Iron Maiden unveils first saké lager for Trooper range

British heavy metal band Iron Maiden and Stockport brewery Robinsons Brewery have released a new saké lager, the first lager in the band’s best-selling Trooper beer range.

Iron maiden has released its first saké lager, Sun and Steel

The new Sun and Steel lager is a 4.8% ABV pilsner-style, double fermented lager using saké yeast, which the brewery said was one of the most complex beers it had ever produced.

Iron Maiden’s lead singer Bruce Dickinson was inspired to come up with the unusual hybrid brew two years ago after meeting Maiden fan George Yusa, who owns a 300 year old family run saké brewery, Okunomatsu Saké Brewery in Fukushima, Japan.

The yeast, which was supplied by Yusa and cultivated by Robinson’s head brewer Martyn Weeks, after Weeks obtained permission from the Japanese government to use it in brewing, is added to the traditionally brewed lager, which then undergoes a second fermentation.

It produces what the brewery describes as a “delicate, subtle fruit flavour infused into a pilsner style lager”.

Dickinson said the “crazy idea” to make a saké infused lager had been an exciting project to work on.

“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!”

Robinsons and Iron Maiden released their first beer, ‘Trooper’, in 2013, and have since released five limited edition extensions to the range, including a porter, and a golden ale brewed to support Help for Heroes, called Light Brigade. 

Sun and Steel, which will be available in May, is named after the Iron Maiden song that inspired by the life of Japanese Samurai Miyamoto Musashi, that features in the 1983 Piece of Mind Album album.