I decided to give Urthel's Hop It another shot, this time from an 11.2 oz bottle that does not have a corked top. The bottle cost me $5.85, so it's actually a hair less expensive per ounce than the larger bottle. I suppose that's common for beer, though.
This time, it pours with an appreciable head. It lingers fairly well, but it's not as persistent as the La Chouffe Tripel-IPA blend or Alesmith's YuleSmith. It's a cloudy gold with some chunks floating around in it. There were chunks floating around in it even when I held the sealed bottle up to the light.
The aroma is of a light grassy hopping and a mild malt. Man, after Stormstarter's enthusiastic review, I really wanted to like this beer. I was hoping for something like Brooklyn's Hopfen Weisse, or maybe a more potent version of the La Chouffe IPA-Tripel blend. This isn't either. This is like a slightly hoppier version of a saison, and it just doesn't do much for me. The beer I'm having now is better than the spoiled version I had earlier, but it doesn't have a whole lot more going for it. It has a moderately strong grassy hop character with a light, and just slightly sweet malt behind it. This is anything but a bad beer, but for the prices I'm paying for this, I can't help but want a little more. On the absolute scale I use in my ratings, this is about a
beer on its own merit, but it's a pretty poor value in my opinion, and I won't be buying it again. Even if you're interested in trying a beer that's similar to this, I'd recommend any of a number of different beers. I liked the saisons from Flying Dog (Wild Dog), Southampton , or Brooklyn (Local 1) better than this, and they're better values. The aforementioned Lachouffe Triple-IPA blend is cheaper and somewhat more adventurous. And then Brooklyn's Hopfen Weisse is also cheaper and just plain amazing. I hate to say it, but stay away from this one. It's not worth what you pay for it, and even if you really, really like beers in this style, there are comparable options I like better that cost less.