Local breweries and distilleries moving on from pandemic hand sanitizer production

For some, it was about doing what they could to help as the pandemic swept into Alberta. For others, making the switch from producing spirits to producing hand sanitizer was simply about survival.

Two years ago local alcohol producers watched helplessly as restaurants,bars and their owntaproomswere forced to closetheir doors to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

At the same time a global shortage of hand sanitizer presented an glaringly obvious opportunity and a chance to make it throughthe pandemic as a small business.

Mark Freeland had just opened Two Rivers Distillery in southeast Calgarybefore COVIDstruck. He didn't think he'd weather the economic storm he knew was coming.

"For us,we were going to be out of business. We'd only been open two-and-a-half months and we just thought 'we're dead,'" said Freeland.

ThenFreelandnoticeda story on the news. It wasabout a globalshortage of hand sanitizer.

"I looked into it and was like 'we can make that,and easily,'" he said.

Freeland says local breweries had a different problemlarge amounts of kegged beer that could no longerbe sold and would have to be dumped.

"One brewerycalled me and said they had one thousandlitres of stoutthat was going to go down the drain and did I want to make hand sanitizer out of it," Freelandsaid.

The process of turning one type of alcohol product into another and making hand sanitizer from scratch isrelativelyeasy work for a distiller, said Freeland.

"Honestly, it saved our bacon. We wouldn't have survived without it," he said.

Two Rivers ran anoffer on at-cost $5 sanitizer,initiallysold from their taproom on a take-out basis,in glass liquor bottles,based on customers makinga purchase of a bottle of Two Rivers spirits. Freeland says it got people searching for sanitizerthrough the door, landed himsomereturning customersand kept the business afloat, albeit barely.

"For us we wanted to help, but small businesses don't have a lot of money, so this was ourway to help," he said.

But once big sanitizer producers and brands caught up on making the product,smaller players say the demand became less and less.

"It was a short term thing. We made it through 'tilthe end of COVID, which is how long our licence lasted. By the end we were only selling20 or 30 litres per month," said Freeland.

"Now that the regular supply chain and the brandspeople know are back I don't think there's room for us any more," saidAndrew Bullied, director of operations with Calgary'sAnnex Ale Project, which hasalso stopped producing hand sanitizer.

"I'm not upset that we did it.I don't think we'd ever do it again," said Bullied, who added that making the switch highlighted the importance of local manufacturing, and what peoplecan do when theyneed to.

Back at Two Rivers Distillery MarkFreeland says hand sanitizer might have saved his business from crashing and burning, but now he's happy to move on and leave sanitizer in the past. He has a few labelsleft in a drawer but no bottles left to sell.

The distillery's focusis now firmly on hopes ofa busy summer drinkingseason,a better year financially and continuing to fight to keep the business afloat for another year.