BARRHEAD - In most communities since the breakout of COVID-19, sanitizer has become a commodity rarer than most precious mineral.
However, one local distillery is hoping to make the item available to those that need it.
Last week, the West of the Fifth of Distillery, which is owned by the Zdrodowski family and is located downtown Barrhead on 51st Street switched from making vodka and flavoured moonshine to liquid sanitizer.
They are making the sanitizer available to the public by donation to help offset their costs. Any additional proceeds will be donated to the Barrhead and District Food Bank.
Before that, the Zdrodowski's owned and operated Shady Lane Estate Winery for six years. The family started the winery in part to add value to their County of Barrhead fruit farm.
“It isn’t quite how we envisioned it,” said Nathan Zdrodowski, noting when they first opened their doors to the public March 20 they thought it would be for the sale of spirits.
Since then they have had a steady stream of people coming to pick up or refill their hand sanitizer bottles.
When visited March 23, it was the second day the distillery had been giving out sanitizer.
There was a line of 10 people, including a first-responder from St. Albert, a person from Whitecourt as well as a local business person.
Although Nathan and his brother Caleb knew that there was a shortage of hand sanitizer, they didn’t know how severe it was until they heard from local doctors that they were having trouble replenishing their supply.
That was Friday morning and a few hours later they opened their doors. They notified the public through a post on their Facebook page that they were providing hand sanitizer.
“It was crazy. We handed out 120 litres the first day,” Nathan said.
“That was more than we thought we would give out for an entire week.”
The next day, they closed their doors temporarily as the brothers searched the area’s dollar stores to buy bottles to put the product in, going as far as to drive to Red Deer to pick up a load of bottles someone had brought up from Calgary.
The sanitizer itself is made from the distillery’s base spirit, ethyl alcohol that has been watered down and made unfit for human consumption.
Caleb said this is done for two reasons. The first being is that they don’t want people to drink it, the other being for tax purposes.
Lavender and rosemary essential oils are also added to the product to make it less harsh to the skin.
“And it takes away the alcohol odour so that you don’t smell like pure liquor,” Nathan joked.
To be effective, a sanitizer must contain a minimum of 60 per cent alcohol. West of the Fifth’s sanitizer solution, after consulting with local pharmacists, contains 70 per cent. The brothers say they have no plans to stop providing the sanitizer as long as there is a need, noting they have enough base materials, i.e. alcohol, for the foreseeable future.
The real trouble is that they will soon run out of bottles. Over the March 22-23 weekend, they were able to stockpile close to 400, although more than half of which were gone following their second day of production.
That demand is why they are encouraging people to bring in their containers.
If the distillery does run out of alcohol, Nathan said “the best-case scenario” is that they could produce another batch in six days.
West of the Fifth is also in the process of applying for a federal licence to produce hand sanitizer. If they are successful, it would allow them to make a gel sanitizer.
“And that opens up a wider variety of bottles we can use,” Nathan said.
When asked whether West of the Fifth would consider adding hand sanitizer to its regular product line when the crisis is over, Caleb said it wouldn’t be likely.
“We will have a licence for it, so if there is still a demand for it, we might but at the end of the day, we are doing it just to help out,” he said.
To find out if West of the Fifth Distillery is open and distributing sanitizer on a particular day, the brothers suggested the best way to do so is via their Facebook page.
For those who are self-isolating, delivery is available by calling or texting 780-283-1809 (text is preferred).
People are also asked if possible to bring their own bottles, pump or spray bottles being preferred.
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
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