Idle Hands Four Seam

The Stats
Style: American IPA
ABV: 6.6%
Current Ratings...
- Beer Advocate: 4.27/5
- Untappd: 4.03/5
- RateBeer: 3.95/5

"Four Seam, our first year round IPA, conjures up thoughts of a tropical paradise with bursts of citrus, mango and guava that sit on top of a refrained malt backbone. Bitterness remains subdued to allow the true character of the hops to shine through while the cloudy appearance elevates the experience — a true New England IPA."

Pours a beautiful glowing orange with a murky body and less than a finger of white head.

Now that smells delicious. A flood of grapefruit and pineapple are unrelenting with each whiff. At the same time, there's an underlying dank quality with oranges, lemon peel, and melon.

The taste has a great combo of tropical fruit juice and genuine, bitter hops. Actually, the bitterness wins out here as opposed to the nose where it came in 2nd place, but you won't find me complaining any time soon. The taste is a bit more light and crisp than expected with a rush of lemon and acidic citrus. This provides a refreshing quality that leads to easy drinkability. I am loving this dank hop taste combined with fresh orange juice and it is present all throughout the experience. The finish has a bit more of a hop bite, but still retains fresh citrus.

Mouthfeel comes in lighter than I'd like and doesn't have that creamy and full quality you get from so many "New England IPA's", but this still gets the job done. As I said before, this has many refreshing moments which makes the beer easy as hell to drink.

Four Seam competes with the big boys in New England with the look and taste of so many IPA's from the area. A slightly thin body holds it back from being elite, but I am nitpicking at this point. Yeah, if you can get to Idle Hands, you'll find a beer people would wait in line for just waiting for you on tap.

Rating
9.0/10