KEY POINTS

  • A US distillery is making high-grade alcohol to be turned into hand sanitizers
  • The US is facing a shortage of personal disinfectants. The distillery believes they can help
  • Other US distilleries are shown following the example of the distillery

A Pennsylvania distillery owner decided to do something about the price hike happening with hand sanitizers by making his own. The owner decided to refit his distillery to produce alcohol-based disinfectants in bulk to answer the shortage in supply of hand sanitizers.

The Eight Oaks Farm Distillery had its first 20 bottles produced Monday. This particular batch will go to charitable groups that have been affected by the shortage in supply of hand sanitizers. According to NBC News, the family-owned distillery plans to go full blast with the production this week and make charitable institutions their first batch of customers. They also plan to market their hand sanitizers at farmers' markets with a price set at whatever donations people decide to give.

High-proof alcohol is what distilleries get when they make high-proof spirits or drinks with a large percentage of alcohol. Eight Oaks is not the only distillery planning to produce high-grade alcohol; there is also the Green Mountain Distillers in Vermont, which is giving away a hand sanitizing solution. There's also the Durham Distillery in North Carolina, which will give away a similar solution to those that need it most at this time of the shortage.

The emergence of the COVID-19 virus has created a shortage in supply of hand disinfectants, according to Forbes. The answer to this shortage might just be the small distilleries answering the call of replenishing the quickly thinning supply. Distilleries are currently shifting their production to include high-proof ethyl alcohol-based products.

It's not hard for them to make a shift in production; their distilleries are already calibrated to make high-proof alcohol. It's just a small step towards stopping coronavirus in its tracks, but distilleries are hoping that coming together would help towards getting COVID-19 under control.

Banding together might be the right word. A study done by distilling.com showed that the U.S. had 2,000 small distilleries. About 1,000 are spread worldwide. Many of them are high yield factories that produce lots of alcohol-based products per day. At this time, having these distilleries produce even small amounts of disinfectants will be a really big help in fighting COVID-19.

In a Singapore distillery, the smell of pine, citrus and flowers fills the air as students crush juniper berries, blending them with their own choice of ingredients to make custom gin with an Asian twist
In a Singapore distillery, the smell of pine, citrus and flowers fills the air as students crush juniper berries, blending them with their own choice of ingredients to make custom gin with an Asian twist AFP / Roslan RAHMAN
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