When it comes to new beer flavours, where Vault City brewery is concerned, the more fantastical the better. 

Specialising in “modern sour beers”, Vault City Brewery has come to be known for its sweet-sour flavourful fruited sours with often intriguing colours you wouldn’t typically see from more traditional beers. To mark their fifth anniversary, the Scottish brewery collaborated with The Hop Shop, Craft Bar and The Hanging Bat to launch a sweetshop-inspired, nostalgia-inducing beer called Raspberry Blueberry Bubblegum Bottles. For those outside of the UK, this beer references a classic sweet-sour bubblegum gummy often sold in UK candy stores, shaped like a bottle and carrying a pinkish blueish hue.  

Ever one to be eye-catching, this beer is even tinted with a deep, zingy blue-ish hue that almost gets one’s taste buds tingling just thinking about it. One thing’s for sure, if you ever found beer boring, you probably have yet to meet one of Vault City’s creations yet. 

Let’s dive into it! 

Vault City Raspberry Blueberry Bubblegum Bottles Sour Beer - Tasting Notes 

Aroma: Sweet scents of bubble gum candy and melted white sugar. Upon further whiffs, the aroma becomes more fruity with notes of raspberries and black currant standing out.

Palate: Notes of raspberry puree and blackcurrant jam come to fore, accents by creamy notes of vanilla ice cream, reminding me of raspberry swirl. It’s joined by the flavour of bubblegum and sour warhead candy, albeit at the point at which most of the sour powder has been licked off and right when it’s on the cusp of giving way to being fully sweet. There’s a barely-there slight malty undertone. 

Finish: Medium, with lingering notes of bitter lemon peels and some slight malt melded with the sweetness of bubblegum ice cream, raspberry purée, and vanilla pudding.  

Overall thoughts: 

Definitely a conversation starter and just a really fun, punchy flavour. This is one for those with a sweet tooth and certainly departs far from traditionally hoppy beers. The flavours have a puckering sweet-sour character with fruity backbones of raspberries, blackcurrant and blueberries - truly like drinking your dessert! 

As a side note, this did stain my entire tongue and mouth blue. I'll spare you the graphic photos, but would advise skipping this beer if you're on a first date and want to avoid looking slightly comical! 

@lotusroot518