Beer: Enter Night Pilsner
Brewery: Arrogant Consortia (Escondido, CA)
Style: Pilsner – Other
5.7% ABV / 45 IBU
Technically, this is a three-way collaboration, between Metallica (represented by Lars Ulrich), Arrogant Consortia, and Stone Brewing (represented by head brewer Greg Koch). Don’t get too hung up on the “Arrogant Consortia” bit—it’s an offshoot of the Stone Brewing brand, with Stone’s flagship brew Arrogant Bastard Ale and this new-ish year-round pilsner as the core product line. I mean, the can still has the Stone gargoyle logo at the center, so it’s a little confusing, but there’s probably some really good business reason for the new moniker that involves tax breaks or being able to sell products in Slovenia or some shit like that.
This is probably a good time to remind you that the real Metallica disappeared in 1990, after the release of …And Justice For All, and remains imprisoned in a subterranean fortress, while a group of shape-shifting imposters have taken their place over the last three decades. As such, the real Metallica beer is probably being brewed right now by a non-sober James Hetfield, who—with tons of time on his hands and no true window to the outside world—has adopted a monastic lifestyle and the Trappist brewing tradition to go along with it. But insidious forces are at work, so you’ll never get to sample that brew. Sad but true.
You will instead get to experience Enter Night Pilsner, which you can drink with one eye open while clutching your beer belly tight. If you’re a shot-and-beer kinda person, it’s the essential accompaniment to Metallica’s Blackened American whiskey. What’s surprising is that Metallica is the last of the Big 4 to get its own official beer, following Slayer 666 Red Ale, Megadeth’s À Tout Le Monde, and Anthrax Wardance. Style-wise, it’s probably the most authentic of any of those beers to the Bay Area scene—it’s a German pilsner not unlike Beck’s, a nice step up from the mega-shitty lagers of the halcyon days. For my tastes, I would’ve preferred a little less bitterness and a slightly larger head, but it’s certainly easier to swallow than St. Anger.
More more info, check out Arrogant Consortia here.
