California Distillers Turn Spirits into Sanitizer Amidst Pandemic Shortages

Who says alcohol only has one use during quarantine?

After the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau relaxed its policies to allow distillers to produce ethanol-based hand sanitizers, which must have at least 60% alcohol to be effective, distillers around the U.S. started to pivot their supply chains. One of the country’s most well known makers, Tito’s, began giving away their “hand cleanser” just last month after announcing the product via Twitter.

Sutherland Distilling, Brentwood Distilling Co., and a host of other California businesses have been doing the same, some of them churning out more than 500 gallons of spray mist hand sanitizer per week, while following the WHO’s 60% recipe. The move has not only helped fill the public’s voracious need for the product, but helped these distilleries, many of them small mom and pop operations, keep their people employed.

“It felt like it was an obligation to do this,” says Brentwood Distilling Co. founder Donny Flamme. “Our California distillers can unite and do it.”

You can read more about the trend here.