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Order this now: Unity, the official beer of L.A. Beer Week

Written by
Erin Kuschner
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If you haven't already heard, L.A. Beer Week is upon us. Besides sampling brews during one or two or more (who's counting?) of the week's events, there's another beer you should try: Unity, the official collaboration/celebration beer of the week.

Since its inception five years ago, Unity has always been brewed for L.A. Beer Week at Eagle Rock Brewery. Every year, the recipe changes—last year it was a pale ale brewed with citrus. This year, it's a completely different beer brewed at a completely different brewery: Smog City in Torrance. As new breweries in LA are added to the L.A. Brewer's Guild each year, the community has grown large enough to hand the production of Unity off to a new member for beer week. 

Unity 2015 debuted at Smog City on June 17, so I headed down to the South Bay for a taste. If you've been meaning to try out sour beers, Unity is a great way to ease into the acquired drink—it's a tart saison, and I mean tart. I found it incredibly easy to drink though, and now that it's finally summer in LA, it's a fantastic beer to sip on a hot day. With a 5.3% ABV, it won't knock you under the table, but have a couple of these at a BBQ or pool party and you'll be good to go.

I asked Ryan Trousdale, Smog City's operations manager, if being responsible for brewing Unity this year proved challenging. "It's a massive operation," he said. "Thankfully, [the Brewer's Guild] doesn't not allow you to do it two years in a row...if they ask us to do it in two years, we'll think about it." They made 900 gallons of the stuff, so yeah, pretty massive.

Unity will be available at L.A. Beer Week's kickoff festival, but after that you can find bottles at select local retailers and at certain L.A. Beer Week events. Be sure to check out Rarest of the Rare on July 27, when Smog City will be pouring Unity along with all of their experimental beers from the past two years.

Check out our other picks for L.A. Beer Week events—one for every day of the week!

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