White Tiger Distillery Switches From Whiskey To Hand Sanitizer

FOREST HILL, MD — A Forest Hill distillery that is usually giving tours and tastings on weekends is instead bottling hand sanitizing spray to help battle the new coronavirus. It started with a request from a state agency.

The Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) left a voicemail for White Tiger Distillery asking if the business could provide a sanitizing spray for the organization to use on its equipment, White Tiger Distillery owner Itsara Ounnarath said.

"The MTA called us and said they're in need of hand sanitizer because they still have to clean the train cars and buses," Ounnarath said. "They're very low. Everyone's low," he added.

"Due to the overwhelming demand for hand sanitizer during the COVID-19 health emergency, MDOT MTA proactively reached out to potential secondary suppliers for this scarce resource," the MTA said in a statement.

"Last week, MDOT MTA contacted White Tiger Distillery to inquire about its hand sanitizer product," the MTA confirmed in an April 1 statement to Patch. "While we are working hard to ensure we have adequate safety supplies such as hand sanitizer, MDOT MTA is exploring ways to assist small businesses and protect our employees at the same time during this unprecedented crisis."

Ounnarath said his business decided to begin producing hand sanitizer according to a formula outlined by the World Health Organization. The ingredients are alcohol, glycerin and hydrogen peroxide. He said the latter was difficult to find, and his staff, some of whom live out of state, had to scour stores in Maryland and Pennsylvania to get enough.

At first, some of the distillery's inventory went toward making the hand sanitizer.

"We had stuff aged in the barrel — rye, rice whiskey," Ounnarath said. "I think there was tears coming out my eyes," he said, using liquor he had aged for a long time.

The next batch did not require White Tiger to dig into its own inventory.

Harford Vineyard donated 900 gallons of wine to the hand sanitizing effort. The Forest Hill vineyard was planning to start making brandy but since it didn't have its own still, contracted out the aging, blending and bottling process to White Tiger, Kevin Mooney, co-owner of Harford Vineyard and Winery, told Patch.

"Well, then the coronavirus came and the need for hand sanitizer," Mooney said. "But the problem locally [was] no one had base product on hand to distill."

Since White Tiger already had Harford Vineyard's base for the pumice brandy on hand, Mooney said the winery donated it.

"We just wanted to be part of the solution," Mooney said, "and to do everything possible to get the coronavirus behind us and get businesses back to work again."

From Alcohol Distillery To Hand Sanitizer Production

The alcohol concentration recommended by the Food and Drug Administration is 80 percent ethanol, according to guidelines issued March 27.

"The hard part for us right now is distilling the alcohol," Ounnarath said. "It takes 24 hours to 48 hours to get the high proof that we need."

For the first distillation, the temperature is 140 to 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

The second yields "the good stuff — the ethanol," he said, from 170 to 190 degrees, and 190 degrees is "the golden spot." After 190 degrees, impurities come out.

"This was red wine at one point, and then we distilled the alcohol out of it," he said. "The more runs you do, the cleaner it gets and the higher the proof."

The first and second runs happen in the big pot and then the liquid goes into another device where he said the temperature can be controlled; the machine has a hydrometer.

"Then it becomes hand sanitizer," he said of the liquid. He and his staff add the glycerin and hydrogen peroxide and bottle the substance.

Ounnarath, who works as a lab tech at Patient First, approached the company about the product. Three people on the White Tiger staff of 10 work at Patient First.

"Patient First is our biggest customer right now," he said.

Last week when Patch visited, White Tiger was preparing to deliver a 50-gallon shipment of hand sanitizer that he said would supply Patient First's more than 70 centers across the East Coast.

"They can't restock their hand sanitizer. It's all gone," he said.

Of Patient First, he said: "We're selling to them. But first responders, we're donating to them."

White Tiger Distillery donated to the Bel Air Police Department last week.

The Fallston Volunteer Fire and Ambulance Company and the Maryland Transit Administration Police also received donations of hand sanitizer from White Tiger Distillery.

Donations are planned for the Aberdeen Fire Department and Aberdeen Police Department as well as the city of Havre de Grace.

In addition to helping first responders and governments, the distillery is giving back to others in the industry. It donated a 1,000-gallon stainless steel tank to Twin Valley Distillers so the Rockville-based business could also manufacture hand sanitizer.

"It was an undertaking, getting that out there," Ounnarath said, but since they're not doing any fermentation at the moment, he figured they could do without it.

Where It Began: MTA

Initially, Ounarrath said: "We thought, we've got to help the MTA. We might as well help the local community."

But as of Sunday, the MTA has not even placed an order.

"Information from White Tiger Distillery is being reviewed by MDOT MTA Safety for compliance to specifications," the MTA said in a statement to Patch. "We have not placed an order at this time, and any potential order would follow MDOT procurement procedures."

Bottles of hand sanitizer are available for the public to purchase.

The distillery is selling individual 2-ounce bottles for $3.71 apiece, including tax. White Tiger is limiting each customer to 20 bottles while supplies last.

Customers can pay at the distillery with cash or card or reserve bottles using PayPal, using the name that will be used for pickup. Hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Sunday.

White Tiger Distillery is at 1658 Robin Circle in Forest Hill.