Massachusetts Brewery Collaborates with Dunkin’ Donuts on Winter Solstice Coffee Beer

Craft beer and coffee lovers, brace yourselves. An independent craft brewery in Massachusetts is joining Dunkin’ Donuts to make the shortest, darkest day of the year a little brighter by creating a winter solstice coffee beer.

Wormtown Brewery and Dunkin’ Donuts announced this week they collaborated on “DDark Roasted Brew,” a coffee stout made to celebrate the winter solstice on Dec. 21.

This is the first beer brewed with Dunkin’s Dark Roast coffee beans, and the brewery says the beer “pairs perfectly” with a double chocolate cake donut.

(READ: 10 Peanut Butter Beers You’ll Crave)

The winter solstice Thursday not only marks the official first day of what’s called “astronomical winter” (which NOAA explains is different from meteorological winter, if you’re a weather geek), but the winter solstice is also the day with “the least amount of possible daylight and the longest night in the northern hemisphere. The reverse is true in the southern hemisphere,” according to weather.com. 

If you want a taste of the winter solstice beer, here’s the catch: You have to be close enough to the brewery to get your hands on it. Wormtown releases DDark Roasted Brew in its Worcester, Massachusetts, taproom at 11:28 a.m. ET Thursday, the very minute of the winter solstice. (I may have already texted my in-laws in Shrewsbury to mosey on over and get me some. It is the season of giving after all.) If you happen to be close enough to make it, the first 100 people in the door will also get a cool swag bag. Wormtown is also showing off some pretty sweet branded mugs you’ll want to get your hands on.

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The Wormtown/Dunkin’ winter solstice beer is the second big collaboration from an indie brewery and a popular chain in the past week. Four Sons Brewing out of Huntington Beach, California, announced last week it brewed a Mexican-style amber lager for the Taco Bell Cantina in neighboring Newport Beach. The collaboration is called “Beach Bell,” and marks Taco Bell’s first-ever branded beer the Orange County Register reports.

Jess Baker

Jess Baker walked into a beer fest in 2010 and realized beer had come a long way from what her dad had been drinking since the 70s. She served as editor-in-chief of CraftBeer.com from spring 2016 to spring 2020, bringing you stories about the people who are the heartbeat behind U.S. craft brewing. She's a runner, a die-hard Springsteen fan, a mom who is always scouting family-friendly breweries, and always in search of a darn good porter.

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