Vault City Brewing invests in flavour development
Edinburgh-based sour beer producer Vault City Brewing has appointed Madeline Spence as its first in-house food scientist, marking a strategic investment in flavour development.
The move, which not only places flavour experimentation at the heart of what it does, also hints at its intentions to continue to build its international presence and long-term production capability.
Vault City, which creates beers brewed using real fruit and food-inspired ingredients, supplies major UK supermarkets and exports to 26 countries worldwide. More recently, the business has relocated to a new production facility at BioCampus in Midlothian, where it has noted that it has begun to establish a “dedicated space for research, development and innovation”.
Often described by fans as the “mad scientists of sour beer” the founders at Vault City have revealed that the appointment reflects a more deliberate approach to flavour as the business scales up and has begun combining creativity with deeper technical understanding.
Vault City has previously made strides to expand and can now produce more than 10 million litres of its sour beer per year, with scope to expand further, making it the “biggest sour beer producer in the world“. Its expansion back in 2024 followed a crowdfunding campaign that saw the brewery raise the £330,000 needed to purchase its site at BioCampus which is seven times the size of its Portobello brewery. The brewery’s expansion also saw it making an increase of more than eight million litres of beer, means brews such as Strawberry Banana Milkshake, Raspberry Blueberry Bubblegum, Jaffa Cakes, and ‘Iron Brew’ became more widely-available to sour beer fans, with the ability to expand by 20 times its former 34,000 sq ft site.
A career in flavour
Spence joins Vault City with a background in food science and drinks development, having worked across flavour and ingredient houses, ready-to-drink alcoholic beverages and large global drinks brands. Her experience spans early-stage concept development through to factory trials and commercial launches, with a particular focus on drinks formulation and flavour optimisation.
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In her new role, Spence will work closely with Vault City’s brewing and new product development teams, focusing on fermentation analysis, ingredient testing and flavour development. Based at the brewery’s new BioCampus site, she will also help establish and run the on-site lab, enabling more small-scale experimentation alongside commercial production.
Speaking to db about the new appointment, Vault City co-founder Steven Smith-Hay said: “People have been calling us the mad scientists of sour beer for years, so it feels fitting to now have an actual food scientist in the team.”
Hinting at how this made sense to the brewery’s future plans, Smith-Hay described the decision to hire Spence as a way to boost “creativity” and told db: “Flavour has always been at the centre of what we do, and as we grow, it’s important that we invest properly in that”. Additionally, he noted that “bringing Madeline on board allows us to push creativity further, while building a deeper understanding of how ingredients and processes work at scale”.
‘Room for creativity’
Assessing what this means to her, to join the Vault City team, Spence said: “I’ve always loved working in drinks because there’s so much room for creativity, but also a huge amount of science behind how flavour actually behaves. Vault City’s beers genuinely taste like what they’re inspired by because they use real ingredients, and that really stood out to me.”
She added: “Sour beer is an incredibly versatile base to work with. It’s neutral enough to carry bold flavours, but still complex, which gives you a lot of freedom. Having a dedicated lab means we can test ingredients properly, understand why things behave the way they do, and then use that knowledge to create beers that feel surprising but still balanced. Ultimately, it’s about giving drinkers something memorable and pushing what flavour-led beer can be.”
Spence studied food science in New Zealand before moving to Scotland and has confirmed that she will initially work alongside Vault City’s existing new product development team as the brewery continues to build out its facilities at BioCampus, with scope to expand its research and development function in future.
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