L.A. Beer Week (June 18-26) is upon us—nine full days of beer-centric festivities and tastings—and with it comes the annual release of Unity, the official LABW beer. If you're not up to speed on the background of Unity, here's a primer: every year, the L.A. Brewers Guild crafts a brand new version of Unity at a different brewery. The collaborative project results in a wildly different beer from year to year, which debuts around Beer Week and is available at both the LABW kickoff party and select locations around Los Angeles.
This year, Three Weavers served as the home base for Unity 2016, with more than 20 different L.A. Brewers Guild breweries participating in the process and Three Weavers' brewmaster Alexandra Nowell leading the charge. Nowell used a brand new hop varietal called HBC522—a hop so new, in fact, that it doesn't have an official name yet. Dubbed an "experimental IPA," this year's Unity is a hoppy, bright beer with notes of stone fruit, pine and lemon zest, and comes in at 7.4% ABV.
It's a beauty, too: artist Nick Fullmer designed a playfully bold label that makes the bottle stand out. On it, a hop that's come to life (and kind of looks like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle) licks up a bunch of smaller hops, staring drunkenly out at us. “As brewers, we express our art through beer—and rarely with any hindrance from others. Why not allow our label artists to do the same?” says Nowell.
Unity will be popping up throughout Beer Week, but if you can't wait that long, head to Three Weavers taproom in Inglewood to try the hoppy brew. A couple bottles in and we have a feeling you'll be looking like that little guy on the label soon enough.