This journal post was first is a longer version of the one that first appeared in the Oct-Nov issue of the Mid-Atlantic Brew News. The Mid-Atlantic Brew News (MABN) is a bimonthly publication for beer enthusiasts with over 30,000 copies distributed across the Mid-Atlantic region, with a focus on craft beer happenings across six states (MD, DE, VA, NJ, PA, WV) and DC. Please support local beer writing with a subscription to the MABN.
7 Locks Brewing
Michael Linzmeyer, 7 Locks Brewing Head Brewer
In October 2019, I sat down with Michael Linzmeyer, head Brewer at 7 Locks Brewing, located at 12227 Wilkins Ave, Rockville, MD 20852, to learn about their brewery and their beer.
I'm never surprised anymore about where someone will poke in a brewery — a former warehouse, grocery store, ice house, gas station. Rarely are they constructed new from the ground up. My point is this, take a former warehouse, brew some really good beer, give people a good reason to stop in like live music or a game night, and you can revitalize a neighborhood or even a town.
As we began to sit down, he asked me if I'd like a beer. Of course! Looking over the tap list I spotted a Flanders red ale. A favorite beer style of mind and one not typically found on a tap list.
Michael told me that the brewery founders are Jim Beeman and Keith Beutel who met while students at the University of Maryland. I also learned that Michael started at 7 Locks cleaning kegs and by 2017 had worked his way up to became the head brewer.
I was curious how the brewery had gotten its name. Was it the seven locks of Sampson? No, the 7 Locks name came from the seven locks of the C&O Canal in Montgomery County MD. Many of their beer names came from local features such as their popular Surrender Dorothy Rye Pale Ale, a play on the famous graffiti that people may remember on a Capital Beltway overpass bridge near the Mormon Temple.
“The famous graffiti reading “Surrender Dorothy” in the D.C. metropolitan area first appeared on the outer loop of I-495, the “Capital Beltway”, on a railroad bridge near the Washington D.C. Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Kensington, Maryland. The building is illuminated at night and the “tag” first appeared beginning in late 1973.”
Pouring a beer at the 7 Locks brewery and taproom.
Seems there is always something going on at the taproom. At the time of our meeting, 7 Locks was preparing for their four year anniversary. And while they don't serve food they do have food trucks and most weekends have scheduled events. When I asked Michael which beer he wishes more people would drink he said their Fall Line, a Flanders red sour. It’s not a style most people are familiar with but when they try it, they like it.
Spirits barrels have a new life making good beer even better.
7 Locks is just getting into barrel-aged beer program with their first release in October of a peated scotch ale, aged for 15 months in Laphroaig scotch barrels. Looking forward, they will be barrel-aging other beers in tequila barrels with agave, and imperial saison aged in tequila barrels for bottling, and a brute IPA cut with rice and green tea using a Kölsch yeast should be out in February January.
They currently are canning four beers that can be found in Montgomery and Frederick counties and in Washington DC. Keep up with their latest 7 Locks beers on Untappd.
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