Distilling in the Age of COVID

When we published our last journal post in late February, we declared that we were fully operation and ready to receive customers at our now-fully functioning distillery. When we began to get our first walk-in customers looking for tours, tastings, and to buy a bottle of our spirits, we were ecstatic.

What a difference a month makes.

Not long after our biggest weekend of traffic and sales, COVID-19 changed everything. Strange to write that cliche phrase and really mean it. Suddenly people were told to stay in their homes, to cease unnecessary excursions out, and to avoid public gatherings. Suddenly, our slight momentum was ground to a halt.

In spite of that, Arthur and I have continued to work every weekend and a few weekdays at making our craft spirits. Distilleries count as essential businesses (as one might expect) and should everything get back to a state of normalcy by August, we wanted to still be on track to put out our Cobalt rye whiskey as planned. Then, something else happened. Distilleries around the country were told by the government that they had the ability to turn spirits into hand sanitizer as a means of filling the growing need for PPE.

Within four days of getting this news, Shmidt Spirits had begun to bottle sanitizing spray made in our own facilities. Within a week, we had sold almost 2,000 bottles to local businesses and private citizens. Not only that, but we launched a GoFundMe in order to be able to give out hand sanitizer to people in our community.

Today we gave out sanitizer to a drive-through farmers market and food pantry, and even opened up our overhead door to be able to distribute free sanitizer right from our distillery. Our hope is that in the weeks ahead we can continue to build on this foundation of giving and aid to continue to serve our community in the best way that we know how.

We have begun offering online ordering with curbside pickup, and are hoping to begin delivery service soon as well.

And all the while, we keep plugging away, mashing and distilling and aging our rye whiskey, hopeful that when we all come out the other side of this crisis, we can celebrate with our brand new Cobalt rye, and get back to the business of becoming your new favorite craft spirit.