Heavy metal band’s special brew is now top selling British craft beer abroad.

How do you distinguish yourself in a field where hundreds of emerging craft beers are vying for public attention?

Two years ago the British brewers Robinson’s teamed up with the heavy metal group Iron Maiden to collaborate on a beer called The Trooper, named after one of the band’s best known songs.
Robinson’s had previously done a successful collaboration with the band Elbow.

The hops were chosen after a blind testing by the band’s lead singer Bruce Dickinson who counts himself as something of a beer aficionado.

Trooper beer has been a runaway success, according to Robinson’s director of marketing David Bremner who told a beer summit in the UK today that the product has sold 3.5 million pints to date without a penny being spent on marketing.