A Beginner’s Guide to Dessert Sours (Featuring Vault City)
If you hear the words “sour beer” and immediately picture a sharp, mouth-puckering pint that takes a bit of getting used to, you are not alone. For a long time, sour beers were an acquired taste.
But over the last few years, the craft beer world has flipped the script, creating an entirely new, incredibly popular category: the Dessert Sour.
If you have a sweet tooth, love thick fruit smoothies, or just want to try a beer that tastes absolutely nothing like a traditional pint, this is the perfect place to start. Here is everything you need to know about dessert sours, featuring the undisputed UK kings of the style: Vault City Brewing.
What Exactly is a Dessert Sour?
Imagine taking a vibrant, slightly tart fruit beer and blending it with the flavours of your favourite pudding. That is a dessert sour.
Brewers achieve this by using a lightly soured base beer and conditioning it on literal tonnes of real fruit purée. To balance the acidity of the fruit and the sour base, they add unfermentable sugars (like lactose) or sweet additions like vanilla pods, honeycomb, or marshmallow.
The result? A beer that pours thick, boasts an incredibly vibrant colour, and drinks like a sweet, fruity, decadent dessert.
Enter Vault City: The Masters of the Style
Based in Edinburgh, Vault City Brewing has taken the dessert sour concept and pushed it to absolute limits. They are famous for their “Session Sours” and outrageously thick “High Voltage” releases.
If you are looking to dip your toe into the style, Vault City is the gold standard. Their flavour combinations sound like an ice cream parlour menu. Recent favourites to hit the shelves here at Nearest Beer Shop include:
Tropical Ice Creams: Think massive hits of mango, pineapple, and passion fruit, smoothed out with rich vanilla.
Fruity Mash-Ups: Beers loaded with apricot, coconut, and other exotic fruits that deliver a tropical punch in every sip.
Nostalgic Puddings: They frequently brew beers designed to taste exactly like jam roly-poly, lemon meringue pie, or strawberry sundaes.
How to Serve
To get the most out of a dessert sour, serve it chilled (straight from the fridge is perfect). Pour it into a tulip glass or a wide goblet to really appreciate the thick, smoothie-like pour and the huge fruity aromas. And give the can a very gentle tip upside down before opening, just to mix up all that real fruit purée!
Ready to skip straight to dessert? Check out our freshly stocked range of Vault City and other Sours here (Link to your Sours category). Remember, we offer free mainland UK delivery on all orders over £65.