Distilleries step up to make hand sanitizer amid pandemic
Courtesy of Washington Health System
Rob Hough, an owner of Liberty Pole Spirits, holds a jug of hand sanitizer the local distillery made to donate Washington Hospital and other providers of essential services.
Courtesy of Washington Health System
Kevin Hough, an owner of Liberty Pole Spirits, holds a jug of hand sanitizer the local distillery made to donate Washington Hospital and other providers of essential services.
Courtesy of Washington Health System
Jugs of finished hand sanitizer bear the Liberty Pole Spirits label.
Courtesy of Washington Health System
Jugs of hand sanitizer sit on display at Liberty Pole Spirits in Washington
Courtesy of Washington Health System
The Hough family – husband and wife Jim, back, and Ellen, plus their sons Kevin, left, and Rob pose with jugs of hand sanitizer they made using ethanol they distilled at their business, Liberty Pole Spirits.
Courtesy of Red Pump Spirits
A hydrometer displays a reading of 190 proof, or 95% alcohol by volume, for ethanol being distilled at Red Pump Spirits to be made into hand sanitizer. Owner Ed Belfoure said he’s donating the product to those involved in the response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Courtesy of Red Pump Spirits
Equipment inside Red Pump Spirits, a Washington distillery making hand sanitizer to help address a shortage of the product caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Courtesy of Red Pump Spirits
Hydrogen peroxide and glycerin, along with ethanol, the active ingredient, are used to make hand sanitizer.
Local distilleries are making a product that people shouldn’t drink.
It’s hand sanitizer, which is in demand as hospital and emergency medical workers, grocery store employees and those providing other essential services use the disinfectant by the gallon amid the outbreak of the highly contagious virus that causes COVID-19.
“I get several emails every day from here and Allegheny County, even some outside the state, like in West Virginia or Ohio, who see us on the register making this,” said Ed Belfoure, owner of Red Pump in Washington. “Apparently, there is a severe need for it in those kinds of agencies.”
Red Pump and Liberty Pole Spirits, another small distillery located in Washington, are trying to help offset that shortage by making their own hand-cleaning mixtures from high-proof grain alcohol.
Liberty Pole bottled about 115 gallons of sanitizer earlier this month.
The business donated most – about 85 or 90 gallons – to Washington Hospital, said Jim Hough, whose family owns the distillery.
Washington Health System, which operates the hospital and other facilities in Washington and Greene counties, welcomed the donation.
“Washington Health System is so thankful and proud of our local businesses,” WHS spokesperson Stephanie Wagoner said in an email. “So many have stepped up to assist us during this time of need.”
The remainder went to the city police, various fire and ambulance departments and some local businesses, Hough said.
Sanitizer should be at least 85% ethanol, or grain alcohol. That’s about twice the concentration found in most liquor made for retail.
He said the recipe involved more corn mash than they normally would use, so there was more sugar to ferment into alcohol. They also distilled it three times instead of two.
“As a whiskey distiller, you don’t typically achieve that level of ethanol,” Hough said. “Whiskey is designed to be distilled to a lower proof. So for us to make hand sanitizer, we had to modify our production methods.”
He said he plans to work with the Pennsylvania Distillers Guild, which recently hatched plans for local distilleries to produce sanitizer for distribution at greater scale in conjunction with the state Health Department.
Federal regulators are temporarily allowing distilleries to make the hand sanitizer, if they follow recommendations of the World Health Organization. At the state level, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board approved distilleries to do so through June 30.
“You can’t get commercial hand sanitizer these days,” Hough said. “Being that the basic ingredient of hand sanitizer is alcohol, distilleries are uniquely positioned to step up and make it, because legally we’re allowed to handle bulk alcohol, and we have the expertise and the equipment to do it.”
The distilleries in Washington aren’t alone, as similar businesses across the country have started producing the alcohol-based disinfectant. In Pittsburgh, Wigle Whiskey is producing sanitizer and donating it to the City Department of Public Safety.
“For us, it was pretty straightforward,” he said. “The hardest part was getting some raw materials, like glycerin, stuff like that.”
Belfoure said the finished product should contain glycerin or aloe vera, another viscous moisturizer, because ethanol dries out skin.
Belfoure said Red Pump gave the sanitizer it’s made to the Washington County Department of Public Safety.
“The state police have inquired with us, and we’re going to be supplying some of them with hand sanitizer. We got an inquiry from the (Greater Pittsburgh Community) Food Bank. We’re primarily interested in donating it to responders and people who handle food and medical stuff, things like that.”