Robinsons: Trooper (England: ESB: 4.7% ABV)
Visual: Golden brown. Inch of toffee touched head.
Nose: Chestnut. Cumin. Light mild ginger. Light citrus notes. Lemon and apricot.
Body: Citrus. Apricot. Nutty back. Slightly thin up front but grows. Tart grapefruit. Lots of lemon sherbet. Some prickly hops.
Finish: Hop oils. Chestnut and lemon. Fresh feel. Lightly bitter. Peanuts hang around.
Conclusion: BEER? FROM A METAL SINGER. IF METAL MAKES BEER THEN WE SHALL MAKE BEER….METAL. Ok, ok, ill stop channelling Dethklok.
Now this beer is NICELY CITRUS, LIKE ….ok, ok, I’ll actually stop. This joke will get old fast, reading in all caps is a pain in the arse. The beer is nicely citrus filled (like they have been plucked from the garden of eden revisited by necromantic hordes of fruit pickers) with a huge amount of fresh lemon mid body that keeps it very easy to drink, but balanced against a reigned in (blood) nutty backdrop.
Initially in the first few moments it seems slightly thin, not delivering the flavor well, but you find it builds up (as if the daemons of hell rising through a….ok, I think this joke is getting old as well, I’ll just do a normal review from now on) nicely over time. The flavours are refreshing and slightly sharp and somewhat sherbet like.
It is more a balanced beer than a big beer, the hops prickle, appropriately for a beer linked with Iron Maiden, but they aren’t the main focus and are quite mild compared to similar beers. The solid nutty back goes out way into the finish, which makes it probably the most present element. The elements are always balanced, but never quite brings the wow factor to shine.
It is definitely and enjoyable and refreshing pint, with smooth citrus flavour, but it does not stand out, and is far from METAL!
No complaints, but no high praise either.
Background; A beer brewed in collaboration with Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden. Holy crap. I may be a bit of an Iron Maiden fan, so this instantly leapt onto beers I must try. I hadn’t realised this was out yet, until Mark gave me a heads up that it was available in Morrisons. So I headed over, grabbed a bottle, and a few other tasty treats to review at a later date. Oddly I did not drink this while listening to Iron Maiden. Instead I drank in silence, to allow me to experience every song and live gig in my head so to transcend mere physical sound in appreciating their wonder. That bit may be a lie. I fact I left it silent as I play music on my computer and the day was so bloody hot that I wasn’t adding even a CPU core of heat to the mix. However I feel the original explanation sounds cooler.
