Over the winter while we were up in Portland for Zwanze Day we got the chance to to hit up Allagash after Maine Beer Co. and nice visit at New England Distilling Co. Although Upstate NY doesn’t get much Allagash love, I’ve had plenty of their beer on my travels and they’ve been one of my favorite all around breweries for a long while, from the core lineup to their special releases.
After doing recon at Night Shift Brewing it was an easy few steps over to Idle Hands to get a some samples and a couple of bottles to go. I’ve already had Idle Hands a few times, including while volunteering for Night of the Funk, a small taste at Deep Ellum, and a bottle of their Triplication I brought back from that weekend.
We drank through quite a few beers they were offering for samples that day:
Charlton Rouge was the standout beer of the bunch for me and I knew I needed to grab one to bring home. It is good, but is more of an “Intro to Flemish Red” type of beer: all of the flavors are there but very muted compared to some of the in your face examples of the style. I’m fine with that, not all sours need to leave you with your entire face puckered afterwards.
We spent some time chatting with Grace and the other couple who were sampling beers along with us. I was surprised to hear that, given they brew right next door, Night Shift and Idle Hands have never never done a collaboration before. Maybe it would be too easy, or maybe their brewing styles are that much more different. Idle hands definitely takes a more tradition approach, compared to Night Shift’s unique take on most styles they tackle. We grabbed a couple of bottles, and shirt for myself and a glass to go, and were on our way back to Albany.
matthew 'fuj' scher 