Marble Distilling now making hand sanitizer to help erase the shortage.
Carbondale business Marble Distilling Co., known for infused vodkas and liquors, is branching out into the hand sanitizer market to help with shortages resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Marble Distilling closed its tasting rooms in Carbondale and Aspen a few days before Gov. Jared Polis ordered restaurants and bars to close their dining areas March 17.
Bartenders and front-ofhouse staff members moved to the back, doing deep cleans and bottling product. Then staff read an article about an Oregon distiller using its grain alcohol to make sanitizer.
“We thought, ‘Well, we could make hand sanitizer,’ ” said Connie Baker, head distiller at Marble.
The distiller started distributing the sanitizer gel last week for free to people in the community while ramping up production.
Typically, compounding and selling hand sanitizer would require permits, but not during the coronavirus outbreak.
“There really aren’t a lot of regulations. In normal times, there would be a lot more,” Baker said.
The federal government announced Thursday that it would not levy an excise tax as long as the alcohol used in the hand sanitizer was denatured — a process that renders the alcohol undrinkable.
Any distiller with an exerybody isting permit can produce hand sanitizer from ethanol alcohol if it follows certain guidelines, according to an order released March 18.
The lifting of the tax also helps Marble give away the hand sanitizer to anyone who needs it.
All a person has to do is go to the back of the Carbondale Marble Distilling tasting room, with their own bottle, and knock for service.
Anyone who orders a bottle of Marble spirits from the distiller’s fledgling delivery service also will get a small vial of hand sanitizer — depending on the availability of bottles.
Baker said Marble hopes that selling hand sanitizer to local retailers will help offset the lost revenue from bars and restaurants.
The “biggest hiccup” in the hand sanitizer business is finding bottles, Baker said. They have ordered bottles, but there seems to be a supply shortage there, too.
While the shift to distilling the hand sanitizer is partly about keeping the business viable, Baker also wants to provide a service.
“We’re just going to try to go into some mass production here, and see if we can make enough to keep evsanitized,” Baker said.
It also could help the company retain its staff.
“We’re trying to get them on the bottling line, or help with the hand sanitizer, or run deliveries just to keep them employed,” Baker said.
Every business is feeling the effects of the COVID-19 shutdown, and Baker hopes to see more creative solutions.
“If we work together as a community, I truly believe we’re going to get through all of this. It’s not going to be easy, but we can help each other out in any we can,” Baker said.