Vault City Brewing has revealed the UK’s 10 most experimental cities when trying out a new brew.
LOCKDOWNS were the perfect opportunity for consumers to try out something new, whether that be a hobby or entirely different tastes.
This experimental attitude seems to have lingered with most of the population making new and different flavours important additions for convenience stores.
Research conducted by Edinburgh based sour beer brewery Vault City Brewing has revealed around a third (31%) of UK drinkers are overall more likely to be experimental when it comes to choosing drinks compared to March 2020.
The brewer also found the top ten cities that were ‘most experimental’ with alcohol choices here too, with the top five as follows: Norwich, Sheffield, London, Birmingham and Glasgow. The latter half was made up by Bristol, Manchester, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Cardiff and Nottingham.
According to the research, about 36% of Glaswegians said they were keen to try out a new flavour from the alcohol section with Edinburgh consumers sitting at 30% here.
Vault City reckons this will be good news for its wide array of sour beer options, making the addition of three new sours to its line-up very well timed.
The new launches include Paradise Punch – Kiwi Melon Mango Session Sour, Overnight Oats, which is made up of blueberry, raspberry, acai, maple syrup and coffee and the Mango Raspberry Melba.
All three come in 440ml cans. Paradise Punch comes comes in at 4% ABV for a price of £4.50 with Mango Raspberry Melba sitting at 5.5% ABV at £5.50 per can. Whereas the stronger Overnight Oats sits at 9.5% ABV with a price of £7.95 per can.
The three mark the latest launches for Vault City who are constantly working on their next tipple with the brewery producing new variants every fortnight. This has included flavours ranging from ‘Iron Brew’ and ‘Rhubarb and Custard’ to the likes of ‘Winter Berry Smoothie’ and ‘Mango, Banana and Coconut Crumble’.
Steven Smith-Hay (pictured), founder of Vault City Brewing, said: “We’re known as the mad scientists of sour beer for our weird and wacky flavour combinations, and we always encourage people to be more experimental when it comes to trying new drinks.
“Our sales have really spiked since lockdown, and I think it’s a combination of people being willing to try new things, but also expecting more from the drinks they spend their hard-earned money on.
“I think the days of ‘drink as much as you can for as little as you can’ are gone for most, and drinkers are becoming more discerning in their tastes.
“We’ve noticed they are more willing to pay more for a premium product, with emphasis on production, provenance, and experience rather than price.
“This appears to be a legacy of lockdowns, and shows that for many, the nation’s relationship with alcohol is changing.”
