Posted on 18/08/22
This week saw the release of some of the most anticipated birthday beers of the year – from Vault City & Neon Raptor, no less!
There’s also new stuff from Baron, a witbier from Whiplash and the small matter of A VAULT CITY & EMPEROR’S COLLAB to discuss. So enough preamble!
These are the best new beers to try this week.
Looking back 12 months or so it’s easy to recall the fastest selling beer of the year: Vault City’s Iron Brew Sour.
This year to celebrate their 4th birthday the Scottish sour-meisters brewed 4 beers and the amped up Iron Brew Extra sour is top of this week’s drops in the sour section.
This is everything you love about Vault City and their sour wizardry. It’s full of flavour, punchy and bold beyond belief.
OK, it’s daft as heck but it’s also brilliantly done. There’s a sweetness up front and that unfathomably pleasing taste of girders(!) but then there’s also a salty edge on the finish that stops it being just a gimmick.
The fact they’ve upped the ABV to a mammoth 8% is a huge Brucie Bonus.
If the 8% Iron Brew Extra is too much, there’s also a more sessionable Valencia Orange Sour hiding in the shadows that’s nearly as worthy of your attention.
Limited as hell so don’t sleep on these…
Also muscling in on the birthday fun is a brewery just two years older than Vault but equally as well respected: Neon Raptor have dropped 3 beers called YABBA / DABBA / DOO (see what they did there?)!
More on the other two in a moment but DOO, the Imperial Fruited Pastry Sour of the trio doesn’t mess about.
10% of cherry, vanilla and cinnamon. Happy blinking birthday you beauts!
With all the birthday fuss I could easily bang on about Neon’s DDH DIPA DABBA (it’s equally as good as the rest), but we have two perfectly executed Baron brews to blather on about so I won’t!
Smut DIPA is brilliantly made but Moondust IPA is ultimately my pick of the two.
US hops for days: Citra Centennial, Cascade, Talus and Idaho.
With Baron at the helm are you really surprised this is top of the hops?
Moot are a new brewery for us and I’ve been impressed with their newest Sunday Session SIPA.
It’s great for summer drinking in the sun… or rain… or fog… or… well, it’s great for any weather if I’m honest, but would no doubt be at its best in the sun!
We’re also got more Whiplash in this week, including the somewhat out-there The White Flash Witbier, which is a proper unexpected treat.
It has the characteristic body that Whiplash somehow seem to cram into every beer, but it has oodles of white peach intermingling for a decidedly peaches and cream kinda vibe. Mmmmmm.
In any other week a Whiskey Barrel Aged Emperor’s / Vault City Collab would open this mailer and it’s only thanks to Iron Brew Extra that it does not, because this is about as good as dark brewing gets.
Expect huge Islay woodiness with a delicate touch of lactose to mellow proceedings out.
Only 3 left in stock at the time of writing. You have been warned.
Moving on, the theme continues: it really is a purists selection on the moody brews section this week.
Specifically, you have two different Brew York 330ml blasters to check out…
The BA DRADIS Buffalo Trace Bourbon BA Imperial Stout just edges it for me.
Aaaand finally on the darks, although I’m yet to crack it I’m very much looking forward to Neon Raptor’s YABBA Imperial Stout more or less as soon as I’ve wrapped this blog post up.
14% of almond and honeycomb stout filled goodness… please stop!
The hoppy game is strong outside of the birthday bash with a collab between Gamma and UK heroes Pomona leading the list of hops that should demand your attention. It’s an 8.2% DIPA with the little known/used Eclipse hop in it.
A big shout out to local legends Friendship Adventure and London Beer Lab too. The beer is made 150 meters from our Brixton arch so it really makes sense to keep these crackers in stock
Brave Noise is a cracking lager and an even more cracking cause to support. The latest lager from lager experts Lost & Grounded is aimed at promoting inclusivity and diversity within the brewing industry with 262 breweries from across the world taking part.
As always, I hope you get to try some of these gems this week.
Cheers & happy drinking!
Oli, Olly & Charlie
(The three people behind Craft Metropolis)
Step 1
We trawl the globe tasting great beer
