Jeppson’s Malört Distillery Will Begin Making Hand Sanitizer

The bitter Chicago booze becomes hand sanitizer

Jeppsen's Malort
Jeppsen's Malort
Creative Commons

Following in the footsteps of Koval, 28 Mile Vodka and Copper Fiddle, CH Distillery — which owns the popular and notoriously disgusting Chicago liquor Jeppson’s Malört —is the latest distillery to start using their alcohol to manufacture hand sanitizer during the coronavirus crisis.

According to CEO and head distiller Tremaine Atkinson, the company will make an initial supply of 500 one-liter bottles of hand sanitizer, which they hope to begin donating next week. If you’re a fan of the polarizing bitter booze, you’ll have to wait to get some Malört-branded hand sanitizer for yourself, however: the brand is currently only donating it to healthcare professionals who need it most. (Though Atkinson did say that “if we have surplus after satisfying demand by healthcare organizations, we’ll look into releasing some to the public as well.”)

If you’re worried about being stocked up to do shots with your buddies whenever we’re all released from quarantine, have no fear: the company says it’s continuing production of Malört while it makes the hand sanitizer. (That stands in contrast to Koval, whose founder Sonat Birnecker Hart recently said, “Within 24 hours, we shifted our entire manufacturing toward hand sanitizer. We’re shifting our whole business and working on developing our infrastructure to do this as a business. And we’re figuring things out as we go.” You can read more about that here.)

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