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Local distillery shifts from spirits to hand sanitizer

Higbee’s Skullsplitter Spirits brews up hand sanitizer as nation faces the grip of COVID-19

Justin Addison Editor/Publisher
Posted 4/7/20

With the world on heightened alert due to the novel coronavirus that has swept the globe, and with essential products flying off the shelves faster than they can be restocked, many local businesses …

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Local distillery shifts from spirits to hand sanitizer

Higbee’s Skullsplitter Spirits brews up hand sanitizer as nation faces the grip of COVID-19

Posted

With the world on heightened alert due to the novel coronavirus that has swept the globe, and with essential products flying off the shelves faster than they can be restocked, many local businesses are chipping in to help fight the spread of the disease. One of those is Skullsplitter Spirits in Higbee. The distillery turned the focus of its stills from making liquor, to making hand sanitizer.

The distillery and winery began filling the need for the alcohol-based hand cleaner by recycling some of its waste to turn into the much needed sanitizer, said Matt Kirby, the company’s founder and head distiller. Early on Skullsplitter donated a large amount to Missouri Cancer Associates. That donation hits home for Matt, who himself is battling multiple myeloma.

The distillery first started making the hand sanitizer in early March after it was made aware of the need online. “There was some other distillery up in Washington that did it, then someone tagged us in a (social media) post,” explained Matt’s son, Noah, also a distiller. “We made a batch of like 80 bottles to give out to people and then we started getting contacted by medical places.” 

Since then, the distillery’s phone has been ringing off the hook for orders. Caring centers, hospitals, even funeral homes as far as St. Louis have been reaching out with the hopes of landing a place on the fulfillment list.

While Skullsplitter is used to producing whiskies and brandies at about 80 proof potency, which is 40 percent alcohol, the company is pulling off what’s called “high alcohol,” or high-proof alcohol, from the still. While poisonous to consume, it works well in hand sanitizer, which is about 80 percent alcohol. Once the high alcohol is produced, it’s just a matter of mixing it with xanthan gum, a common food additive used as a thickening agent, and water. The mixing is done in a Kitchen-Aid food mixer by Quincy Hawkins, who’s been helping out at the distillery for about six months.

Hawkins said he won the mixer at a company party years ago, and never did he expect he would use it to mix hand sanitizer. The distillery has a larger, industrial-sized mixer on order to help ramp up production.

From there the sanitizer is funneled through a bottle filler specially fabricated by Matt’s brother, Ryan. Eight bottles can be filled at a time.

And unlike most hand sanitizers that use isopropyl alcohol, Skullspliiter’s won’t dry out a user’s hands as much while still providing powerful germ protection. “Sixty percent is all that’s required by the feds. But we prefer to really get it good,” Matt said.

The demand for the hand sanitizer has been so strong, the company is re-tooling an area of its facility to increase output. The distillery produced five gallons onThursday, Realistically, Skullsplitter could produce about five gallons in a few hours as long as all the ingredients are on hand, Hawkins explained. But the biggest hang up has been in procuring the containers. “That’s the problem everyone is having right now,” Matt explained.

He said there is a two-month wait for just the bottles. Skullsplitter is filling 2 and 8-ounce bottles along with gallon containers. The distillery is working to fulfill orders for various local caring centers as well as places such as Truman VA Hospital and Advanced Radiology in Columbia. The Braun home in Fayette is also on that list. “They called and asked and we said sure,” Matt said.

The distillery early on sent 300 2-ounce bottles to the United Way, and as recently as Friday, donated around three dozen bottles to the Higbee Senior Center.

Making hand sanitizer has turned into a fun project for the Kirby family. “I really enjoy doing it with them,” Matt says as he points to his three boys, Noah, 20, Seth, 18, and Micah, 14. “It’s turned into a fun family project. They kind of gripe and moan in the morning waking up to do it. But they understand we’re dining to the community that needs it.” 

A large order just went out to Bristol Care, Inc., a senior living community with campuses in dozens of Missouri towns, including Ashbury Heights in Fayette. 

“We helped out 500 people yesterday,” Matt said. “You can’t beat that.”

So far this week the distillery is going full speed ahead making the hand sanitizer, expecting to fill another 1,000 bottles on Monday.

COVID-19, Hand Sanitizer, Skullsplitter

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