Key takeaways:
- Due to unreasonable demand, the region tells distilleries to halt producing sanitizer in May.
- Clay Potter of Victoria’s The Moon Under Water Brewery states he has been turning sour beer into sanitizer during the outbreak and intends to make as much as likely before the May deadline to halt production.
B.C. distilleries that shifted to producing hand sanitizer during the COVID-19 outbreak are now being requested to stop.
Clay Potter, co-owner of The Moon Under Water Brewery, Pub, and Distillery in Victoria, says his crew started creating hand sanitizer when the requirement was massive and the supply shaky.
“We have all the supplies in place; it took some practice and error to know how to make it correctly and get it tested,” stated Potter, the brewmaster at the distillery.
He said he’s funded in ingredients like glycerin and other materials to produce sanitizer and intended to continue making the alcohol-based disinfectant. But he got a message by email on April 7 and a follow-up letter a few days after from the region saying all sanitizer production must halt by May 8. All remaining products must be sold or donated by November.
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Distillers say there is no necessity for a hard deadline to halt producing sanitizer and they feel betrayed after stepping up for the public good during the outbreak.
“It’s just kind of another obstacle for us. I’ve got nearly a dozen or so four-liter jugs still, and then I have a lot of bad alcohol in the back that is just waiting to be distilled,” he stated, adding he will be creating as much sanitizer as he can ere the deadline.
Hand sanitizer production received temporary approval from B.C.’s Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch in March 2020, the earlier days of the pandemic.
“It’s not a massive moneymaker for us, but it benefits.”
Source – cbc.ca
