Today we have a number of volunteers and
our staff filling the first batch of
hand sanitizer that we made yesterday.
Couple weeks ago the Sedgwick County
Sheriff's office reached out to us asking
if we could make hand sanitizer for
them cuz they were desperately needing it.
My first reaction was we can,
we have a capability of making it,
but not the required licensing.
So, we worked with us in
the Kansas Craft Brewers Guild worked with
Alcoholic Beverage Control.
And ultimately, the director of
ABC Debbi Beavers issued an order
allowing micro breweries, farm wineries,
and distilleries in the state to make hand
sanitizer without the appropriate
Kansas licensing provided it sold to,
sold within the state of Kansas
to health care facilities and
first responders and
entities of that nature.
In terms of utilizing our equipment
there wasn't much involved.
We typically have a tank, two tanks,
three tanks that are empty to begin with.
The biggest issue was just
sourcing the ingredients and
right now ethanol is in high demand
because hand sanitizer is in high demand.
But fortunately, there's a company that
has a plant in Eldorado, Park Solvents,
they've been able to source ethanol for
us.
So getting the ingredients really
was the most difficult part.
And then just kind of learning
the chemistry behind it,
learning safe handling of 100% alcohol and
concentrated hydrogen peroxide.
So it was more of a learning curve
aspect is what most of the work involved
for us was.
Today, we're bottling 1,500 half gallons.
And all of that's going
to Sedgwick County.
We're expecting the next
shipment of ethanol on Friday.
And we'll use that batch to fulfill all
the dozens of orders we received from
clinics and dentist offices all over
the city, May's police department,
Derby Police Department,
Newton Police Department, the V.A.
hospitals so
that next batch will go fulfill those.
And then, if we can source the ethanol,
we'll have a third batch also, because we
have orders piling up that currently
we don't have enough ethanol for.
So it's keeping us busy,
keeping our staff busy.
And there's so
much bad news out there, layoffs,
and people stuck at home,
and that sort of thing.
It's nice to have a project that really is
a positive thing for everyone involved.
