Kenora, Ont. businesses partner to make hand sanitizer for OPP officers

The Lake of the Woods Brewing Company has teamed up with the Lake of the Woods Sunrise Soap Company to produce hand sanitizer for Ontario Provincial Police in Kenora, Ont.

The brewery uses isopropyl alcohol to clean its brewing equipment, and it provided some to the soap company to create the product, said Taras Manzie, the president and chief executive officer of the brewing company.

"Obviously we're not really brewing too much beer right now based on the state of the industry, and, tap rooms and restaurants closed, we're doing sort of what we can to help out," he said.

The brewery already partners with the soap-maker to produce its beer soap, Manzie explained, so soap company owner Jackie Chalkley, who is married to an OPP officer, reached out to them when she realized the force was short of product.

Lake of the Woods is not a licensed distillery and thus cannot actually produce the isopropyl required to make sanitizer, Manzie said.

But it is looking into partnering with a distillery that could use its draft beer as an ingredient to make the necessary alcohol product, he added.

Meanwhile, the brewery has ordered more isopropyl and hopes to continue helping to create the sanitizer, Manzie said.

"The demand is only going to get bigger," he said, "so if there is some way we can play a part and make sure that those that are in quote-unquote harm's way, that don't have the opportunity to stay at home, at least we can try to get them something that will try to help keep them safe."