Metallica now has its own beer — Enter Night

Metallica has teamed up with California-based Stone Brewing Co. to create a dark beer named after one of the band’s most popular songs.

Enter Night, a hoppy pilsner, clocks in at 5.7 ABV and should be hitting shelves near you soon, USA Today reports. Until now, it’s only been offered at stores and concert venues on Metallica’s latest North American tour.

“We wanted to create something that would be good to drink, (when) maybe you are tailgating outside a venue waiting to get into a concert,” drummer Lars Ulrich said. “We wanted to have a very drinkable beer and one that would not, you know, knock your socks off.”

One of the reasons the band favored a pilsner was because Ulrich grew up near a brewery known for the style. He told USA Today he recalls “smelling the hops in the air.”

And Stone Brewing was an easy choice for Metallica to pair up with. “They have have always been fiercely independent and so has Metallica,” Ulrich said.

Stone Brewing’s beer lineup mostly consists of IPAs and stouts. Ulrich said a pilsner would just “add to their arsenal, and would have an authentic story based on Metallica.”

Stone co-founder Greg Koch said the band didn’t just want any beer with their name on it. “They were really interested in understanding the process and making a thoughtful decision about the beer style and how we should do everything surrounding it,” Koch told USA Today. He co-founded Stone with Steve Wagner in 1996.

Enter Night, whose name comes from the band’s 1991 hit “Enter Sandman,” is packaged under Stone Brewing’s Arrogant Consortia label. The beer comes in 16 oz. six-packs and on draft. A quick search of Pittsburgh spots on Untapped brought up a few spots with Enter Night available.

This isn’t the first time the Hall of Fame band has ventured into alcohol-production territory. In August, they released Blackened, a blended American whiskey.

“In terms of hard rock, Iron Maiden has been doing beverages very successfully and Megadeth has been doing beer,” Ulrich told USA Today. “We have been watching everybody else do their stuff and sometimes just sitting back and watching … you sort of pick up what is working and (think) what could our model look like.”

When the band ventures into Europe in the spring, a release of Enter Night will follow along.

“Our primary thing is obviously playing music,” Ulrich said. “But in the wake of that comes a whole slew of other things. I look at all of them … as creative outlets.”

The band continues its “WorldWired” tour, with the closest date on Feb. 1 at Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena.

Chris Pastrick is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Chris at 724-226-4697, cpastrick@tribweb.com or via Twitter @CPastrickTrib.