Vault City

The brewery began in the home kitchen of Steven Smith-Hay, a former IT consultant from Edinburgh, who co-founded it with Johnny. Early batches ran to around 400 litres. The brewery has since grown to produce almost 500,000 litres of beer per year, attracted £330,000 through a crowdfunding campaign, and now exports to 26 countries. In 2022, Vault City became the first commercial brewery in the United Kingdom to adopt a four-day working week with no loss in pay, and it commits to the London Living Wage as a minimum salary across the business.

The brewery specialises in heavily fruited, modern sour beers, produced using real fruit ingredients, a mixed fermentation style, and a distinctive house culture. It also produces decadent stouts. The Portobello site is home to the Wee Vault, a custom-built 24-tap bar. Vault City has poured at international beer festivals including Brewskival in Sweden and ArtbrewFest in Portugal, and has collaborated with other producers, including We Can Be Friends.

Its beers are widely stocked in mainstream supermarkets and through specialist retailers, as well as direct from the brewery's own site. Vault City produces a small number of alcohol-free sour beers alongside its main range, suited to sober-curious drinkers. The brewery is relocating to a new facility at BioCampus in the Midlothian Science Zone in Edinburgh.