iStock/Elenathewise(NEW YORK) — If you’ve been to the store since news of the COVID-19 pandemic broke, you’re familiar with a common sight: an empty shelf where the hand sanitizers used to be.
However, some civic-minded distillery operators all over the world have found a way to keep their employees on the payroll amid the COVID-19 downturn, and help keep the virus from spreading.
Leave it to the folks who know alcohol best to go from making booze to alcohol-based sanitizer.
Claremont Distillery owner Tim Koether tells New York ABC Affiliate WABC-TV, “Since we do have that ability to make it, why wouldn’t we?”
More than 1,500 bottles are getting filled and will be distributed for free, with more on the way. “We have received calls from a lot of first responders,” Koether says.
Claremont isn’t alone. Eight Oaks Farm Distillery in Pennsylvania is churning out the stuff, as is the Listoke Distillery in Dublin, Ireland, the Puerto Rican rum maker Destilería Serrallés, and spirits-makers closer to home from Kentucky to Maryland.
Since the ingredients of most sanitizers are just alcohol and aloe, it’s an easy recipe to master.
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