Metallica

Enter Night Pilsner [beer] (2019)

TomTrauma

If I were going to name a beer after a Metallica lyric, I would certainly pick something from the first four albums. No Life ‘Til Lager, Look to the Sky Just Before You Die Rye, Blood Will Follow Blood Stout, and Seeds of Hate IPA would all be good choices, but I digress. That being said, it probably wasn’t a horrible idea to borrow from the most popular song on an album that has sold over 16 million copies in the US alone. “Exit light/Enter night/Take my hand/We’re off to Never Never Land.” They might not be Metallica’s most inspired words, but they’re definitely among the most easily recognizable.

Enter Night pilsner was brewed in a partnership between Metallica and Arrogant Consortia. The brewer seems to be trying to remain mysterious, but it looks like they have some kind of connection to Stone Brewing. For those with short memories, Stone made the NOFX Punk In Drublic hoppy lager, but unceremoniously dropped the band after Fat Mike’s “controversial” comments about the 2017 Las Vegas concert shooting. Stone’s lack of loyalty, or maybe lack of spine, never sat well with me, but again, I digress.

The other thing I find interesting, or maybe ironic is a better word, is that James Hetfield recently completed a stint in rehab. It wasn’t his first. How does an alcoholic in recovery put his band’s name on a beer? Notorious one time alcoholic Dave Mustaine did the same thing with Megadeth. Say what you will about Lemmy and his booze branding, but at least he was unrepentant to the bitter end! Plus, he was more of a working class musician. Metallica hardly needs the money at this point. The punk in me wants to scream SELL OUT!, but once again, I digress.

I picked up a six pack of 16 ounce cans of Enter Night for about $13, which I didn’t think was too bad. When I reviewed the Motörhead American IPA a year or two ago, it was about the same price for a sixer of 12 ouncers. That time, I drank them all one right after another on a Friday night. I thought this might be a bit much for one sitting, so I drank it on three separate occasions. I consumed the first two during the taping of the weekly Punknews podcast. For those who listen regularly, you can probably understand how a little alcohol helps to take the edge off of John and Adam.

I was pleasantly surprised from the first sip. I’m a big IPA fan, and if this wasn’t called a pilsner, I would have thought that it was an IPA. It was nice and crisp and fairly bitter. Definitely flavorful. It’s 5.7% ABV, and has 45 IBUs. Two of them over the course of an hour and a half gave me a slight sense of well being. I had the last three on a Friday night and didn’t feel particularly drunk, but slept like a baby. It’s very drinkable, but heavy enough that two or three at a time is plenty.

The packaging and cans are well done, and I’m starting to amass a collection of cool looking empties. Maybe someday I’ll do something interesting with them, hopefully before Mrs. Trauma gets sick of them and throws them in the recycle bin. It took me a while to find this, and I’d hate to lose my future precious antique cans. The box and cans are mostly black and gray, with a little red, and are similar in color and theme to the relatively subdued Metallica album cover.

I don’t really know much about the technical aspects of craft beer, but I like to drink it. I also don’t know all the different styles, but I know what I like when I taste it. I like Enter Night. It’s a cut above a lot of band branded products. It's clear that a fair amount of thought went into the beer, rather than just slapping a label on a generic product. Craft beer fans should give it a try. You could do a lot worse than throwing on Master of Puppets and chugging down a couple cans of Enter Night.