A Western Australian distillery will launch into 24-hour production of hand sanitiser made from ethanol originally earmarked for gin.
Greg Garnish, the general manager of Wise Wine in Dunsborough, WA, said the concept began as a joke.
Mr Garnish said the staff were already using a spray made from ethanol that they produced at the winery, then their customers started buying it.
"We said, okay let's do this for real," he said."It is going nuts, absolutely nuts.
"We have been selling it for two days now, and it is our biggest selling product.
"We are going to do a big hand delivery to people around Margaret River today, we have a heap going to Perth and up to some mine sites as well."
Mr Garnish said while the whole world was shutting down they were doing the opposite and would go into 24-hour production from tonight.
"It was an obvious choice to begin the production of 70 per cent alcohol for the purpose of sanitiser and surface spray," he said.
"All our spirits are wine based which makes the production of alcohol so expensive, we have another method to make ethanol which will reduce the price massively.
"We have the restaurant next door which may or may not be open by the end of the day, who knows what the government will do, so we will call on those guys to do extra service.
"We have also donated a heap of ethanol to Karen who works at the Margaret River Pharmacy, so she could make hand sanitiser which could be given out to the elderly and at risk groups."
Mr Garnish said the Wise family who own the winery were really proud to be part of this new initiative during the coronavirus pandemic.
"The Wise family are well known for their generosity across all forms of business and charities, and this is another way they are helping the local people," he said.
