 when homebrewers Steven Smith-Hay and Johnny Horn worked on 400-liter batches of elderflower and mango sours and then morphed them into three categories: session, serious and silly (now called session, mid and high-vaultage).

“We love traditional beers ourselves,” says Fox, who is the brewing and cellar manager, “but we feel there’s not much point in always making new traditional beers. If we did that we would be just like everyone else.”

The chance to really stand out came in September of 2018, when the brewery was invited to pour at the Beavertown Extravaganza beer festival. That event was held shortly after the London-based Beavertown Brewery sold a minority stake to Heineken for a reported $53 million. Other brewers, objecting to Beavertown’s loss of craft status or independence, backed out of attending. 

“No one wanted to be involved because of Heineken but it was one of the best opportunities to get exposure in the early days,” says Richard Wardrop, head of marketing. “Principles are quite expensive and we were never going to be able to buy this type of exposure.”

Six years later, selling to multinational breweries has become more commonplace, but Vault City has remained independent despite its high growth model. The brewery produced a million and a half liters in 2024, and continues to expand into new markets. 

Unlike some breweries, Morison says Vault City is sales and marketing led in terms of the styles that are brewed, recipe concepts and the release dates. “Production’s job is to realize their dreams,” he says. 

Despite not having free reign to brew a beer that simply “tastes good,” the brewers relish the challenge of trying to fit a sour or stout to a specific flavor profile.

“We’ve often talked about how it’s fairly irresponsible to allow brewers to decide what beers to be brewed,” adds Morison, to much laughter among the team. 

Vault City might be an idea-led business, but Morison says it has to “realize dreams” to meet certain seasonal and trend deadlines. This means eight to 10 new releases a month, always released on Tuesdays. Core beers likeKir Royale, Triple Fruited Mango, Rhubarb & Custard, Winter Berry Crumble and Gingerbread Latte Imperial Stout are brewed year-round.

Because of this schedule, the brewery can feel cramped. The one-floor open-plan production area — with only the office being separate — includes a narrow table for lab work and a canning line butting up against a wall. With forklifts rushing about and staff shoulder to shoulder, this is the “Oompa Loompa” part of the chocolate factory. It’s, therefore, no surprise that Vault City is moving to a premises seven times the size of this one later this year.

OPENING UP

Naming sours and stouts after soft drinks and cakes not only sells, but makes them accessible and appealing to a wide swath of curious drinkers. The brewery says women make up about 45% of their customers.

This is particularly marked in Britain, where fewer women drink beer every year.

Vault City experiments with a number of sugary adjuncts. Photo Courtesy of Vault City.

“Even someone who has tasted the weirdest and worst thing in their lives,” says Morison, “will tell their friends who are also intrigued to know what that was.”

Many don’t realize how much thought goes into brewing that ‘weird’ sour or stout. But there’s no oddness, really, just a beer made for the type of person who wants to know exactly what their beer will taste like. These drinkers might be familiar with Irn-Bru soda, but unsure of what to expect from an IPA or pale ale. 

It doesn’t sound radical, until you consider Britain’s pub culture is heavily steered towards men on stools gatekeeping what pints should or shouldn’t look like, including color (brown) and carbonation (none to low). In fact, some super-traditional pubs, such as The Guildford Arms near Edinburgh’s Princes Street, offer Vault’s Iron Brew sour as an alternative to the traditional bitters and ales on offer. 

The bar bores might make a barb when someone orders a bright orange sour, but that hasn’t stopped Vault’s fans from finally feeling included in a lot of traditional spaces. They could even be the future of British beer.

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