“Right now, we’re having difficulty sourcing the ingredients to make sanitizer on site,” says Robert Likarish, owner of Ironroot and secretary on the board of TXWA. So, while demand is high, they are pausing to work for their community. This is notable because just last month they won the World's Best Bourbon award from Whisky Magazine for their Harbinger Bourbon. Some distilleries like Gulf Coast Distillers, Ironroot Republic and MKT Distillery have had to shift from plans of offering items to the public to prioritizing healthcare and first responder groups first.īased in Denison, Texas, near the Oklahoma border, Ironroot Republic has decided to shift all their production into sanitizer solutions mostly for local front-line healthcare workers in their community. The membership of both organizations held joint informational conference calls to inform all distilleries about the FDA, TTB and state guidelines during the declared public health emergency. Immediately, distilleries that are often fierce competitors began calling each other directly to source ingredients and bottles, and share formulation and production methods. These distilleries are either already producing, or will soon start offering WHO formula hand sanitizer, prioritizing local healthcare organizations and first responders. They are calling this effort their #StillStrongTX campaign. Most of the newly formed Texas Whiskey Trail distilleries and many of the TDSA member distilleries are now participating statewide. There are now 29 distilleries that are, or soon will be, working on sanitizer solutions. “We are looking for coordination, procurement and financial assistance to make sure that we meet the need,” he says, emphasizing that the impact of COVID-19 is particularly hard for new distilleries, because much of their upfront revenue will come from tasting room, cocktail and bottle sales until they can produce enough product and get into distribution.Ĭars line up to pick up hand sanitizer at MKT Distillery in Katy. In this light, Whelan is envisioning the Whiskey Trail to serve as a logistics network while distilleries are closed to the public. We've cancelled or postponed all Texas Whiskey Trail activities and despite the growth in tourism we've seen, we hope we can use the distributed nature of distilleries to help their local communities however we can.” “Distilleries are operating without knowing that the costs will be covered. “This is a very fluid situation and while our members are suffering along with bars and restaurants, we are trying to put public safety in the forefront and work with the state to protect Texans,” says Whelan. Texas Craft distilleries rely on tourism and visitors to stay in business, so their revenue loss is compounded on top that of bars and restaurants because it requires travel which isn’t encouraged, they are restricted on the amount of bottles they can sell to go, and have no delivery options under the state’s antiquated Blue Laws. An IBC tote of grain neutral spirits, known as GNS, ready to be formulated into sanitizer.
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