• Band: Amorphis
• Poison name: Legacy of the 1000 Lakes
• Poison style: beer – pale ale
• AVB: 5%
• IBU: /
• Gluten free
• Vegan
• Brewery: Maku Brewing

For the 30th anniversary of Amorphis last year, Finnish brewery Maku brewing created a special beer. This turned into the ‘Legacy of the 1000 Lakes’ pale ale. The sales pitch went like:

“A greenish shimmer of moonlight in his feathers flies a raven of bleak forest, absolutely silent as you slide into the cool water, laughing. Embrace the decisive moments with Amorphis Pale Ale.“

An absolutely lovely description and one that entices us to actually give this one a try. Especially looking at the fact that the beer apparently was so successful that it wasn’t just a limited edition for the anniversary, but has become a permanent fixture in the brewery’s roster…

Tasting

When pouring the beer in a glass, we get a strong head that lasts for quite a while and a hazy deep golden color. The aroma speaks of pine and a slight fruitiness from the floral hops (Magnum, Centennial, Williamette, Chinook) and a touch of grain and malt from the malted barley (Pale Ale, Cara Pale). From our first sip we got medium carbonation and a first hit of some fruitiness and malty biscuits, followed by a slight bitter from the hops and a dry finish with pine and a touch of citrus. The overall flavor isn’t heavy or off putting bitter and some might call it rather “watery”, but it simply drinks away quite nicely, reminiscent of the flavor of a typical APA (American Pale Ale).

Packaging

The beer comes in 0,33cl cans that sport a quite simple design. For the color scheme they went with a combo of black and shades of blue featuring the artwork for the ‘Black Winter Day’ EP album cover. You can see the raven from the description fly over the dark waters of a Finnish lake, in its claws holding the signature “Ukonvasara”, the weapon of the Finnish thunder god Ukko, a Finnish version of the more well-known Mjölnir. On one side of the can you’ll find it featuring the old more death metal Amorphis logo from the earlier days and on the other side, the more simple stylized logo we know so well nowadays of the modern iteration of Amorphis.