'Mad scientist' Scottish brewery unveils double-deep-fried caterpillar cake beer

A Scottish brewery has produced a beer that tastes just like a popular British birthday essential, but with a decadent twist. At 14.5% ABV, it’s not for the faint hearted.

To celebrate their sixth birthday, Vault City – the mad scientists of sour beer – have introduced a double deep-fried caterpillar cake stout titled DDF Caterpillar Cake.

This decadent deep-fried cake stout is inspired by the ever-popular buggy birthday cake, which is now available in various supermarkets.

Known for their boundary-pushing and accessible drinks like Strawberry Banana Milkshake, Raspberry Blueberry Bubblegum, Jaffa Cakes, and Iron Brew, DDF Caterpillar Cake is sure to be a popular new addition to the Vault City roster.

But if you want to try it, you'll have to move fast. This new creation follows the wildly successful Double Deep Fried Mars Bar, which sold out its 5,000-litre batch in under 12 hours.

Retailing at £9.50 for a 330ml can, the DDF Caterpillar Cake stout is a vegan-friendly brew that promises a rich, velvety mouthfeel and indulgent layers of chocolate and vanilla.

DDF Caterpillar Cake will be available to buy from July 16.

The drink was inspired by a Portobello chip shop that deep fried a Colin the Caterpillar cake – and the ensuing outrage, including this viral tweet.

Co-founder Steven Smith-Hay, who began brewing beers from his kitchen, said: “Caterpillar cakes are synonymous with birthdays in Britain. We’re known for taking things a step too far, and we’ve done just that.

“We love experimenting with flavours, and we couldn’t imagine anything better for our 6th birthday than creating a quintessential birthday beer to share with the world.

“After a Portobello chippie deep fried a caterpillar cake we saw a post on X asking if anything was safe from Scottish chippies and we thought, why not make people ask if anything is safe from Scottish breweries?

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“Our DDF Stout has proved popular in the past, selling out in less than a day, and I think a big part of that is how rich chocolate flavours carry in a stout – and the stonking ABV.

“So, grab a can of DDF Caterpillar Cake and celebrate Vault City’s sixth birthday with us. If you’ve got a deep fryer to hand, I can guarantee it pairs well with the real thing.”

deep fried caterpillar cake beer

Earlier this year, Vault City announced plans to move into a new home seven times the size of its previous Portobello brewery – with the purchase funded by diehard fans of its weird and wonderful creations.

A recent crowdfunding campaign through the company’s webstore, as well as through bars, bottle-shops, and export sales, raised the £330,000 needed to purchase the new site at BioCampus, Scotland's first dedicated national bio-manufacturing campus located within the Midlothian Science Zone in Edinburgh.

The new brewery means the mad scientists of sour beer famous for their experimental and accessible drinks will now be able to produce more than 10 million litres of beer per year, an increase of more than eight million.

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Research conducted by Vault City last year revealed around a third (31%) of UK drinkers are more likely to be experimental when it comes to choosing drinks than they were before lockdown began in March 2020.

Now, more than a third of sour beers consumed in the UK are produced by Vault City.

To find out more about Vault City, or to order the DDF Caterpillar Cake beer, or any of its range of modern sour beers, visit their website.

Vault City Brewing, Sir Harry Lauder Road, Portobello, Edinburgh, UK
Vault City Brewing, Sir Harry Lauder Road, Portobello, Edinburgh, UK, EH15 2QA
Known for cake making, experimental jam recipes, Champagne, whisky and gin drinking (and the inability to cook Gnocchi), Rosalind is the Food and Drink Editor and whisky writer for The Scotsman, as well as hosting Scran, The Scotsman's food and drink podcast.
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