Washington Distilleries Shift To Hand Sanitizer Production

SEATTLE, WA —Dozens of Washington distilleries are primed to transform into full-time hand sanitizer factories, as part of a coordinated effort to help meet the growing needs of health care providers during the outbreak of the new coronavirus.

According to the Washington Distillers Guild, approximately 40 of the state's 98 distilleries have already signed on to the effort, which is expected to churn out the much-needed sanitizer on an industrial scale.

"We started talking informally amongst ourselves and realized what the need was," said Mhairi Voelsgen, the guild's president. "We had a call from a state agency that said they had a pretty significant need, and they expected that other groups like them would also have that need."

"People were having conversations about quantities that weren't like five bottles — it was a hundred gallons or a thousand gallons," Voelsgen said.

Related: UW Medicine Makes Its Own Hand Sanitizer To Boost Hospital Supply

The guild started working last week to secure approval from state and federal authorities who regulate liquor producers and quickly received permission to move forward with the plan, along with a special tax waiver for production.

"Nobody wants to have sanitizer taxed as liquor — especially not in this state," Voelsgen said.

The distilleries will be using simple recipes shared by the World Health Organization and the Food and Drug Administration, which use just three ingredients, plus boiled water, to make an 80 percent alcohol solution — 20 points above the minimum standard.

Voelsgen said she first sent an e-mail to distilleries across the state Thursday, after getting the bulk of regulators' approvals in place, and quickly assembled a long list of family-owned distilleries ready to switch over production within days.

"Most distilleries have scrambled to order [the ingredients] so they can have it ready [for] production starting next week," Voelsgen said. "Just based on the phone calls we've received over two days, I'd say we probably have output that's in excess of about a thousand gallons a week at this point."

According to the guild, some of the larger hospital systems they have heard from have said they need 200 to 600 gallons a week to keep up with their needs.

Voelsgen said she has already heard from a variety of federal and state agencies in need of more sanitizer, along with local police and fire departments and nursing homes.

"From everything I've read, it seems like the health care needs over the next few weeks will grow exponentially. I think we all want to make sure that there's enough availability for this," Voelsgen said.

The final piece of the puzzle needed to begin production is a sign-off from the state department of health. Should that arrive soon, distilleries across Washington expect to begin shipments, comprised of one-liter bottles or five-gallon buckets, by the end of the week.

Any organization in need of sanitizer shipments can contact the guild at sanitizer@washingtondistillersguild.org, or call 206-496-2613.