One of South Etobicoke’s popular craft brewer Great Lakes Brewery is now making in-demand hand sanitizer to help curb a shortage as a result of COVID-19.

GLB’s owner Peter Bulut says the company purchased a still just when the pandemic hit Ontario and has ‘been working on perfecting it (sanitizer) ever since.’

“Hand sanitizer will be continued to be produced at GLB for the near future,” Bulut says, adding the brewery had always inspired to use its unsold beer to distil into sanitizer.

They applied and quickly received a licence from Health Canada to produce, and sell, the sought-after cleansing item.

“Turns out it was a bit tougher to produce than we first thought,” Bulut explains. “The recipe from the World Health Organizations (WHO) is relativity easy but to make the sanitizer, complete with a gel consistency, was the hard part. “

He insists another challenge was to obtain bottles and caps.

“It still seems North America is sold out so that was a huge hurdle,” the beermaker says. “Moving forward we hope to produce spirits here at GLB.”

The alcohol content of the sanitizer is 75%. Health Canada recommends 60% (minimum), but they wanted to have higher than ‘minimum standards.’

“You may or may not find the sanitizer reminiscent of spirits because that’s what it’s made from,” Bulut says. “We didn’t want to add any fragrance as some people have allergies.”

The hand sanitizer cost $8 for a 235-ml bottle or $70 for a case, which includes nine 500-ml bottles.

The 30 Queen Elizabeth Blvd. brewery has been producing craft beer for more than 30-years and is known for its seasonal ales, bottled conditional releases, year-round ales and premium lagers to their 7 Barrel and Tank Ten series of beers.

Visit them at www.greatlakesbeer.com