Bottled water is a hot commodity leading up to the storm. But once the storm passes, will there be enough to go around?
In a massive warehouse north of Fort Pierce, a place better known for its' IPA, is preparing to provide drinking water.
“Each tank holds about 4,000 gallons of beer or product," says Tyler Bradley, the Brewmaster for Islamorada Beer Company. He shows off the fermentation tanks that tower over the warehouse. If the facility loses power, the beer that would usually be in the tanks would go bad, so they thought of a way to help the public after the storm.
“Water’s going to be at a premium and so we wanted to either bottle it or keg it and distribute it to people in need," said Bradley.
The company was first based in the Florida Keys, and they still have a microbrewery there.
“The place is from the 50s, maybe older, and I don’t think that the building is going to survive," said Bradley.
Their current facility is rated to survive a Category 5 hurricane.
There are already 20,000 gallons of water in the tanks and that amount could double. It's a slow and steady procedure to get the water in. It took about a week to empty out all the product before the water could be added.
That would translate to about 200,000 bottles they could distribute that could quench the area’s thirst after the storm.
