Idle Hands Riding Shotgun

Idle Hands brewery in Everett, MA isn’t the easiest place to find. Located in an industial park down a side street with minimal signage, you need to look around a little to find it (and trust your GPS, we thought we went to the wrong place at first). While they have great brewing space, there is no official tasting room, just a small bar where they pour free small samples and sell bottles and growler fills (no full pours). While the location isn’t the most welcoming, the staff is great. They are happy to chat about the beers and make recommendations. There are also tons of beers to try. With the merger of Idle Hands and Enlightenment Ales last year the brewery now produces an impressive selection of year round and seasonal brews. I’ve long felt that these are two of the most under-rated breweries in MA, both make a wide range of delicious and drinkable beers. After tasting a number of selections, I grabbed a bottle of Riding Shotgun, their hoppy hefeweizen. I’m not usually a huge hefeweizen fan, but the liberal hop additions made this an intriguing beer worth a full try. I also grabbed a bottle of Enlightenment Brut, the only Bier de Champagne brewed in the US. It’s sitting in the fridge waiting for the right occasion to crack it open. Stay tuned for a full write up of that soon.

Idle Hands Riding Shotgun pours a deep copper, slightly hazy with a substantial white head. The smell features some floral and woodsy hops intermingled with mild scents of wheat malt. The hops lead off in the flavor, notes of pine, grass and earth. The wheat comes through strongly too, like well toasted whole wheat bread. I like the use of the more woodsy/earthy hops with the wheat, I think it is a better complement than the strong tropical fruit flavors some American hops add. Riding Shotgun is clean and easy to drink at 5.7% ABV. This is a very solid late summer to early fall beer, lots of flavor and complexity without being too heavy. Hoppy Boston score: 4.25/5.

Previous Idle Hands reviews:

Idle Hands Adelais, Idle Hands D’aison, Idle Hands Triplication