Dunkin' Boston Kreme Stout
Harpoon Brewery & Beer Hall

12 oz can with a 2020 canning date stamped on the bottom.
Pours near black with a fine beige head.
The aroma carries some nice notes of chocolate and vanilla but also suggests some clash of these with the hops.
The conflict is pronounced in the flavor as bitter earthy hops and burnt toast fight with Boston Kreme donuts. The hops largely win.

 

Wanted to try something different . Saw the Harpoon Dunkin Boston Kreme. It looked very interesting. Canned date 11//02/20. No where on the can was it called a stout, a sweet stout or a milk stout. After tasting it I figured out why. This beer was watery and over spiced. Boston Kreme ?? Really ? Where? I would love to revisit this one with the others who claim. in their reviews, that it is Boston Kreme all the way...I read some of the reviews and I can't believe how far off I am. This is a watery spiced kind of a stout with little to no body. I really wanted to like this one.BTW as I write this i noticed a lingering tastes, almost metallic like.

 

 

Thin, like watery coffee with grounds floating in the cup. Smell is basically malt and sugar. Not terrible, but not the best.

Beer #3 of 2020 Advent calendar!

A- This pours a lovely dark brown, almost black color and seems to be clear, as I can see the bubbles rising to the top from the underside when held against the light. The head starts out about one and a half fingers thick, but does fizzle out rather quickly, and is noisy in the process, leaving a ring and partial layer in its wake. There is a lot of very small bubbles rising in many columns to the top of the liquid.

S- This has a delectable aroma, very much reminding me of a creme filled doughnut! Lots of creamy vanilla, yeasty fried bread, milky chocolate frosting, underlying hints of coffee and perhaps some sweet nuttiness. Overall this smells like dessert in a can!

T- While I agree that the flavors don't exactly match what the aromas are, there is a definite sweetness that has more chocolaty notes than I would have expected. The black malt bitterness actually helps balance everything out and creates a cleaner profile on the mouth. Burnt almond, yeasty and with a blackstrap molasses sweetness.....not overly sweet but more of an Earthy sweetness. The doughnut flavor actually shows up after the swallow and lingers, as though one has taken a bite out of a Boston Kreme!

M/O- Thin bodied for a stout, and the carbonation is also plentiful, which may be what is hampering the sweetness of somewhat. With this said, it is highly drinkable and the more sips I have, the more I'm liking it....especially the lingering flavors. I would surely enjoy this again and think that the previous reviews are somewhat harsh....its good!

 

 

Pours dark. Light malt aroma. Not bad but pretty bland. Not much malt character. Unimpressive.

 

 

And to round out the Dunkin pack is the Boston Kreme stout. I wasn't sure what this was going to be but I could see it being a stout. The nose is startingly sweet without being cloying. It only faintly resembles the smell of Boston cream donuts. The taste is closer, but very chemical/metallic. The mouthfeel is thin and the taste lingers. I was hoping this would be better, but I think Harpoon should stick to their better beers.

 

Definitely not the dessert beer it appears from all appearances...

I pulled this one as the next offering from the variety pack from Harpoon that I picked up a few weeks back. It was something I expected to be a dessert beer, but ended up being something wildly different. It definitely looked great, smell just like a Boston cream donut, but that's where everything kinda went sideways. The mouthfeel was very much astringent, with a taste that was spicier than you would expect for the style. Not a terrible beer, just strange, a flavor I just can't put my finger on. Anyway, I'm sure there are some that will find this enjoyable, I just found it different and interesting...

 

Pours a thick black body with strong tan head that reduces to decent rim lacing. Smells like a Boston cream doughnut. Tastes like a Boston Cream doughnut. Here's the thing, while the IPA version literally contained a doughnut this doesn't. Instead Harpoon relied on the deconstructed ingredients of the cream and it works. Where the dough flavor comes from I'm not sure. It is admittedly pasty at times and reminiscent of uncooked cookie dough but mostly it tastes like the doughnut it is meant to replicate. The cream itself is spot on with Amarillo and cocoa notes creating that chocolate and cream combo that literally makes the cream taste feel real. Speaking of real... The lack of Stout notes of roasted barley and any acidic lactose is surreal. Not over sweet or really as sugary as the IPA this somehow maintains a subtle but effective doughnut character. I am not sure this is a good beer but I am sure this is a good liquid deconstructed Boston cream doughnut.

This is one of the best smelling beers I've ever had. It literally smells like a fresh baked Boston Kreme donut. The flavor unfortunately does not match the aroma whatsoever. It was actually a bit unpleasant at first because I was expecting it to be sweet and taste like donuts or frosting but no. The predominant flavor is dry bittersweet chocolate.