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St. Pete distillery putting aside spirits for hand sanitizer

Posted at 4:18 PM, Apr 02, 2020
and last updated 2020-04-02 16:18:00-04

4/1/2020 — ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Many of the same ingredients used to make alcohol are also used to make hand sanitizer. So during these times of constant washing, distilleries say it’s just natural that they do their part.

During the past two weeks Kozuba & Sons Distillery has made enough hand sanitizer to fill more than 10,000 bottles.

“We basically moved all our resources to hand sanitizer production,” said Matthias Kozuba.

Kozuba said stopping the production of vodka, whiskey and bourbon was a pretty easy decision. They had more important things to do.

“There is no hand sanitizer in the stores anymore, people are desperate, especially people that have to work that are on the move daily,” said Kozuba. “Sharing with the community, giving back to the community, was always one of our mottos.”

Every single bottle is being donated to the people and organizations in the community that need it most.

“There are some people out there like first responders, nurses, doctors, who don’t have a choice who they come in contact with and those are the folks that we want to help,” said Steve Riordan.

Kozuba & Sons always knew their spirits put a smile on people’s faces, but who knew hand sanitizer could be just as powerful.

“We had somebody drive by just today on a motorcycle and they raised their thumb and they said, ‘thank you’ so it feels very good when the folks appreciate it and we appreciate them,” said Riordan.

For more information go to KozubaDistillery.com.