Metallica and Stone Brewing Add Another Beer to the Band's Beverage Empire
Metallica has certainly never shied away from beverage collaborations. In 2015, the band teamed up with Budweiser for a Metallica edition of the “King of Beers” in a black can. Last year, the band launched a line of whiskey that was aged with special speakers blaring their music. Heck, guitarist Kirk Hammett even released his own coffee blend back in 2017. But this time, the legendary heavy metal band from Southern California has teamed up with another seminal SoCal institution, Stone Brewing, to create a beer produced with actual input from the band.
Launching today in the U.S. and in international markets this spring, Enter Night Pilsner is billed as “a unique expression of the shared values that have helped define Metallica and Stone Brewing: fiercely independent, transcending genres, shattering preconceptions and challenging convention.” The beer is officially being released under the Stone “imprint” Arrogant Consortia, home to some of the company’s more far-out brews.
Of course, saying you’re planning on “shattering preconceptions” with a pilsner — one of the most common beer styles on the planet — seems to create more questions than it answers. Stone digs a bit deeper into the details, though it’s hard to put your finger on exactly what this beer tastes like. The 5.7 percent ABV brew with “intense drinkability” is said to have a “remarkable flavor and aroma which artfully combine the beauty of a traditional Northern German Pilsner with Arrogant Consortia’s modern overtones of aggression.” The “genre-defying pilsner,” which clocks in at 45 IBUs, is also billed as being “hop forward with sound bitterness on the finish.” Yes, it’s pretty vague — though then again, it’s not like describing the song “…And Justice for All” in a few sentences is easy either.
“I remember seeing Metallica on the cover of a magazine just after the Black Album was released,” Stone co-founder Greg Koch said in a statement. “On the cover was a quote that resonated with me to this day: ‘Metallica didn’t go to number one, number one came to them.’ I loved what that meant. Do it your way and never compromise your art. If you’re great at what you do people will come. I view that simple quote as one of the founding philosophical elements of Stone Brewing.”
Metallica’s Lars Ulrich also spoke to the ideological kinship between band and beer brand. “I’m always blown away about how similar our paths forward have been,” Ulrich said. “Our view of the worlds that we each inhabit, of creativity and process, and sense of place in relation to our peers and ‘The Man’ are almost identical. This collaboration is beyond effortless and pure, and we can’t wait to share this incredible beverage with everyone out there.”
Speaking of process, according to Stone, the brewers and the band worked together “at every step,” including backstage drinking sessions as well as a meetup between Ulrich and Koch at the drummer’s home that also involved, well, drinking more beers. In fact, you may have already tried this beer too: It saw an extremely limited release at some Metallica shows this past fall; but this time around, you’ll be able to find it pretty much anywhere Stone is sold.