Distillery continues community support through COVID-19 times

Friday, Apr. 24, 2020

SALT LAKE CITY — For more than six years, Sugar House Distillery has been one the sponsors for the annual Gala & Auction at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School.

Now, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the distillery has been serving the community with a unique twist, manufacturing hand sanitizers.

The idea came about when James Fowler, the distillery’s owner, started seeing blurbs about making hand sanitizers, and he immediately began wondering how his company could help the community in this way, he said.

“Sanitizers are made with high proof alcohol ... and we make this at the distillery,” he said.

The FDA recently developed guidelines for the temporary preparation of hand sanitizers by certain pharmacists and other companies during the COVID-19 public health emergency.

“We looked into this and we saw that 99 percent of what goes into it. We had it in here, so my wife and I went out to buy the rest, and we made a test batch,” Fowler said.

That was back in the middle of March, and at the time they were unable to gain FDA approval to sell the sanitizer. They kept trying. When the FDA started authorizing sales of sanitizer through the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, the Sugar House Distillery got permission to sell their product.

“It all worked really quick. ... Our motivation to change gears into the hand sanitizers went into full gear,” Fowler said.

The distillery is now doing its part during the pandemic, supporting the community and supporting their own personnel.

“If you can keep all your employees employed and they can keep food on their tables ... and, at the same time, support the efforts through these challenging times, that’s what you have to do,” said Fowler, who besides paying the distillery employees their regular pay, he has been giving them a hazardous bonus.

“We had a lot of people ask to come here and help, but we decided not to because we want to keep everyone safe and healthy, so we thought ‘Let’s maintain ourselves all staffed, maybe working hard and longer hours,’” he said.

Fowler is very familiar with giving back. The distillery every year supports between 40 to 50 nonprofit organizations throughout Utah.

“Nonprofits to me are a big thing. We ... as a society have to help each other out,” said Fowler, adding that now, more than ever, giving back to the community is very important.

“We heard some really sad stories, but it’s great and very uplifting that we get to see people excited and willing to contribute and step up,” said Fowler, referring to the fact that other companies have been donating money, bottles and other materials to keep production of hand sanitizer ongoing.

“I think people can help each other in many ways. It starts with kindness, just smiling and saying good morning to somebody, just something as simple as donating clothes and blankets to the homeless shelters. ... I believe that anyone can do something, no matter how small it is,” Fowler said.

Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School extended their thanks to the Sugar House Distillery for their support of the school, and “more importantly, your support during these difficult times we are facing,” said a Facebook post letting people know that hand sanitizer is available through the distillery.

Sugar House Distillery, 2212 S. West Temple in Salt Lake City, offers the first bottle of hand sanitizer free, with the second bottle priced at $5 plus tax. Limit two bottles per person.