Residents Lineup to Foster Brite Tanks During Outage at Brewery

A craft brewery in Montgomery County, Maryland, is thanking people in the community for stepping up to help when its systems went out amid the dangerously high temperatures sweltering the D.C. area.

Staff at 7 Locks Brewing in Rockville made an urgent plea Monday to find temporary foster homes for its brite tanks and kegs after a mechanical issue caused power to their conditioning systems to stop working.

“The hops are degrading,” Greg Barbera, the executive brewer at 7 Locks, said Monday. “The aging profile is in danger.”

Barbera sent out an SOS, for temporary foster homes for about two dozen Brite tanks, along with 19 conical fermenters and 218 kegs.

The brew pub said the conditioning systems were up and running late Tuesday morning. Crews worked overnight to repair them.

"THANK YOU for all of your help during this crisis. You can return the short-term fosters now. Really. We called and left messages. Sent everybody a DM and text too. But yeah, the system is working. Facilities all good. We just need our stuff back. Like now." the brewery said on its website.

Residents volunteered to provide temporary foster homes for more than 20 tanks and fermenters and all 218 kegs, the craft brewery said. So far, three kegs, two of them empty, have been returned.

“We want to give a huge shout out to the community for quickly coming to support the brewery,” Barbera said in a release. “I also want to thank our staff for continuing their phone calls, emails, texts, DMs, Snaps, home visits, and certified letters to all the fosters about returning everything. They've been at it for two days straight now. We are incredibly grateful to the Montgomery County sheriff’s offer to assist as well, but we all know that won’t be necessary. Right?"

Throughout the day Monday, brewery staff did everything possible to keep the brite tanks and kegs cool: fans going full blast, lots of dry ice and doors open for ventilation.

“It’s exceedingly unhealthy for the beers,” Master Brewer Andy Rigopoulos said. “It's not healthy for the fermenters, and the more oxidized the brew becomes, the less debilitated they make the drinker, and so it’s high priority.”

The brewery brite tanks typically operate at 85% of capacity on a normal day, enough to satisfy brewery patrons and maintain keg inventory. "We need the brite tanks back ASAP. Especially since the kegs seem to have found forever homes," Barbera said.