Yahara Bay Distillery
Yahara Bay employees bottle and label Just Vodka 140 proof vodka at the Fitchburg distillery on Wednesday.
Fitchburg’s Yahara Bay Distillery has made a sudden change in its business in light of the scarcity of hand sanitizer during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Hand sanitizers are made mostly of alcohol. Distilleries make alcohol. Can they pivot to making hand sanitizer?
Not quite, according to Nels Forde, general manager of Yahara Bay Distillers. Distilleries don’t have an approved formula and label that’s required — that would require an application for both the formula and the label, and could take weeks or months to receive from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.
However the American Craft Spirits Association, Distilled Spirits Council of the United States and American Distilling Institute are working with the Bureau to propose sensible regulatory amendments that would allow distilleries to blend and sell hand sanitizer.
But Forde says even that could take too long, as communities face immediate need during the rapidly developing pandemic.
So Yahara Bay has released Just Vodka, a 140-proof, 70 percent alcohol by volume (ABV) vodka, which also functions as a hand sanitizer. Forde says the product is not being sold as a hand sanitizer because it lacks aloe, the moisturizing component.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that an alcohol-based hand sanitizer have at least 60 percent alcohol. That said, the CDC also says that soap and water, when available, are more effective at removing some types of germs.
Yahara Bay is not the only distillery nationally to make this move, but it is the first in Wisconsin, says Nathan Rivard, front of house manager.
Bottles are $17.45 for a liter, which may seem expensive for hand sanitizer — but the vodka is drinkable as a spirit as well.
Customers can call ahead to order, or stop by the distillery at 6250 Nesbitt Road from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. No-contact pick-up is available for customers who pull their cars into the distillery’s bay doors; employees will load their cars with the product.
So far the hangup in production has been obtaining enough bottles. At least 300 bottles are available to start, but Rivard is trying to obtain up to 2,000 more. “Orders for glassware from our supplier have tripled, and that’s slowed our process,” he says. “We have suppliers in the state, so that helps, but they aren’t sure how much they can give us.”
Yahara Bay’s goal is to sell Just Vodka through its distributor, which would then make it available to grocery and liquor stores in southern Wisconsin. “It will all depend on supply and demand,” Rivard says.
