Iron Maiden, Robinsons Brewery Deploy Trooper Beer

When Bruce Dickinson, the stentorian-voiced lead singer of massively popular metal band Iron Maiden, approached Robinsons Brewery of Stockport, England about a collaboration, the company was unsure.

David Bremner, director of marketing at Robinsons, knew the company was wary of a collaboration beer after an unsuccessful previous venture with British rock group Elbow.

“There’s a few key ingredients when you’re doing any collaborative beer,” Bremner explained. “You need an authentic story, you need to work with the right people, you need a truly collaborative approach, and most importantly, you need a fanatical fan base with a huge social media following.”

Though Elbow are critical darlings, the group didn’t have a truly rabid fan base that it engaged with on a regular basis, and the group also didn’t have a collaborative approach to making the beer.

Robinsons originally believed Iron Maiden lacked an “authentic story” for a collaboration beer, but it quickly became clear that Dickinson was an enthusiastic beer expert – even sending pictures of his beer collection to Robinsons to convey his passion.

The head brewer was dispatched to London with 10 beers to meet with Dickinson. “They took the labels off and he blind tasted them,” said Bremner. “Bruce knew six out of ten beers blind. He knew the hops that were in them and he knew the malts that were in them, and we knew then that we had a really authentic story all of a sudden – far more authentic than anyone could’ve hoped for.”

While blind tasting the beers, Bruce made it clear that he wanted to make a beer in a traditional English style, so they settled on Trooper as a strong bitter. “Robinsons didn’t want to make a beer that was on-trend for the market, they wanted to make a beer that Bruce would like to make for the fans, a beer that he could create and deliver,” said Bremner. “You could make a tastier beer, you could make a more pungent beer, but we wanted a beer that people could come back to time and time again.”

The response to Trooper has blown away the folks at Robinsons, but it wasn’t that surprising. Bremner remembers going to Disneyland three years ago with his kids and queuing up to get on the Finding Nemo ride. While waiting, he saw “three blokes of different ages, not together, all wearing Iron Maiden shirts.” He knew then that this beer could turn into a phenomenon.

The devotion with which Iron Maiden fans consume the group’s music certainly applies to the group’s beer too, which works out well for Robinsons. “The fans buy Iron Maiden albums once, whereas this gives them the chance to drink the band’s beer five times a day, every day,” said  Bremner. “It’s an ongoing immersion into the Iron Maiden brand. It’s consistently thanking them for their loyalty.”

Unlike other beer and music collaborations, Dickinson actually visited the brewery several times to help with brewing the beer. When Robinsons launched the beer, said Bremner, “Bruce led the brewery tour for the beer journalists himself.”

The beer market is fairly saturated with music collaborations, with some brewers, like London’s Signature Brew, almost focusing solely on them. But Trooper was really the first one by a British brewery to show such lasting appeal and staying power.

“Beer fans can get quickly fatigued with collaborations,” Bremner said, jokingly bringing up an Oprah Winfrey Gin or a Justin Bieber Vodka. “In the UK, other bands have done this and they’ve failed time after time after time.”

In many cases, the finished beers just weren’t tasty or interesting. “The most essential part is getting a beer that the fans are going to enjoy,” Bremner said.

The majority of beers sold in Britain are 4 percent ABV or under, and when Robinsons debuted Trooper at 4.8 percent ABV it immediately began outselling older, more established brands with its richer flavor profile and “distinctive look” featuring the zombified Iron Maiden mascot, Eddie the Head, on its taps and label artwork.

Even in American beer shrines with over 120 craft brews on tap, Trooper gets noticed due to Iron Maiden’s massive worldwide reach via its social media following.

“I’ve been working in the beverage industry for 18 years,” Bremner said. “Trooper is the only beer I’ve dealt with that actually puts people in pubs – we tell the fans where to find the beer on social media, and it drives people into that pub.”

(Editor’s Note: Bremner told BC that big news was on the horizon regarding Trooper, and shortly after completing this interview, Robinsons announced Trooper 666, a 6.6% ABV ale created in celebration of the 10 million pints of Trooper sold around the world and the 40th anniversary of Iron Maiden’s formation.)