Owners of the Grit City Distillery, Andy and Jen Schmunk, are using their facilities to produce a "rough ethanol" that can be used as a hand-sanitizer or disinfecting alcohol.--NEWS PHOTO COLLIN GALLANT
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
Andy and Jen Schmunk never thought their his distillery would be put into vital pubic service to the community, but it’s been an unusual week.
The year-old Grit City Distillery operation on South Railway Street typically produces a variety of flavoured gin and vodka.
On Wednesday it was adjusted to begin producing a crude ethanol that Schmunk says can be used as an alcohol disinfectant, or mixed with aloe as a personal cleanser.
“We knew that we’d have different joys come our way, but we never thought we’d be making hand sanitizer,” said Andy Schmunk on Wednesday afternoon. “There’s no finishing involved. It’s a very rough product.”
The couple came up with the plan to ease concerns about hoarding or stockpiling of cleaning agents, like hand sanitizer or harder cleaning products.
When ready, the facility will fill bottles that are brought the operation free of charge, but are stressing they will limit amounts and distribute with safety in mind.
“We’ll open up and hopefully have a big enough batch to have people come by with empty sanitizer containers and we will fill them up,” said Schmunk. “It’s kind of our way of giving back at this hard time.”
