��������

Above video: Distilleries producing hand sanitizer to help with coronavirus outbreak Local breweries around the Central Coast are coming together to help the hand sanitizer shortage by giving old, unused beer to a local distillery to produce the sanitizer.“I used to be a distiller and when the shortage of hand sanitizer hit, we recognized that there’s a lot of old beer sitting at bars and restaurants and taps rooms that are closed right now,�� said co-owner of Fruition Brewing, David Purgason.And all that unused beer could become hand sanitizer, which is exactly what Fruition Brewing, along with Other Brother Beer Company in Seaside and Discretion Brewing in Soquel have in mind. The breweries sent their beers to Blume Distillation in Watsonville. “Combined with Discretion, we gave them about 130 gallons. Then Other Brother in Seaside pulled together about 300,�� said Purgason.“It’s basically beer that’s past its prime or has come back from the restaurants and bars,�� explained Robert Genco, co-owner of Discretion Brewing. ��66 percent of our customers are closed, bars and restaurants. So, we take that beer and we can give it to Blume Distillery. Then they can take it, process it further and take the 5 or 6 percent alcohol by volume and increase it up to 95 percent.�� Blume Distillation does this by boiling the beer at a high temperature and separating the alcohol from other ingredients.“So, we end up with 200 proof or pure alcohol,�� said David Blume, CEO of Blume Distillation. “This is moonshine technically, this is the alcohol that people drink, ethyl alcohol. Of course, when we sell it, we’re required to put stuff in it that makes it not drinkable. So, we put in glycerin, some essential oils that are good for disinfection, but would make you pretty sick if you drank it.”Blume says they’re able to make an impressive amount of sanitizer from the beer.��22,000 ounces of sanitizer,�� explained Blume. “As you know a little bottle of sanitizer is either 2 ounces or 4 ounces. But we sell it in gallons because most of our customers already have bottles and they can refill themselves. We’re (also) selling it to hospitals where they are able to sanitize large areas and surfaces and they don’t need little bottles.”The sanitizer has been offered to health care workers, the city of Watsonville and the public. Although it’s not a quick fix to the overwhelming problem, Blume says they’re happy to be in the position to help.“We totally sympathize with how hard the whole awareness of coronavirus has been on everyone’s nervous system. This is really a stressful time,�� said Blume.If you would like more information about Blume Distillation and their hand sanitizer, you can visit their website.