If you spend enough time looking for good craft beer, certain breweries start to stand out. Widowmaker Brewing, based in Braintree, Massachusetts, is one worth knowing.
Widowmaker built its reputation around flavorful, hop-forward beers, but the interesting part is how much range sits behind that reputation. The brewery makes hazy IPAs, assertive West Coast IPAs, traditional lagers, stouts, and plenty of experimental releases. Its beers also tend to have a personality beyond the name on the label, whether that’s a carefully chosen hop combination or a brewing process designed to bring out a particular texture and flavor.
The brewery’s roots go back to homebrewing. In a 2017 profile, head brewer Ryan Lavery explained that many of the beers on the early draft list had grown out of recipes he’d developed on a pilot brewing system, including beers he’d been making for years at home. That background helps explain the range of ideas Widowmaker brings to its lineup: the goal isn’t simply to make another version of whatever style is popular at the moment. It’s to develop recipes, refine them, and see how far they can go.
We’re bringing in a selection of Widowmaker beers at Beermill, with plenty of IPAs to explore and one personal highlight in particular: Double Dry Hopped Blue Comet.
Blue Comet: The Hazy IPA That Put Widowmaker on the Map
Blue Comet is one of Widowmaker’s signature beers, and it’s a useful introduction to what the brewery does well.
It’s a New England-style hazy IPA built around Simcoe and Comet hops. Rather than relying on bitterness alone. A hazy IPA can be intensely aromatic and fruity, but if the malt and body don’t support the hops, it can end up tasting one-dimensional. Blue Comet’s appeal comes from putting the pieces together while keeping the beer easy to drink.
The brewery has also used Blue Comet as a foundation for exploring different hop expressions. That’s where the new Double Dry Hopped Blue Comet comes in.
Ten Widowmaker Beers, Ten Reasons to Look Closer
This lineup is a good snapshot of what Widowmaker does well. There are juicy hazy IPAs, sharper West Coast-style beers, a New Zealand pilsner, and even a peanut butter stout and an American porter. The brewery isn’t just making ten variations of the same IPA.
Here’s what to look for in the beers we’re bringing in:
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Blue Comet — Widowmaker’s flagship hazy IPA, built around Simcoe and Comet hops. Expect ripe tropical-fruit character backed by a soft, biscuity malt profile. It also earned silver at the 2022 World Beer Cup in the Hazy/Juicy India Pale Ale category.
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Double Dry Hopped Blue Comet — The original gets an extra dry-hop treatment with Comet, Simcoe, and Citra. If you already like Blue Comet, this is a particularly interesting comparison: the same basic identity, with the hop character pushed further.
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Widow’s Peak — A hazy IPA hopped with Mosaic, Idaho 7, and Simcoe. Widowmaker describes its character as tropical-fruit-forward, making this one to look for if you gravitate toward juicy IPAs.
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Lost Highways — A double hazy IPA brewed in collaboration with Everywhere Beer Co. Its hop lineup includes Citra, Citra Cryo, Nectaron, Quantum Nectaron, and Waimea. With that many hop varieties in the mix, this is the bigger, more layered hazy option in the lineup.
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Under the Spell — A West Coast-style IPA featuring a substantial addition of Krush hops. This is the one to explore if you want a different expression of hops from the soft, hazy beers.
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Glassmaker — A West Coast pilsner hopped with Citra, Simcoe, and Mosaic. It brings hop varieties commonly associated with IPAs into a pilsner framework, making it a useful middle ground for anyone who wants hop aroma with a crisper lager-like base.
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Geomancer — A New Zealand pilsner brewed with Motueka, Nelson, and Riwaka, in collaboration with Schilling Beer Co. The New Zealand hop combination makes this a different direction from the American hop profiles elsewhere in the lineup.
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Candymaker — An award-winning peanut butter stout with rich chocolate and caramel notes alongside its peanut butter character. It contains lactose, so keep that in mind if you’re avoiding dairy.
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Scimitar — An American porter with flavors reminiscent of baking chocolate, cookies, and brownies. A darker, malt-driven option for anyone who wants a break from hops.
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A Vampire’s Demeanor — A double hazy IPA made in collaboration with Mastodon. Widowmaker uses Citra and Strata in pellet, cryo, and hop-oil forms to build a layered, intense hop profile. It’s a fun example of how brewers can use different forms of the same hop varieties to build aroma and flavor.
Where to Find Widowmaker Brewing in West Chester
We’ll have a selection of Widowmaker Brewing beers at Beermill, including a lineup with plenty of IPAs. Keep an eye out for Double Dry Hopped Blue Comet if you’re interested in trying a new take on one of the brewery’s best-known hazy beers.
There’s also a large Widowmaker lineup coming to Bierhaul Townhouse in West Chester, where seven different Widowmaker beers will be available on draft. That’s a chance to explore more of the brewery’s range in one place, from hop-forward options to other styles represented in the keg selection.
The Bottom Line
Widowmaker is worth knowing because it doesn’t approach every beer the same way. Blue Comet shows how a hazy IPA can balance expressive hops with a soft malt backbone. Its West Coast IPAs use different hop combinations to create sharper, more bitter profiles. And its lager program demonstrates the care that goes into traditional techniques like decoction mashing, cold fermentation, and natural carbonation.
That’s a lot more interesting than another brewery simply making a hazy IPA.
Stop by Beermill to check out the Widowmaker selection, and keep an eye out for Double Dry Hopped Blue Comet. If you’re curious about the brewery’s full range, the seven-keg lineup at Bierhaul Townhouse is another opportunity to explore what Widowmaker does best.
Learn more: Widowmaker Brewing’s official website
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