Harpoon Stout

Product Reviewed: Harpoon Stout
Brewed by: Mass Bay Brewing, Boston, MA
Review By: David Brockington
Original Posted to Usenet: May 18, 1994

Initial Impressions:

I will quote the passage that appears on the neck of the bottle to share with you what my personal expectations for this beer were: "Harpoon Stout is rich, dark, and delicious. This dry stout has six kinds of malt and plenty of hops. A delight in a world full of heavy stouts!"

So, I was expecting a dry stout. Now, I have some rather strong opinions on what I think a dry stout should be, and what they shouldn't be, and the review of this beer will be judging it as a dry stout, not a brown ale. If the brewer is going to make a claim about their beer on the bottle, it is my opinion that they had better live up to that claim.

When I poured the beer into my glass, the color stuck me as an immediate concern. Rather than being a deep, opaque black, which is what I expect out of a stout, this beer was a deep, slightly hazy amber. Immediately prior to the Harpoon, I had tried the Edmund Fitzgerald Porter (a beer I still dream about); the Porter was quite a bit darker than the Harpoon Stout. One thing about the Harpoon Stout that did stand out, however, was its beautiful pale tan head. It was rocky, it didn't dissipate with any rapidity, and while the beer was consumed the head left a beautiful trail of lacework down the entire glass to let you know where you have been. The head retention and lacework was one of the more outstanding that I have seen in a micro.

Nose:

A slight hint of malt and hops come through in the nose, along with a slight metallic scent. I wouldn't expect many aroma hops to come through, nor would I expect a base maltiness to come through in the nose either, but I would expect to enjoy the roasted scent of dark malts in the nose of a stout claiming to have six different grains. There was no roastiness in the nose at all.

Flavor:

My first impression, which was shared by the other three beer- enthusiasts present at the tasting, was that this beer simply does not qualify as a stout. Of the few flavors in the profile, the metallicness has a slight edge over the others. There was no dark, roasted malt flavor, such as chocolate or patent, in the profile at all, let alone the requisite roasted barley bite. I was completely let down by this beer. The finish reveals a well-balanced beer with the base maltiness finally coming through and then quickly yielding to a plentiful addition of bittering hops, but the dark malts never quite made it out of this beer. My guess is that, considering the rather light color for the style, the dark malts never really made it into the beer in any appreciable amount.

Final Analysis:

This beer was no stout. Considering the nice malt/hop balance that came through in the finish, and that this beer is largely clean, if the brewer (or marketers) hadn't made the bold claim to stouthood on the bottle, I would have given this beer three stars as an above-average American Brown Ale. However, since they claimed it was a stout, I have no choice but to review it as such:

** (based on 5)

Next Up:

Dominion Spring Bock

David Brockington, Seattle, USA
bronyaur@u.washington.edu