Gin distillery and ethanol refinery turn their hands to sanitiser

Four Pines Gin, located in regional Victoria's Yarra Valley, has tweaked its business to produce sanitiser, using a recipe endorsed by the World Health Organisation.

Four Pines co-founder and distiller Cameron Mackenzie said distilleries, as opposed to wineries and breweries, were well equipped to deal with high-proof alcohol.

"The reality is, we've been making in-house sanitiser for the last few years, using by-products from the gin distilling process," Mr Mackenzie said.

"When you distill gin, you have what we call the heads, the hearts and the tails. The hearts go on to be gin and we keep the rest aside in bottles for internal use as sanitiser."

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Mr Mackenzie said several weeks ago, his distillery started getting a lot of approaches for sanitiser and high-proof ethanol.

"We thought we could use the by-product help out frontline healthcare workers and in turn help us to keep the lights on," Mr Mackenzie said.

With a massive drop off in exports, tourism and a handbrake on pubs and restaurants, Four Pines has lost 50 to 60 per cent of its regular business.

The business stood down about 30 employees, however was able to redeploy them in roles managing sanitiser orders and packaging bottles.

The feedback from both customers and the community has been "universally positive".

"The frontline healthcare workers have been incredible with their feedback, we've had a lot of lovely emails and messages saying think you," Mr Mackenzie said.

"We've got a tank for people in the local area to fill up a bottle for free. We've had anything from daycare centres to a church use it.

"All up we've had a couple of hundred local businesses and organisations utilise it."

Mr Mackenzie isn't sure how long the distillery will continue producing sanitiser, with a lot depending on market forces.

"I think the world is catching up on sanitiser, pretty soon the big pharmacies will flood the market with it, which is a good thing," he said.

"We never chased this as a business, we're just trying to fill a void in the market.

"We're just trying to do the right thing and keep the lights on like everyone else. We're in a position to help and while we can, that's what we'll do."

A grain-to-ethanol facility in regional Queensland has also made the shift to making hand sanitiser.

Dalby Bio-Refinery re-employed almost all of its 40 plus staff, who were placed on leave when the business temporarily shut in late February.

At its peak, the refinery is expected to produce approximately up to 125,000 litres a day for hand sanitisers and cleaners.

Chief operating officer David Szymczak said he was excited to reopen the bio-refinery, which previously produced fuel-grade ethanol and high-value animal feed.

"The drought dramatically impacted the availability of the grain and sorghum we needed to produce our ethanol product," Mr Szymczak said.

"Our animal feed products kept us operating for a while, but when the drought broke, demand for feed dried up, and a ready-supply of sorghum wasn't available, forcing us to temporarily shut our doors.

"The Queensland government has been very supportive, assisting us with critical supply-chain needs so we can reopen.

"I'm really looking forward to seeing all our employees back in the plant, working to full capacity."

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