Distilleries turn alcohol into hand sanitizer
At their yet-to-open Lucky Sign Spirits in the North Side neighborhood of Spring Garden, Christian Kahle and Matthew Brudnok want to make alcohol that people can drink.
But in the meantime, they’re willing to throw their efforts into using alcohol to sanitize hands to fight the spread of COVID-19.
The two North Hills residents read with interest this week how Pennsylvania’s Eight Oaks Farm Distillery — in New Tripoli, Lehigh County — and other distilleries had started making hand sanitizer, which remains in very high demand and short supply.
The federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, or TTB, that regulates distillers temporarily OK’d others following suit in this emergency, as long as they followed a recipe approved by the World Health Organization.
The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board gave distilleries its approval, too, on Thursday night.
PLCB spokesman Shawn M. Kelly reiterated Friday, “In accordance with TTB guidance and following PLCB Board approval March 19, all distillery and limited distilleries are authorized to
produce and sell hand sanitizer through June 30, 2020.”
Now with guidance from the Food and Drug Administration as well as the American Distilling Institute and the Pennsylvania Distillers Guild, distilleries across the region and the state are mobilizing, as are distilleries as far away as Hawaii.
On Thursday, Mr. Kahle launched a crowdfunding effort. If the public will contribute $3,000, he’ll order ingredients, including alcohol, to make a big batch of hand sanitizer and give it to local first responders. The Shaler man runs a business with his wife, Nanci Goldberg, called Ketchup City Creative in Sharpsburg, so he has already reached out to emergency personnel there.
”We need to protect those that protect us,” he noted on his GoFundMe.com page. It lays out that with that money, he can order enough ingredients to make 1,600 16-ounce bottles of hand sanitizer. “Any excess materials and money will be given to other distilleries to help with their efforts to make it.”
As of 3:30 p.m. Friday, people had pledged more than $1,000.
In the Strip District, at Maggie’s Farm Rum/Allegheny Distilling, Tim Russell started making his own sanitizer last week, using leftovers from still runs of rum. His wife couldn’t find hand sanitizer to put out for customers. Mr. Russell thought, “We’ll make our own.”
He got some advice from other distillers on how to adapt beverage alcohol to this new job. He also reached out to the Pittsburgh Public Safety Department and offered to make some to give to police offers, firefighters and medics.
As soon as he gets some glycerol base from a compounding pharmacy in the city, he plans to make about 70 gallons of hand sanitizer — enough to be able to donate about 3,000 3-ounce spray bottles.
Pittsburgh Police spokesman Chris Togneri said, “We are very appreciative of Tim’s efforts. Public Safety has learned from experience that in times of need and in times of uncertainty, Pittsburghers always rise to the occasion and do whatever they can to help. This is another example of our residents pulling together.”
In Carnegie, Ryan Kanto of Quantum Spirits was contacted by health officials asking if he could make hand sanitizer. Mr. Kanto wanted to proceed carefully in this new and rapidly shifting situation.
He wound up writing guidance for other Pennsylvania distilleries on how to do this correctly. The key is for the finished product to have a high enough alcohol content — 80% — to kill the virus. He was weighing whether to distill it himself or buy it in bulk.
Mr. Kanto and other distillers are working with the Pennsylvania Distillers Guild. Its president, Rob Cassell, is working with state government officials to get the state and as many of 130 distilleries as possible here working together on a coordinated effort to fund, produce and distribute millions of bottles of hand sanitizer.
“This is a massive lift,” he said, “but by pulling together as an industry we believe we can have an impact on the fight against the coronavirus and safety of everyone.”
The master distiller at Philadelphia’s New Liberty Distillery notes, “I have lots of family and friends across the state, so it’s equally a personal crusade.”