Vault City: Alcohol Free Peach Cobbler (Scotland: Low Alcohol: 0.5% ABV)
Visual: Dark, cloudy opaque apricot skin coloured body. Large white bubbly head.
Nose: Peach. Sugared peach crumble. Mushy banana. Mushy pears. Cloudy apple juice. Cinnamon.
Body: Fizzy. Light chalk. Apricot strudel. Peach melba. Slightly thin. Light darker, raisin like notes. Light sour apples.
Finish: Apricot. Sugared pastries. Cinnamon. Light chalk. Raisins. Light sour apple.
Conclusion: I am going to have to have a different approach to writing this up than I do for most notes. The issue (with the notes that is, not the beer) is that Vault City beer tend to be very non traditional beer like, very dessert like, with just some alcohol and sour beer style hints under a very sweet, very unusual take. You add that to the fact that low alcohol beers tend to be trying to duplicate a traditional beer style just sans the alcohol and well…
You get this, which is not trying to have the alcohol, and not trying to have a traditional beer character, so its main beer tell is in a slight sourness, slightly acidic apple, and a touch of chalkiness that is a low alcohol tell.
It does not have anything I would describe as a beer niche it fits in for when you would break it out to drink. It feels instead like something you would drink when you want a full flavor cloudy apple juice, but fancier. Not a bad thing, just not a traditional, or even not particularly traditional, beer niche.
So, with that out of the way, is it any good?
It’s fun. The chalk touch is not the best but it is a small touch. This thing is super fruity, peach, apple, raisins touch even. If I was going to be a fucking pedant, and I am, it smells more peach crumble than peach cobbler to me, but yeah, basically it does what it says on the tin. Smells and tastes like a peach cobbler, but lightly sour and refreshing.
Aroma is better than the body in that, as often happens in low alcohol beers, the body is just slightly light. Aroma is full force fruit, body is lighter but that amount of fruit does help mostly cover up that flaw.
So, want a fruity peach meets cloudy apple drink with the tiniest hint of sour beer touch? This has got your covered. So, yeah it feels more like a fancier fruit juice replacement than a beer replacement. Not a bad drink, just a different aim.
Background: Needed some nice alcohol free beers recently and found this oddity. Vault city, mainly known for huge imperial stouts based on sweets, or lightly sour beers based on sweets, create this oddity, a low alcohol sour based on Peach Cobbler. Ingredient list gives a hint of what they are going for here – Apricot, Peach, Oats, Cinnamon and Vanilla are all listed. Since abv was low I went big for music with Bambi Thug – Cathexis, saw them warm up for Baby Metal last year and very much enjoyed. This beer is another one grabbed from Independent Spirit.
