Vapor Distillery makes and donates sanitizer to community

It can prove difficult to spot a silver lining amidst the current global pandemic. Daily news bombards us with rising infections, death rates, and unemployment stats. Our lives are upended and new daily routines require patience, compassion and understanding just to make it through. However, catastrophe and disaster often have a way of bringing out the best in humanity. People want to lighten the load for those with heavy burdens and Boulder County is no different.

The folks at Vapor Distillery in East Boulder are stepping up to fill a severe need in a unique and personal way. Since the business is based around making alcohol, Vapor Distillery creates ethanol - the key ingredient in hand sanitizer. Owner Alastair Brogan explained, "When you add glycerol and hydrogen peroxide in accordance with WHO recipes, you are able to make hand sanitizer."

As the oldest distillery in Boulder, Vapor Distillery is widely known and celebrated for its spirits, specifically its American single malt whiskeys, bourbons, and gins. With 61 awards won from 54 competitions, it's no secret that Boulder Spirits by Vapor Distillery are a favorite of our Boulder County community and beyond.

When Brogan first founded the business 12 years ago, he commissioned a 1,000-gallon copper pot still from the Forsyths - a world renowned and long tenured maker of distillery equipment for the Scotish whisky industry. Not only does Brogan select his equipment with love, but he continues to pour his heart and soul, along with some barley and yeast, into each batch he creates.

Now, he's pouring that same commitment into helping his community. So far, Vapor has filled 500 bottles of hand sanitizer and plans to fill 2,000 more in weeks to come. Brogan said, "I felt that, due to the local and world wide shortage and how effective hand sanitizer is to curb the virus, this was something I could do for the community." While the distillery has access to plenty of ethanol, it has had trouble sourcing plastic bottles - which are in short supply thanks to the pandemic.

So far, Boulder Spirits by Vapor Distillery has donated hand sanitizer to the Boulder Fire Department Brigade #6 and Bridge House Community Kitchen. Once they've filled additional hand sanitizer, Brogan and his team will continue to donate this necessary product to others serving our community during the crisis.