Idle Hands Forced to Close Everett Brewery

Photo by Idle Hands/Facebook

Idle Hands Craft Ales has announced that they’re closing their Everett brewing facility due to a displacement by the Everett Wynn Casino project. The local brewery is just one of several local businesses located at 3 Charlton Street that is being forced to vacate by June 30 in order to make way for a construction access road for the Wynn casino project.

“While we are saddened our need to move is happening this quickly, we also always knew our home on Charlton Street would not be our last,” says founder and owner, Chris Tkach via a press release. “We see this change as a minor setback that just forces us to pursue the next chapter sooner.”

Tkach has been searching for a new location for Idle Hands for a year now, but says he was nonetheless surprised when they only received four months formal notice to vacate the building. The good news is that Idle Hands, along with head brewer Ben Howe and his Enlightenment Ales project, are currently in negotiations on a new lease close to the old Everett location.

Unfortunately, due to the lengthy federal and state licensing process, which can take up to 120 days for any new facility, Tkach anticipates a period of being “off line.” To help with that rocky transition, Idle Hands has ramped up production to stockpile additional inventory, and they’ve also arranged to tenant brew at former neighbor, Night Shift Brewery, until a new facility is operational.

“We’ve put a lot of blood, sweat, and frankly, personal financial investment into the brewery and we have no intention of closing,” Tkach says. “As such, we are treating this as a temporary situation and have a plan for continued operations until we are able to re-open a production facility in a new location. However, due to our limited capacity to brew, realistically, the breadth of our offerings will be reduced to one or two beer styles for the remainder of 2015.”

Idle Hands’ Everett tasting room will continue to be open during regular hours of Thursdays (3-7 p.m.), Fridays (5-8 p.m.) and Saturdays (noon-5 p.m.) until June 27. Depending on inventory levels, Tkach says they may opt to open for a few hours as well on Monday, June 29 and Tuesday, June 30. Follow Idle Hands’ progress as they search for a new home through Facebook and Twitter.

3 Charlton St. #4, Everett; 617-819-4353 or idlehandscraftales.com.