Craft brewery wins national Raise The Bar event

Edinburgh brewers Vault City have been named the only Scottish winners of We Are Beer’s annual Raise The Bar competition.

Now in its second year, Raise The Bar aims to shine a light on the best of up-and-coming talent of the craft beer scene, unearthing creativity and innovation of young breweries.

The We Are Beer judging panel tasted beers from over 60 entrants from breweries across the UK to name its four champions; along with Vault City this year’s winners are, Mothership, an all female brewery based in South London, Birmingham’s Dig Brew and Yorkshire-based Turning Point.

Vault City was the only brewer to be recognised north of the border and impressed the judges with their approach to wild fermentation.

Raise The Bar is open to breweries that have been in production for less than two years, giving winners the chance to showcase their creations at We Are Beer’s four festivals taking place this year, with over 20,000 beer aficionados expected through the festival gates in London, Bristol, Edinburgh and Beer Central in Birmingham, the latest destination on the festival map.

New this year, We Are Beer will be teaming up with craft beer subscription club Beer 52 for a limited edition ‘Raise The Bar’ case, featuring beers from the four winners which will be delivered to subscribers’ doors later this summer.

Led by We Are Beer co-founder Greg Wells, the judging process focused on a number of categories, with everything from taste, brewing technique and overall quality under consideration. Joining Greg on the panel for this year’s competition were Wildcard Brewery founder Jaega Wild, Jen Merrick, previously head brewer at Beavertown and Meantime, beer writer Matt Curtis and Beer 52’s Callum Stewart.

Greg said: ‘After debuting in 2018, we were thrilled to be bringing back Raise The Bar for another year. This year we wanted to hone in on what the brewers are trying to achieve and how they execute and deliver this. We looked for breweries that represent what the festival is all about: excitement, creativity and above all else quality beer.

‘The result was four fantastic brewers from across the UK, each with their own take on modern brewing and we’re excited to be bringing them to this year’s festival.’
This year’s Edinburgh Craft Beer Festival will take place at The Biscuit Factory on 24 and 25 May.

To purchase tickets visit edinburghcraftbeerfestival.co.uk

Breweries confirmed are: 6° North (Aberdeen), 71 Brewing (Dundee), Amundsen (Oslo), Basqueland Brewing Project (St Sebastian, Spain),Beerbliotek (Gothenburg, Sweden),Black Isle (Munlochy), Brew Dog (Aberdeen), Burnt Mill (Suffolk), Cloudwater (Manchester), Collective Arts (Hamilton, Ontario), Cromarty (Cromarty), Dead End Brew Machine (Glasgow), Dig Brew Co. (Birmingham), Fierce Beer (Dyce), Firestone Walker (California), Gipsy Hill Brewing Company (London), Hawkes (London), Lervig (Stravanger, Norway), Marble (Manchester), Mikkeller (Copenhagen, Denmark), Mothership (London), Northern Monk Brew Co (Leeds), Overtone (Glasgow), Partizan (London), Pilot (Edinburgh), Stone & Wood (Byron bay, Australia), Stone Berlin (Germany), Tempest Brew Co (Galashiels), The Kernel (London), The White Hag (Co. Sligo, Ireland), Thornbridge (Edinburgh), To Øl (Denmark), Track (Manchester), Turning Point (York), Vault City (Edinburgh), Whiplash (Kildare, Ireland), Wild Beer Co (Mallet, England) and Wylam (Newcastle Upon Tyne).