1. Stop lurking! Log in to search, post in our forums, review beers, see fewer ads, and more. — Todd, Founder of BeerAdvocate

34 Porter
Idle Hands Craft Ales

34 Porter34 Porter
Beer Geek Stats | Print Shelf Talker
From:
Idle Hands Craft Ales
 
Massachusetts, United States
Style:
Robust Porter
Ranked #13
ABV:
6.7%
Score:
91
Ranked #6,881
Avg:
4.14 | pDev: 5.8%
Reviews:
10
Ratings:
32
Status:
Active
Rated:
Oct 08, 2022
Added:
Nov 03, 2016
Wants:
  0
Gots:
  5
A robust porter for a robust player, this is a tribute to David Ortiz, showing our appreciation and love for a Boston legend. 34 will assault your palate with flavors of dark chocolate, burnt caramel and dark fruit while the sturdy malt body provides ample strength to hit anything thrown at it. A touch of sweetness persists through the finish balancing out the strong character found throughout the beer.
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Ratings by bros:

  None found.

Photo of albern
Reviewed by albern from Massachusetts

3.97/5  rDev -4.1%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
There's nothing not to like about this beer. The nose doesn't indicate much, there's a bit of lacing, the beer pours smooth, not much of a head. The highlight of the beer is the silky mouthfeel and the nice roasted malts. There is definitely a sweetness to this beer, some bittering chocolates come through, a bit of hop bitterness as well. This is a fairly full bodied beer, not boozy, but has enough heft to make it balanced and really quite good. This beer checks off the boxes and I would recommend this. The sweetness may be a bit much if you are having a few, but I do appreciate the taste, the mouthfeel, the nice caramel and roasted malts.
Oct 08, 2022
More User Ratings:
 
Rated: 4.23 by TheManiacalOne from Rhode Island

May 22, 2022
Photo of jlindros
Reviewed by jlindros from Massachusetts

4.32/5  rDev +4.3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5
Canned 2021/09/15
Pours a large frothy creamy tan almost 2 finger head with good retention, sticky lacing, jet black color

Nose fair roast, a bit of coffee, dark chocolate, baking spices and cookie dough, smooth creamy robust roasty without burnt

Taste brings more roast, robust style porter with fair bitterness from roast and mild spicy hop, creamy flaked oats I think, dark chocolate, Dutch chocolate, fair coffee and smooth roast

Mouth is med to fuller bod, med creamy carb

Overall solid American robust porter
Mar 13, 2022
Photo of johnnnniee
Reviewed by johnnnniee from New Hampshire

4/5  rDev -3.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Dark brown/black in color with a small bubbly tan head that shows fair retention. Rich dark chocolate and earthy roast with hints of earthy hops and faint licorice and char. Pretty solid robust porter.
Nov 10, 2020
 
Rated: 4.47 by selecter70 from Massachusetts

Jan 12, 2020
Photo of BEERMILER12
Rated by BEERMILER12 from Maine

4.12/5  rDev -0.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
On tap at the Archives
Feb 07, 2019
Photo of papposilenus
Reviewed by papposilenus from New Hampshire

4.25/5  rDev +2.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.75
From a 16oz can, dated 09/20/18. Served in an imperial pint pub glass.

Pours a thin, fizzy, dark caramel-black with ruby highlights, like a glass of Coke, with two-plus fingers of bubbly, lumpy frappacino-coloured head. Retention is fairly meh but leaves thin, slippery swooshes of lacing.

Nose is mildly sweet and roasty, with pumpernickel toast and mocha java.

Taste follows the nose, mildly sweet and lightly toasted, doughy whole-grain bread, cocoa powder, light-bodied coffee or maybe more like tea with lemon, and medicinal herbs. Nice blend of doughy sweetness and dry, charred bitterness.

Feel is clean and sharp, medium-thin bodied and adequately carbonated.

Bills itself as a robust porter but it doesn't have a hell of a lot of heft or feel especially robust although at 6.7% it's certainly no lightweight. I love the simplicity of the flavour profile here, a good, clean-drinking, honest porter. I rated the overall rather highly because, even though the individual components may not be earth-shattering, in whole, it's pretty much exactly what I want and expect from a porter. I intend to drink a lot of this.
Nov 18, 2018
Photo of Lone_Freighter
Reviewed by Lone_Freighter from Vermont

4/5  rDev -3.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Poured into an English pint glass.
The appearance was a fairly thick black color-ed body with a light eggshell white foamy head softly dissipated to leave some kind lace.
The aroma had a bracing roasty coffee to ashy/charred character playing with some dark toast and dark chocolate nibs. Light dose of milk chocolate further on the back end.
The flavor started with a bitter roasty taste initially and seemed to develop a keen sweetness from the chocolate blend. Slight aftertaste of sticky sweet malts.
The mouthfeel was about medium bodied with a fair sessionability about it. Carbonation felt a bit under than expected but I wasn't too bothered by this. ABV felt on par. Semi-sticky and roasty finish.
Overall, pretty nicely done porter I'd be happy to down more of.
Nov 10, 2018
 
Rated: 4.35 by mattycasey from Massachusetts

Nov 09, 2018
 
Rated: 3.81 by harsley from Massachusetts

Oct 22, 2018
 
Rated: 4.31 by nealien from Massachusetts

Oct 22, 2018
 
Rated: 4.04 by HughKelly from Massachusetts

Oct 19, 2018
 
Rated: 4.1 by Prost76 from New Hampshire

Oct 14, 2018
Photo of Davepoolesque
Reviewed by Davepoolesque from Massachusetts

4.03/5  rDev -2.7%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Bitter roasted malt, cocoa nibs, milk and dark chocolate. Medium bodied. Drier finish. Fairly balanced with a bitter finish. Some lactose feel and flavor which puts it somewhere between a porter and a milk stout. Not bad.
Nov 28, 2017
 
Rated: 4.1 by 20holmbrew from Massachusetts

Nov 20, 2017
Photo of WunderLlama
Reviewed by WunderLlama from Massachusetts

4.06/5  rDev -1.9%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Canned 9.26.17

Can poured into aBritish pint glass

Dark brown liquid, two finger taupe foam cap, some lacings

Aroma of roast malts, chocolate, whiff of tobacco

Taste of roasted malts

Thin mouthfeel

Good beer
Nov 18, 2017
 
Rated: 4 by Patches826 from Massachusetts

Nov 13, 2017
Photo of Sheppard
Reviewed by Sheppard from Massachusetts

4.38/5  rDev +5.8%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
Pours black with off white head, not super frothy or anything. Some coffee on the nose. A lot of dark chocolate, like the darkest chocolate you can buy, dark. Also, some roast and coconut. It's very balanced. Just a great porter that I could drink all the time in cooler weather.
Nov 01, 2017
Photo of brureview
Reviewed by brureview from Massachusetts

4.18/5  rDev +1%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
Dark chocolate color with a 1F head in a Stone Imperial pint glass.

Roasted malt aroma. Very traditional.

Thick, full body with a light tart bitterness, chewy.

Excellent taste: chocolate, roasted malt.

Right up there with the better American style porters. Will buy again. My other favorite: Revolution’s Eugene.
Oct 25, 2017
 
Rated: 4.05 by smb71481 from Vermont

Oct 23, 2017
34 Porter from Idle Hands Craft Ales
Beer rating: 91 out of 100 with 32 ratings