Taking a break from vodka: Distilleries making hand sanitizer during COVID-19 crisis

Distiller Paul Cirka just received an enormous shipment of corn at his distillery in south-west Montreal. Normally, he would use it to still into alcohol to create his bespoke gin and vodka at his Cirka Distillery.

But with the COVID-19 crisis in full swing, he’s shifting his focus, and is working to create antiseptic instead, in a bid to help with a massive uptake in demand for hand sanitizers.

“Everyone here went look, if people need more hand sanitizer, we have the ability to do it, so we started the process immediately,” Cirka, president of the distillery, said.  “We are working around the clock to produce as much as we can.”

Cirka already stills his own alcohol which he uses to make various spirits, which are only 40 per cent alcohol. To make an antiseptic, the levels must be much higher. So Cirka is creating an almost pure form of alcohol to use as a hand sanitizer.

“We can produce high alcohol levels that we don’t proof down to anything else and we effectively turn that high alcohol into a sanitizer,” Cirka said.

The federal government fast-tracked approval of his product. He’s following a recipe recommended by the World Health Organization.

“That is important because it uses a high alcohol level and the reason for that is to make sure the disinfectant properties are active,” he said.

Distilleries around the world are stepping up and producing hand sanitizer. That’s because a surge in demand during the COVID-19 crisis has caused a scarcity of the product.

Another Quebec company, Pur Vodka, is also starting to produce the antiseptic. They are buying pure alcohol in bulk and adding various ingredients like glycerin to produce the antiseptic.

“We are all in the same boat, it’s war out there,” said Pur Vodka president Nicolas Duvernois. ‘Everyone who can do a difference must do a difference, and that is how we chose to use some of our products to help.”

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