Chris Tkach of Idle Hands Craft Ales (Photo: Susanna Bolle)

There is some great beer brewing in small batches, and in equally small breweries these day. As if micro-breweries weren’t small enough, nano-breweries, which often brew no more than one batch of beer at any given time — are an increasingly popular and innovative segment of the craft beer world. These breweries intentionally keep their operations small, often brewing only a few varieties of beer in limited quantities, and their distribution local… very local. And while this isn’t beer that’s easy to find, it is beer that is often well worth the effort to seek out.

Though there has been a minor profusion of such small breweries around the country, locally, nano-brewing is just starting to take root. One of the few Boston-based nano-breweries (if not the only one currently up and running) is Idle Hands Craft Ales. Based in Everett, Idle Hands is run by Chris and Grace Tkach, who specialize in Belgian-inspired beers.

The brewery grew out of Chris’ 17 years of experience as a home brewer. At home, he experimented with everything from English-style ales to hopped-up American-style brews. His interest in Belgian ales was sparked by his future wife’s love of the style. “On our first date,” he says, “she ordered a Chimay Red. That sparked my interest in her, because I knew right away that she understood good beer, and since I knew she had an appreciation for Belgian style beers, I wanted to start creating some for her. Then I just kind of fell in love with them.”

What fueled his interest in the style was the subtlety and complexity of the beer itself. Belgian beer, with its openness to experimentation, stands at the pinnacle of most beer connoisseurs’ stylistic hierarchies (unless said beer connoisseur is German). “There are a lot of things going on,” Tkach says of Belgian beers. “Whereas American-style beers tend to blast your palate with hops, the Belgians take a more restrained approach where the yeast itself is more expressive. It’s the yeast that does the talking and [as a brewer] it’s a matter of how you can coax the yeast into doing different things.”

Chris Tkach of Idle Hands Fills a Growler (Photo: Susanna Bolle)

Idle Hands, which started production in August, currently brews two beers. The first is called Patriarch, and it’s the first beer that Tkach brewed at Idle Hands. It’s an unusual one. If you’re a fan of Belgian beer, you’ve undoubtedly tried a doubel, tripel, or quad style beer. Well, Idle Hands’ Patriarch is what Tkach describes as a single — light-bodied with a beautifully subtle flavor.

“I call it a Belgian single, because it’s easier to explain, but in truth it’s what’s called a patersbier,” he says. “A patersbier is the beer that the Trappist monks brew and consume themselves, so it’s not something you would typically find out on the market. It’s basically the monks’ table beer. It’s a really simple beer — it’s a single malt, a single hop. What’s interesting about this beer is that it really showcases our yeast and what our yeast can do, so all of the flavor that you get out that beer is a result of what our yeast is doing.”

The name, Patriarch, is a nod to patersbier (father’s beer), but it is also reflects the beer’s role at Idle Hands. It is from the process of brewing Patriarch that Tkach grows yeast for all of his beers. “When we get a pitch of yeast from our suppliers, we’ll brew Patriarch and then the yeast that grows out of Patriarch is used in our other beers. It really is the father of all our beers.” Following monastic tradition, the beer will only be available at the brewery itself (though there will be some exceptions for special occasions).

Idle Hands’ flagship beer is Pandora, a Belgian pale ale with lots of citrus notes. Tkach describes Pandora as “a crossover ale for beer geeks.” That is to say, it’s a gateway beer for people who already know and love hop-heavy craft beer, but who want to learn more about Belgian style beer.

“It has a foot in each camp. It uses a lot of American-style hops but it is fermented with our Belgian yeast strain, so you get the complexity of the yeast and the spiciness of the yeast married with the citrus flavors you find in American-style hops.”

In the spring there are plans to introduce a Wit beer called Brevity (yes, they have great names at Idle Hands), but in the meantime Idle Hands is keeping busy brewing specialty types of beer, such as a tripel and a sessionable Bruin (a medium-bodied, light brown ale). “That’s the beauty of having a nano-brewery,” he says. “I can play around and, as a former home brewer, that’s what I like to do. I want to have a standard kind of beer like Pandora that people can know me and Idle Hands by, but I also want to give the craft beer consumer, who’s always looking for something new, a variety of different specialty beers.”

To get your hands on some Idle Hands, the brewery, which is located in Everett, has limited growler hours, when you can drop by to sample beer and pick up a growler of Patriarch, Pandora or whatever specialty brew Chris has on tap (check their website for hours).

For those who don’t want to make the trek out to Everett, Idle Hands is having its official launch party at Atwood’s Tavern in Cambridge on Monday, November 7, 6-8 p.m. They’ll be pouring both Pandora and Patriarch, as well as some specialty brews.

A Growler of Patriarch (Photo: Susanna Bolle)