Iron Maiden has announced the release of its first lager, TROOPER Sun and Steel, a 4.8 percent ABV double-fermented lager created with authentic Japanese sake yeast.
The beer takes its name from the Iron Maiden song “Sun and Steel” that appears on their 1983 album Piece of Mind, which was, in turn, inspired by the life of Japanese samurai Miyamoto Musashi.
Sun and Steel will be available nationwide beginning in October and serves as a thank-you to all the fans who came out for the North American leg of Iron Maiden’s Legacy of the Beast tour, which concludes in the U.S. on September 25th in San Antonio, Texas.
TROOPER Sun and Steel is brewed by the renowned British brewery Robinsons Brewery and is one of the most complex beers that it has ever produced. This sixth iteration of the TROOPER line was designed once more by Iron Maiden vocalist and beer connoisseur Bruce Dickinson along with Robinsons Head Brewer Martyn Weeks.
The idea for the beer came during the autumn of 2016 following a meeting between Bruce and longtime friend George Yusa, owner of the 300-year-old, family-run Okunomatsu Sake Brewery in Fukushima, Japan. Bruce became intrigued with the idea of putting the two flavor profiles of beer and sake together, and thus Sun and Steel was born.
George was able to deliver a sample of the sake yeast to Iron Maiden’s 2017 concert at London’s O2 Arena, which Bruce took to Robinsons Brewery. Having obtained permission from the Japanese government to use it, Martyn and the brewing team have been carefully cultivating the strain ever since.
“This has been such an exciting project,” Bruce Dickinson commented. “I had a crazy idea to try and make a sake-infused lager, and over two and a half years later, here we are! I know Martyn and the team at Robinsons have had to become mad scientists to make this work, but the end result is a really unique hybrid beer that tastes fantastic. TROOPER fans have been asking for a lager, and here it is. I bet you would never have guessed we would do it like this though!”
Sun and Steel uses lager yeast for the initial fermentation followed by sake yeast for a second fermentation. The result is a delicate, subtle fruit flavor infused into a pilsner-style beer – equal parts refreshing, invigorating and flavorful.
Sun and Steel will be available in 4-packs of 16 oz. cans and on draft nationwide in October.
Terry Bunch
