Last Mountain Distillery responds to shortage of hand sanitizer

Last Mountain Distillery is adding another product to its lineup — but this one is a little different than the company’s usual fare.

The Lumsden-based distillery, which is known for its alcohol products, now is making hand sanitizer.

“The most important thing in hand sanitizer is a high alcohol percentage,” Meredith Schmidt, a co-founder of the distillery, told the Greg Morgan Morning Show. “But in order to be hand sanitizer, you also need to have a couple other active ingredients so that it’s not just a consumable, high-percentage alcohol beverage.

“Hydrogen peroxide is one of those and glycerine, which is really hard to come by — which is why hand sanitizer is really short right now all over the country. We were lucky enough to get our hands on some and it should be here in a couple of weeks.”

Hand sanitizer has become a hot commodity during the battle against COVID-19. The demand is so high that many stores are sold out of the product.

Last Mountain Distillery entered into discussions with the Government of Saskatchewan about getting into the market and together they started examining the regulations set out by the federal government for the production of hand sanitizer.

“Nobody has ever made hand sanitizer here before, so we’re working together (with the province) to come up with exactly what those terms mean,” Schmidt said.

“But we’re starting with Health Canada and they’ve expedited the process to get your licence to make hand sanitizer because they know there’s a shortage and they want everybody to do it who can.”

The regulations relate to things such as the tracking of the product, what’s in it and — perhaps most importantly — the labelling.

“You need to make sure you have all the proper warnings on there to make sure people aren’t going, ‘Hey, this is from a distillery’ — which is exactly why we’re not advertising the fact that this is made by a distillery,” Schmidt said.

The company is awaiting the arrival of its supply of glycerine, which is two weeks away. In the interim, Schmidt said the firm can provide a form of hand sanitizer to emergency responders and health-care providers right now.

Despite branching out into hand sanitizer, the company is keeping active in the alcohol business.

“The orders keep coming in,” Schmidt said. “I think there’s something to be said for everybody being at home and alcohol being an essential service.”

The distillery has closed its retail store to protect its employees from the potential spread of the virus, but orders continue to come in from liquor stores. As a result, the company is still manufacturing its line of spirits.