British rock legends IRON MAIDEN have teamed up with Cheshire family brewers Robinsons to create a new beer, Trooper. Real ale fan and history aficionado Bruce Dickinson, MAIDEN's vocalist, played a major role in developing the unique flavour of the beer, entailing ongoing visits to Robinson's brewery in Stockport. Dickinson's on-stage Union Jack flag-waving military character is an iconic element of the band's live concerts and "The Trooper", written by bassist Steve Harris, is one of MAIDEN's most popular songs and one of the highlights of any MAIDEN show.
"They said why don't you do a lager? I said no!" Dickinson told Off Licence News. "We are a quintessentially British band. If you're going to start with something and do it properly, it should be an ale."
When Off Licence News said it thought rock stars were all about mountains of cocaine, orgies and crates of Jack Daniels, Dickinson said: "Fuck off! I am 55. There's no way I could go out and jump around if I was whacked out on hallucinogenics and I wouldn't enjoy that.
"The nice thing about doing it straight is you can enjoy it."
As a discerning beer lover, Dickinson refused to just slap the IRON MAIDEN name on a brew and sit back and count the banknotes.
"An IRON MAIDEN beer is an easy sale to make noise about but the proof is when you drink it," he said.
"It's easy to piggyback on someone else's brew and we turned down many cheap and tawdry offers, people saying that we sell records so we can sell beer."
"Trooper was the blindingly obvious thing to call it," added Dickinson. "We have a tremendous piece of artwork — it's one of the world's most tattooed images. And it's like Spitfire. It's in the great tradition of British military prowess — well military disaster in this case."
Robinsons has been brewing award-winning beers from its Unicorn Brewery in Stockport for 175 years. Best known for its legendary "Old Tom" strong ale, which was voted "World's Best Beer" by the international Beers Of The World publication, it is Robinsons' younger ales (Dizzy Blonde and "Build A Rocket Boys!" beer; produced in partnership with Manchester band ELBOW) that have lately been causing a stir in the beer world and introducing future ale drinking generations to Robinsons.
Fans of both IRON MAIDEN and real ale can sign up to get news and updates on Trooper Premium British Beer from www.ironmaidenbeer.com, where bottles will be available to purchase by both U.K. and overseas customers from May 2013.
