Griffin Claw starts making free hand sanitizers from distilled grain alcohol

BIRMINGHAM, Mich. (FOX 2) - The coronavirus pandemic is keeping the guys at Griffin Claw Brewing Company in Birmingham busy. The craft brewmasters are now producers of hand sanitizer.

"If you asked us six years ago if we thought we'd be making hand sanitizer in 2020 I don't think we’d answer with a resounding yes,” said Kyle Vandeventer, the director of sales for the brewery.

The brewery had to essentially shut down operations and move to carry-out only earlier this week, as did all other bars and restaurants in Michigan. Vandeventer says the staff immediately had an emergency meeting after.

"It's quite the time right now so we have to adapt,” Vandeventer said.

At first, they started to use distilled spirits to make hand sanitizer to keep employees working. And then they decided to also give away a 2-ounce bottle with each take-out order.

They’re also giving away some bottles to others who really need it.

"Nurses, nursing homes, police departments - those are the people we really want to make sure we are taken care of first and foremost,” Vandeventer said.

Griffin Claw has already handed out bottles of its 170-proof distilled grain alcohol and water mixture to Gleaners Food Bank, Michigan State Police, as well as Detroit and Birmingham police.

"We have a staff that's more than willing to work around the clock to get this done,” Vandeventer said.

But there is one problem - even though the plan is to bottle thousands more in the next few days, they're running out of bottles.

“Keep those spray bottles; they’re a luxury item right now,” Vandeventer says.

Keep those bottles and Griffin Claw will refill them.

“We don’t know what tomorrow’s going to bring, so as long as we’re able to do what we can, we will.”

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