Booze vs. virus
B’klyn distilleries reopen to make hand sanitizers
Brooklyn distilleries shuttered over coronavirus are making good use of their leftover alcohol: manufacturing desperately needed hand sanitizer.
Distilleries are using their equipment to make sanitizer after the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau lifted regulations Wednesday to allow the tax-free production of sanitizer, Eater first reported.
With hospitals and health workers grappling with the shortage of hand sanitizer, helping in the “war effort” was a no-brainer to Greenhook Ginsmiths founder Steven DeAngelo.
“It’s been crazy,” DeAngelo, 39, said. “We have the setup to do it. … The liquor and gin side of things is pretty slow because of the shutdown of restaurants and bars, so it’s a good opportunity to contribute.”
DeAngelo said he set his Greenpoint distillery to work on Wednesday as soon as they got the go-ahead from the government. In normal times, they would be pumping out their signature bright green American Dry Gin, which sells for $32 a bottle.
“I remember growing up, my grandparents telling stories of World War II and what went into the war effort,” said DeAngelo. “The public contributed to building ships and making equipment. It always seemed so foreign because nothing that dramatic has happened in our lifetime.”
DeAngelo says he’s produced over 4,200 gallons for local hospitals.
“We’re taking a huge hit on our liquor business,” he said of the unexpected new line of work. “But the staff keeps working and that feels good.”
Bill Potter of New York Distilling Co. in Williamsburg had been making sanitizer for his staff made from aloe vera gel and ethanol. Last week he switched over to a more complex World Health Organization recipe.
“We’re not getting paid but we’ve budgeted a certain amount of money towards this project,” Potter said of the 3,000 bottles his company, founded in 2011, has made in its first run since he purchased bulk glycerol and bottles out of his own pocket Friday.
New York Distilling Co., which sells the citrusy Dorothy Parker or the aromatic Perry’s Tot gins at $30 a pop, had to close its full-service in-house bar due to new regulations.
“Our business is on hold and we don’t know what it’ll look like on the other side,” an emotional Potter, 38, said. “It’s tough. Small-business owners everywhere are going through the same thing. It’s hard to say because this is only just the beginning.”
“New Yorkers really are dependent on one another,” Potter, a Park Slope native, added. “Everybody is doing a small part to rise up to the occasion.”