Battle of the band… beers!

Unibroue's coming out with a collaboration saison with the band Megadeth called À tout le monde. Here's a review I did for the Brandon Sun back in 2014 of two band beers - AC/DC's Australian Hardrock Lager and Iron Maiden's Trooper Premium British Bitter

Battle of the band… beers!

Beer and alcohol has become such a hot commodity in this era that musicians and celebrities have launched products to boost their brand. There’s the Dan Aykroyd wine and vodka products that are available at local Liquormarts - which he personally came to the 10th & Victoria Liquormart back in 2010 to promote! In Ontario, Tom Green has his own Imperial Stout brewed by Beau’s All Natural Brewing out of Vankleek Hill (near Ottawa) - which we will never see here, unfortunately. Closer to home, the folks over at Flying Monkeys Brewing out of Barrie, Ontario have released a few musician inspired beers, where the musicians themselves are involved in what they want to see in a beer.. Barenaked Ladies was their first (successful) experiment with BNL Imperial Chocolate Stout back in 2012 - which, to me, tasted like a chocolate fudge brownie squeezed in a 750mL bottle, it was incredibly decadent. Then more recently, they collaborated with City & Colour to release an Imperial Maple Wheat Ale, which I’ve heard was pure heaven in a bottle. 

AC/DC and Iron Maiden are two insanely successful bands that have also used the powers of the beer industry to market themselves in a new way, by having their names plastered on bottles (or cans) of beer! While they sure aren’t the first to do it, they may be the most well known to do it.

Let’s start off with AC/DC’s Australian Hardrock Lager, a lager brewed with 5.0 percent ABV, brewed in France at Brasserie Licorne SAS. This kind of scares me right off the bat - France is NOT known for good beer.. Belgium and Quebec on the other hand.. are known for some of the best beers on the planet, but France? They’re a wine producing country. The AC/DC beer pours a very pale straw yellow hay, A thin amount of spongey white head on top. The aroma is your standard North American pilsner aroma - scents of LOTS OF BARLEY!!! A bit of corn, light amount of skunk aroma and a bready aroma of what reminds me of fast food hamburger buns. For the flavour, it’s even lighter as it has a bit of a lightly barley grassy flavour to it, a bit of corn, a bit of some sort of corn syrup extract that gives it a bit too much of a sweet flavour to it. It’s lacking in the flavour department, it’s a bit too sweet and there’s no presence of hops. I was expecting at least a bit of a light floral bitterness tingling my tongue… eventually, but um.. it looks like that’s not going to happen… boo urns to that. 

AC/DC Lager is your typical lower quality Eurolager, a bit of a corny, lightly skunky golden lager that leaves a bit of a syrupy sludge on your tongue long after you’ve finished the beer is very unappetizing for this beer geek. I like a clean finish to my pilsners/lagers.. but that’s just me.  1.5/5 Pints

Now off to Iron Maiden's Trooper Premium British Bitter by Robinson’s Brewery out of the UK. Unfortunately this isn’t a Trooper.. the band themed beer.. for those who are here to raise a little hell, like this typical Canadian hoser. This is Iron Maiden’s own custom-made beer. I’m easily expecting this to beat the AC/DC lager as it’s insanely impossible to find this bottle in stores in the first place, every time one of the local Liquormarts stocks it on the shelves, the shelves are bare within a day or two! That must mean something good. Trooper Premium British Beer pours a nice caramel-honey amber ale, close to no foam on the head, which is actually quite normal for a British Bitter, though I prefer a beer with a decent amount of head! The aroma is actually quite welcoming - if you like a British bitter. There’s scents of sweet malted barley, giving it a bit of a caramel sweetness at first, a bit of a light nutty aroma to give it a light balance on the aroma, a very light touch of hops to give it a hint of a floral touch, all in all - this is reminding me of a British Bitter. For the flavour, it is a tad bitter.. get it… bitter?! Trooper is a bit of a standard amber ale with a hint of bitterness coming from the floral hops to give it a hint of alfalfa. A nice sweet ale with a touch of honey and breakfast cereal taste that reminds me a bit of Alphabets’ cereal, sweet and grainy! For this being a beer brewed in honour of one of the best heavy metal bands of all time, I’m impressed with how drinkable this beer is - it’s not too light, it doesn’t taste like a brewery avoided the hops and instead poured a bunch of corn syrup in the batch - the brewer (Robinson’s Brewery) took the time to brew a typical British Bitter that not only metal heads would love, but so would beer drinkers. The beer is 4.7 percent ABV. 3.5/5 Pints