London eateries, including bakery Lily Vanilli and Cantonese bun restaurant Bun House, have collaborated with craft beer company Beer52 to launch an exclusive range of brews.

Lily Vanilli has created a Black Forest Stout, while Bun House created a Pale Ale with Kumquat and Chrysanthemum.

“Sweet stouts have been quite a big trend within craft beer this past year,” said Beer52’s co-founder Fraser Doherty. “We’re huge fans of Lily’s creativity within baking so figured that working on an idea for a beer together would be a fun way to explore this theme.”

Doherty added that the Lily Vanilli beer is brewed with many of the same ingredients used in a Black Forest Gateau, such as malted barley, malted wheat, oats, lactose, vanilla pods, cherries, cacao, hops and yeast. He described the drink as “creamy, toasty and fruity with a delicious vanilla note and beautiful light acidity from the cherries.”

Bun House’s Pale Ale contains typically Cantonese floral notes – kumquat and chrysanthemum – which it chose as an ideal pairing for its signature steamed buns.

“What you’d usually drink with our food is a very fragrant or aromatic tea. So when we were talking about this beer, it made sense to use these very Chinese tea characteristics,” said Bun House co-founder Alex Peffly. 

Bun House recently announced it was to open its second site in London’s Chinatown, where it would add a brioche-style pineapple bun to its menu. The site is due to open in February 2019.