To our most valued customers, we are announcing the closure of the Malden tap room for on premise consumption effective today (3/16) through April 7 in response to the COVID-19 crisis and requirements set forth by the commonwealth of Massachusetts. The tap room will reopen on Wednesday (3/18) for “to go” sales only on a ... Read More

The holiday grind continues here at Idle Hands Craft Ales as we make that last sprint to finish off 2019 strong. So busy, in fact, I did not get a chance to talk about the return of our Klara, a Dortmunder Export-style lager! It was released last Wednesday both on draft and in 4-pack cans ... Read More

 Hello folks, I hope your holiday was delicious and filling! However, we here have not stopped working in order to deliver several new beers this week. Yesterday we will be canned our beloved American Stout, Check Raise, and also a new iteration of our DIPA Splitter. This formulation of Splitter involves new yeast which turned ... Read More

Our first ever Mug Club has been launched and is for all the lager lovers out there. The exclusive club will be limited to 32 spots to start 2020. You can only sign up for The Bottom Feeders by visiting the Taproom. No orders will be accepted online or over the phone. How much does ... Read More

Alright folks, it is that time of year again: Funky Friday! As is tradition, on Black Friday we will taping several Mixed-Fermentation beers. Typically Black Friday is a celebration of big, heavy, barrel aged stouts, which we equally love and adore. However, we figured that between all those desserty treats and the aftermath of the ... Read More

Hello folks! This week we are releasing Change Up #18, The Victors. Here we highlighted the source of the ingredients: all the malts and hops came from Michigan! Because of this intense Michigan focus, we felt compelled to release it near some of the big college football games and give a nod to University of ... Read More

Part 3Beer Fermentation In the previous two posts (Part 1 and Part 2), we discussed fermentation in general, and its role in human history. This week we will look at fermentation in the context of beer. Now, to be upfront, beer fermentation is an incredibly complex subject with lots of scientific jargon and concepts. As usual, ... Read More

In Part 1 we began our examination of fermentation, what is it and how it happens. If you have not read it yet, check it out as we are picking up right where we left off! (Part 1 is available here) We learned that some of the earliest forms of life used fermentation as a ... Read More

This coming Sunday we will be hosting an event called Light & Dark. We have been kicking around this idea for a long time, and it is exciting to finally see it come to light. The idea behind this event was to change the focus of the taproom experience. These days, breweries offer so many ... Read More

It is time for another round of experimental IPA! While this is part of our Change Up series, we have found that simply numbering the beers makes it hard to remember what happened in each batch. Going forward we will be (attempting) to name these hoppy explorations to help give them a little bit more ... Read More

This Friday we are releasing a special beer, Katrin, a new take on a Munich Helles. This beer was brewed in honor of my wedding last weekend, and I could not be happier to  finally share it with all you wonderful folks.  As some of you know, Idle Hands already makes a delicious Helles called ... Read More

More often than not, when discussing beers, we focus on the ingredients or the history of the style or what to expect for flavors. Though yeast may enter into that conversation, we still treat it as something static. But in truth, beer is not a constant; it is not the same as making a salad ... Read More

Amongst the many happenings in September, we especially love the return of our Robust Porter ‘34’, named in honor of David Ortiz. While the man himself is a legend, Porters are equally rich in legacy. Contradictory tales, misread documents, rumors of bartenders blending beers, the Industrial Revolution; it is a collection of shadowy myths and ... Read More

Boy, oh boy is this a fully stacked week here at Idle Hands! We have got some massive events and beer releases coming your way; you may as well set up camp across the street. But among the chaos there is one beer I do want to make sure we talk about: this year’s Anniversary ... Read More

Finally. It is that time of year again. The best season in New England approacheth. Crisp dry air, crackly leaves, fires, sweaters, that special sunlight and the best beer styles. Yes, I am talking about Autumn and the arrival of Pumpkin beers– …haha, nope. Just kidding, none of that happens here. No, I am talking ... Read More

Working in a brewery requires a certain tolerance of chaos. Everything in a brewery is in a state of change: fermentation, conditioning, mashing, blending, etc. Yet, business requires predictability, schedules, routines, something static. Tension is the name of this game. But, tension can bring us closer to what we aim for; think of how a ... Read More

The first in a two part series on Malts, part 2 can be read by clicking here. These days, malt is often overshadowed by hops and yeast; but do not let that fool you into thinking that malt adds next to nothing. While beer is a balance of several ingredients, malt is often taken for ... Read More

Malt: Part IIFlavors and Grains The second in a two part series on Malts, part 1 can be read by clicking here. Previously we discussed the difference between barley and malt. Barley is the natural form of the grain of choice for brewing. A malt is a modified grain, one that is tricked into thinking ... Read More

In recent years, summer has become synonymous with sour ales. It makes sense since they are thirst quenching, often lower alcohol, and can have lovely fruit additions. So it is not surprising that one of the first questions we get is: ‘Do you have any sour ales?’ But this is tricky, because sourness is not ... Read More

 Hello there! We had several busy weeks in the brewery, which kept me away from the Brewer’s Spotlight. But it is well worth it. We now have more Brocktoberfest, our annual Festbier, than ever before. Quietly lagering for the next month or so, expect “Brock’ by the end of August …mmm… But till then we ... Read More