The Adventurous Life: BA Throwdown at Idle Hands

Josh and I enjoyed a chat over a sampling of beers at Idle Hands last night.
My ride home was a fixie-mixie. I rode the grass alongside wrong-way Valley Street, and then cut through Ginn Field on my way to CBC looking for some good Flanders Red. Unfortunately, Craft Beer Cellar closed at 8.

Here's the email that prompted our outing.

Hey TigerMouth61,
Join the BeerAdvocate crew on Tuesday, December 6th at Idle Hands in Malden as we continue our monthly ThrowDown series! The fun kicks off at 6pm. We'll buy a few pints and tear it up BA-style.
For more information, updates and to join the discussion: linkHope to see you there,
Jason & Todd (Alström Bros), Founders, BeerAdvocate

Here's what I learned at the Throwdown...

Jillian, our bartender, told me that the BA Throwdown is a monthly event at different breweries, where BA fans can talk beers with "The Bros" and the brewery's owner and head brewer. Or as Austin put it, "hanging out with chubby beer geeks."
Chris, the Idle Hands owner, is a pleasant guy, willing to share some of his beer knowledge with strangers.
Chris likes to bottle condition his ales. He doesn't use cans for bottle conditioned beers though--and not just because of the name. Cans aren't as rigid as bottles. Bottle conditioning requires that you leave some space in the container for the fermentation. If you leave space in cans and then stack them at the brewery, the cans on the bottom just get crushed.
Chris prefers Belgian ales because they are more subtle than IPAs. With IPAs the brewer can hide faults by piling on the hops. Idle Hands always has IPA on tap though, because his customers demand it.
I'm attracted to Idle Hands because of they are local, have a cool logo, and specialize in Belgian-style ales. That said, I'm not a huge fan of their beers.

This is what I tasted last night

(Along with the descriptions from the web page, and my impressions of each beer. Despite the long list, I only drank 36oz of beer before riding my bike home.)

Change Up #3 IPA - American; 7.5% ABV 34 IBU; A reckless amount of Citra hops supported by Centennial, Simcoe, and Palisade, combined with a robust grain bill to hold all the flavor up; we've crafted a soft, citrusy, and juicy IPA that you'd never guess was a 7.5% hop bomb. [pws: ★★★ Very hazy, with moderate carbonation. Fairly typical New England IPA. I'd order this again. They only had enough Change Up #3 left for a half glass, so I had a sip of Josh'. Recipe by brewer Brett.]
Change Up #4 IPA - American; 7% ABV 35 IBU; Part of our rotating IPA series brewed with Equinox hops being the focus and Columbus, Centennial, Amarillo and Galaxy along for the ride. [pws: ★★ Looked the same as Change Up #3, but Josh described it as flatter and mineral tasting. Again, I just had a sip of Josh' and it was less carbonated than Change Up #3 and had very little flavor to my palate. I'm glad I didn't order this one. Recipe by owner Chris, so I had to apologize to him for not liking it.]
Sig Sour Dry-Hopped Sour Ale; 4% ABV; Pale straw in color with strong sour lemon/lime/citrus notes and a touch of tropical fruit. Very refreshing. [pws: ★★ Part of my flight, it tasted like unsweetened lemonade. I'm on a mission to discover sours I like; this wasn't one of them. I'm looking for something like Alexander Flanders Red Ale by Brouwerij Rodenbach, or Monk's Café Flemish Sour Ale by Brouwerij Van Steenberge.]
Kill Your Idles: Blood Orange Sour - Ale; 5.6% ABV; Sour ale w/ blood orange and lactose added creating a flavor reminiscent of fresh squeezed orange juice. [pws: ★★★ Part of my flight, this is more what I am looking for in a sour. A bit tart, but with some sweetness; like one of my favorite candies as a child, Sweet Tarts.]
Thing 1 Saison / Farmhouse Ale; Mixed culture saison [pws: ★★★ Part of my flight. I gave this three stars because it is the first offering in the Friends of Funky Town program. I'm already committed, so I better learn to like it!]
Check Raise Stout - American; 6.4% ABV; Flavors of Coffee with hints of pine and citrus emerge from the bittersweet chocolate and roast background. [pws: ★★★★ Part of my flight, this is the only beer from last night that I liked enough to recommend to others. Like most stouts, it had a chocolatey-coffee taste, but it was very well balanced, with a malty sweetness lingering on the tongue. Owner Chris said that their original brewery in Everett was forced out by a casino (I think?), so some of the Idle Hands beers are named after gambling terms. Check Raise is a deceptive play in poker. A player checks early in a betting round, hoping someone else will open. The player who checked then raises in the same round.]
Klara Lager - Dortmunder / Export; 5.5% ABV 25 IBU; Cracker-malt profile w/ herbal & citrus hop notes. Finishes with a mineral-like dryness. [pws: ★ Tasted before ordering a pint of Proème. I'm not a lager fan, so probably a bit harsh in my rating.]
Proème Saison / Farmhouse Ale; 5% ABV 48 IBU; Dry-hopped farmhouse ale. Massive tropical and stone fruit flavors, finished with a dry, peppery yeast character. [pws: ★★ I tasted before ordering, and it didn't grab my fancy. Ordered a pint anyhow, because Jillian told me it was dry-hopped with Mosaic. Ever since Josh shared a bomber of Trillium's Galaxy Dry-Hopped Fort Point Pale Ale a couple years ago, I've been mad about Galaxy hops. I wanted Josh to try the Proème so I ordered a beer I didn't much like. Josh questioned the description of "massive tropical and stone fruit flavors" and we asked Idle Hands owner Chris about it. He said that Trillium uses way more Galaxy hops in their IPA than Idle Hands does in their Proème Saison, which is a more subtle, malty ale. Unfortunately, Proème didn't blow me away like Trillium's Fort Point. Probably not a fair comparison because BeerAdvocate rates Fort Point as World Class.. Still, give me the Trillium every time.]