Vault City: 999G/L Apricot and Raspberry Birthday Cake (Scotland: Fruit Sour Beer: 6.4% ABV)
Visual: Strawberry yogurt red body with a slow pour due to the thickness of the drink. Completely opaque and with a large head and lots of bubbles in the body that move very slowly trying to make their way up through the thick body into the head. Head leaves a sediment rim as you drink.
Nose: Peach melba. Peach syrup. Raspberry yogurt. Strawberry yogurt. Banana milkshake.
Body: Tart grapes. Milkshake texture. Banana milkshake. Raspberry cooler drinks. Tart apples. Pear perry. Apricot to dried apricots. Creamy.
Finish:Raspberry liqueur. Pear perry. Raspberry cooler drinks. Low in level but muggy hop like bitterness. Banana soft sweets. Stewed apricot.
Conclusion: Ok, this isn’t really a birthday cake beer in my opinion, more a birthday milkshake. Which admittedly is close enough. Maybe a birthday cake blended into a milkshake. Any which way it is a super thick milkshake in style, wherever else it is.
It pours super slow due to all the fruit and because of that it took me a while to work out the heads size, as I could see all the rising bubbles struggle to make it up through the beer giving the illusion of an even bigger head than it already had. It is that thick.
You can taste that thickness as well – creamy and sweet laced throughout with green fruit notes from the sour beer base (I’m guessing) raspberry cooler and more peach notes that apricot I must admit from the utter mass of fruit used to make it. So it is showing from the tart sour beer, creaminess and all the oddities from where these unusual elements meet, like the aforementioned raspberry cooler, or odder still the pear perry like notes. I do love the strange notes you can get from a sour as it interacts with everything in it.
The apricot influence seems to come and go, while the raspberry is always there. Initially it comes across very peach melba in the combo (Yes I know it is apricot, leave me alone), that influence seems to play second fiddle for most of the main body before coming out more late on.
This, despite being such a fruity beer, does show the base sour as a subtle but present character. Heck there even is some dry bitterness in the finish that feels more traditional beer like, though that is a tiny element. The sheer fruitiness and creaminess reminds me of Urban South’s Triple Spilled beer – though this is a tad more balanced than that. Which shows how unbalanced that was as this really isn’t a balanced beer. It is a good beer though – incredibly fruity and fun. Though probably not one for people who prefer their beers more traditional and super serious.
For as we all know, beers are serious buzinezz.
Background: Ok it is Vault City’s 5th Birthday, so they have been turning out a bunch of beers, of which, shockingly this is one. I know right? Anyway this one’s name refers to the fact they used 999G of fruit for each liter of beer, they say that is the most they can legally use and call it beer. I have not looked up the law but I will take their word for that. Another one from independent spirit. Again, shocking, I know. Vault city are best known for their unusual takes on sour beers, of which this is a fairly big twist. Music wise I went with something pop feeling for a birthday feel – Mel and Kim: That’s The Way It Is: The Best of.
