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On August 29, 2011, Christopher Tkach brewed a 1.5-barrel batch of beer at his nanobrewery in Everett, Idle Hands Craft Ales. The beer was Patriarch, a Belgian-style Single also known as a Patersbier or “father’s beer.” It was also the literal father of their beers: the first beer brewed with a fresh pitch of yeast, used to grow the yeast for all of the other Idle Hands beers.
The yeast strain is now more than a hundred generations old and the brewery Chris opened with his wife Grace Tkach is celebrating its two-year anniversary September 20 with a party at the brewery, featuring a special release beer, a hoppy wheat saison called Cotton, food from Area Four food truck A4, bluegrass music, and full pours of beer.
There are more reasons to celebrate too: they are wrapping up a brewhouse expansion, from a 1.5 barrel system to 5-barrels, more than quadrupled their fermentation capacity, and will be adding a new bottling line.
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They hired their first employee, brewer Sean Nolan, and are looking to hire a part-time tasting room manager. That increased capacity means you can expect to see Idle Hands in 20 to 30 more stores than they are in now, Chris estimates, including shops like Urban Grape, American Provisions, and Social Wines.
And if that wasn’t enough to keep them busy, they recently announced that they’re expecting their first child too.
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While they have been brewing at capacity on the old system for over a year and could have used a bigger system and more tank space earlier, their path to growth has been deliberate, as Chris tells me during a Labor Day bottling session of Dubbel Dimples.
“We were very intentional in the way we wanted to grow and how we wanted to grow. We never wanted to compromise what we were about.”
It doesn’t mean they aren’t evolving. The new tanks will allow Idle Hands, which has focused on Belgian-style ales, to brew German-style ales and lagers as well. First up is a Dunkelweizen, a dark wheat ale, and he says he also has his heart set on a Kellerbier, an unfiltered and unpasteurized German lager.
Operating as a nanobrewery, self-distributing all of their beer, and selling growlers out of the tasting room twice a week, has also allowed them to be a locally rooted brewery, sold and drank within Route 128. Tkach says that mindset will guide all future expansions too—being a nanobrewery was a stopgap measure, and they plan on eventually moving out of their current space, although possibly still staying in Everett.
“Our goal has always been to build a lifestyle business, something that can support myself, Grace, and our family,” says Chris.
There have been challenges, including, they both acknowledge, not focusing on marketing and merchandising as much as they could have. The brewery space, although functional and conveniently located next to Night Shift Brewing, is still a rough-around-the-edges industrial park with limited parking.
Then there are the victories like their Charlton Rouge, a Flanders-style red ale. Chris says he was “super thrilled” with how the second batch turned out—a lot more sour and complex than the first batch—and he plans plan on increasing the Charlton Rouge program with the recent addition of two red wine barrels. They’ve developed loyal customers, like Alison Keating, who stops by every Thursday for a growler fill and volunteered with her fiancé Geoff Merritt to bottle on Labor Day, Image may be NSFW.
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and Chris says seeing someone drink his beer is still the “glamorous” side of brewing.
Idle Hands opened with a wave of new breweries like Mystic, Night Shift, and Slumbrew, and as more breweries continue to open, Chris says he ends up feeling a little bit like a veteran at this point.
“It feels weird to be two years old and almost feel like a seasoned veteran in all of this. It’s hard to look back at those two years and figure out what I’ve learned because I’ve learned everything. It was all new back then and now it’s all—not necessarily old hat—but I feel like I’ve definitely had my eyes opened.”
IDLE HANDS SECOND BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
FRIDAY 9.20.13
3 CHARLTON ST.
EVERETT
6PM-10PM/21+/$10 FOR 2 FULL POURS/1 POUR + FOOD TICKET
$5 ADDITIONAL POURS
@IDLEHANDSBEER
IDLEHANDSCRAFTALES.COM