North Portland’s Shine Distillery Is Giving Away House-Made, 80-Percent-Alcohol Hand ‘Cleaner’

As presumptive cases of the new coronavirus continue to spread in Oregon, a local distillery is turning its byproduct into a hand cleaning solution for its customers.

Shine Distillery, a restaurant and spirit producer on North Williams, has begun taking its high-proof initial product and turning it into something like a hand sanitizer, KPTV reports. Normally, that methyl alcohol-heavy product would be thrown away, but the restaurant has been using it as a cleaner for drains and windows; however, as COVID-19 worries grew within the restaurant’s customer base, owner Jon Poteet thought the product could work in a new way.

Because the solution isn’t an inspected product, Shine can give away the hand cleaner, as long as they’re not making a medical claim or sell it for profit. The product, however, is comfortably above the 60 percent alcohol guideline of effective hand sanitizers set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). According to Willamette Week, the company can’t legally call the product a “sanitizer,” even considering the 80 percent alcohol content.

• Shine Distillery [Official]
• Portland distillery makes hand sanitizer to give to customers [KPTV]
• A Portland Distillery Is Making Its Own Hand Cleaner in the Wake of Coronavirus [WWeek]
• Previous Shine coverage [EPDX]