From Gin to Hand Sanitizer - Interview with Brad Plummer at Gin Farallon
Two weeks ago, my neighbors and I, collectively, bought more than 20 bottles of hand sanitizer from Gin Farallon, a local micro-distillery in San Carlos, California. This week, Brad Plummer, the founder of Gin Farallon, opened up the general sales including nationwide delivery.
This piqued my curiosity to understand this movement by distilleries to make hand sanitizer, the production pivot, and how the money is spent from the sales. I sat down (via Zoom and online chat) with Brad and did a quick interview.
How is the hand sanitizer made at Gin Farallon?
The one ingredient distilleries of all sizes have in common is ethanol -- which also happens to be an excellent sanitizer. We are lucky right now, as an industry, to have access to this particular commodity, that’s suddenly in such short supply but very necessary to the health and safety of everyone.
The FDA recently released guidelines for distillers interested in making sanitizers. The guidance gives us temporary clearance to produce sanitizers in accordance with a longstanding WHO formula. It’s a simple yet effective recipe. The ingredients are:
High-proof Ethanol 96%
Hydrogen peroxide 3%
Glycerol 98%
Sterile distilled or boiled cold water
These ingredients are all blended in different proportions, to end up with a sanitizer that is at a minimum of 70% alcohol. (My final product is 72% alcohol.) It’s a liquid, not a gel. The glycerin minimizes the drying effects of alcohol and helps keep your hands soft. You can definitely feel that on your skin when you use it.
How do you use the money generated by sales?
The money generated from sales, in addition to covering materials and some operating costs, helps support donations of sanitizer to frontline and essential workers. I’m not getting paid for doing this.
I am running a one-person operation. Because of this, I work at a much smaller scale than many other craft distilleries. But in my first two weeks I was able to give away the equivalent of 250 bottles of sanitizer to a broad variety of places including Project WeHope in East Palo Alto; the Sequoia Union High School District in Redwood City; the San Mateo County community outreach non-profit StarVista; the Bay Area pandemic support group Oakland at Risk; the South Bay volunteer mask-making group MaskUp San Jose; and even donating a few gallons to my local Safeway for their employees. I’ve also donated bottles to a group of local physical therapists who are still working, several local restaurants, a handful of assisted living homes, and a number of individual health-care workers in both San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.
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Are there any difficulties through the transition?
It takes several weeks to source supplies such as bottles, cap, glycerine, and raw alcohol nowadays. In March, the distilling industry was given the green light by the state and federal government, including the FDA, to start producing hand sanitizer. As more distilleries join the efforts and compete for the same supplies, it has been a daily effort sometimes, calling dozens of vendors all over the place for supply leads, so I can plan for the next batch of hand sanitizer.
I’m in touch with a number of folks associated with hospitality-industry relief efforts, and I’m hoping to be able to donate funds to local chapters of the US Bartender’s Guild and other groups trying to help bridge the gap.
As for gin, yes I am still making gin! Fortunately, I had some finished inventory in storage, so my production pivot wasn’t terribly disruptive. I’m about to distill a new batch of Gin Farallon next week. I expect the effects of this shutdown will reverberate through the hospitality and craft distilling communities for a very long time.
The pandemic has affected my gin business because my primary customers are bars and restaurants, which are mostly closed or operating very minimally.
Every contribution counts. I feel grateful to be able to keep moving and contributing right now.
Brad, thank you for the interview. If you are looking to buy a hand sanitizer that supports a great cause, make sure to check out the ones at Gin Farallon, available for both pickup and nationwide delivery.
* A good resource for other distillers making sanitizers is here https://distilling.com/resources/covid-19-information-page/