“It’s been a month since we made any whiskey,” said Pat Hoffmann, co-owner of the Lonely Oak Distillery, which is located about three miles west of Earling.
During that time, the company switched exclusively to making hand sanitizer, which has been in short supply since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hoffmann and his wife, Amy, opened their distillery in July 2017; full-time production started in November of last year.
The company’s main products until a month ago were vodka, bourbon and rye alcohol.
As a small business, Lonely Oak Distillery was nimble enough to quickly make the change to the production of hand sanitizer.
“We use a lot of the same equipment we use to make alcohol. It’s just that we use it in a different way,” Hoffmann said.