Blizzard of 78
Wormtown Brewery

Pours the darkest of browns, essentially black, with a ruby tinge at the edges when back-lit. An aggressive pour produces only two fingers of tan head that dissipates to a ring.

Aromas of mill and semi-sweet chocolate, cocoa, roast coffee, black bread, molasses, brown sugar, and some nuttiness.

The taste lives up to expectations after the wonderful aroma. The sip starts sweet with brown sugar, semi-sweet chocolate, and cocoa. It quickly comes down from that sweet peak to molasses and black bread, and now the coffee starts to shine through as slight roast along with a big hit of dark fruit and floral coffee notes. They clearly used some top-notch beans in this beer. At the finish, earthy and herbal hops mix with roast coffee and black bread. Molasses, dark fruit, and coffee all come back on a long and lingering aftertaste.

Medium body with moderately low carb gives this a smooth feel, avoiding the thinness that plagues some browns.

Overall, this is a fantastic brown. The coffee adds a lot to the beer in a complementary way: bold enough to get some great notes without overpowering the underlying English Brown.

On draft - Dark reddish brown color with an off-white foam head. Nice coffee brown ale, roasty, toasted, dark caramel, charred brown sugar, burnt toffee, almost mapley with hints of chocolate, coffee beans, some pretzel, crackery brown malts, subtle dark dried fruit, mild green pepper, and earthy grassy floral herbal piney hops. Feels medium lighter bodied, smooth with moderate carbonation.

Whoa! What a surprise, super delicious. Draft pour at Horseshoe Pub in Hudson. Creamy, roasty, clean. All the great malty aspects of a quality brown with the welcome addition of subtle coffee. Would seek this out in cans.

 

Pours a dark, mahogany brown, almost black color with a 2 finger head. Holding it up to a light reveals a red border around the edges. Aroma is earthy, malty, and roasted coffee.

This years brew (2025) is made with coffee beans from Acoustic Java, a local coffee roaster here in Wormtown known for their high quality coffee. Taste follows suit - smooth, lovely coffee notes, hints of dark chocolate, and caramel. Mouthfeel is medium with a creamy note to it. Lovely brown ale and definitely worth trying. Seasonal and available from November through January.

 

 

 

 

Poured from a 16oz can into a tulip can; there's a birth date but can't discern.... pretty sure it wasn't brewed in '78 though. Pours dark brown with two fingers of head that slowly recedes with great lacing. Great English style brown... tastes of subtle molasses and hops. Hard to pinpoint but good.

 

Served on tap in a pint glass

Appearance – The beer is served a deep brown color with a small head of tan colored foam. The head has a decent level of retention, fading over time and leaving a moderate level of spiderweb lacing on the sides of the glass.

Smell – The aroma is strong of a roasted and toasted malt mixed with some notes of chocolate and coffee. Along with these smells comes a rather sizable brown sugar and molasses as well as some smells of brownie and a bit of herbal and earthy hop.

Taste – The taste begins with a brown sugar and molasses sweetness mixed with a good showing of roasted malt and toasted bread. At the same time comes flavors of a light nut and a bit of cocoa, along with some flavors of coffee and crème. As the taste advances the sweet gets a bit stronger all while a touch of dark fruit come to the tongue, leaving one with a nice roasty and dark, somewhat brownie like taste to linger on the tongue.

Mouthfeel – The body of the brew is rather thick and chewy for the abv., with a lower carbonation level. For the dark nature and the tastes of the brew the feel is quite nice and makes for a nice slow sipper.

Overall – A rather nice rich tasting brown ale. One to try if you have the opportunity.

This is a tasty but slightly strange brown ale. Flavor is mostly a modern American take on a brown ale: crisp but restrained hop presence, balanced bitterness, and roastiness and sweetness playing off each other quite well.

The coffee, however, is rather unique. It comes across incredibly vegetal, leaving me with the impression of chili peppers (minus the heat). I can't really attribute that effect to any other ingredient, and some coffee beans can be rather vegetal, but it's certainly not something I expected from this one.

Still, it's a very good beer, and if you expect and welcome that coffee presentation, it might well be a unique aspect of this beer that makes it one of your favorites.

 

Nice mellow sweet toasted malty brew

 

 

 

Found 2 of these buried in the back of my wife's cousin's fridge on our last trip up to Revere, MA and figured I'd give them a try. Cans were dated 2019 (it's 2023) so it is quite old so, in order to be fair, I'll refrain from trying to go into any type of detail other than to state that it looked, smelled, and tasted like a brown ale.

I do need to try this fresh(er), though. . .