Tom Reed has turned his Krooked Moon bourbon distillation operation into a hand-sanitizer production to help with the battle against the new novel coronavirus.

Reed said he is following the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recipe for distillation of hand sanitizer using a 90-percent alcohol, 3 percent peroxide, and glycerine mixture. WHO wants the finished solution thin, suitable for a spray-bottle application.

Using what he called a Ukrainian “turbo” yeast he obtained from Great Britain, Reed can make a 40-gallon batch over a four-day period at 190 proof. WHO requires at least a 77-percent alcohol content to be considered a sanitizer.

“I never thought I’d be making hand sanitizer,” he said about the use of his set up for bourbon distillation. “There’s quite a lot of science to it.”

He’s using the “sugar shine” recipe for creating the mash. “It’s probably one of the cheapest mash builds you can do,” said Reed of the 8 pounds per 5 gallons of water ratio to create the mash in his reflux still.

Nursing homes in Washington were requesting the finished product. He has supplied local ambulance districts, fire departments, and the sheriff’s patrol with gallon bottles. Hospitals from St. Louis to Columbia have called him requesting the hard-to-find sanitizer, he said.

Using parts he found between Orscheln, Pioneer Home Center and his own Cart Quest auto parts business, they’ve rigged up a pumping system to fill all the 4-ounce plastic and gallon glass and plastic bottles they can find. The 4-ounce bottles were selling for $3. A purchasing agent for Orscheln ordered 1,600 of the small bottles to distribute at their stores across the region. “It smells just like homemade bread once the yeast activates,” Reed said as he started another batch Thursday evening.

As of Thursday evening, Krooked Moon’s operation had filled 2,000 of the 4-ounce bottles he’d purchased and 40 of the gallon-size bottles. He is looking for more of the small bottles since he’s been told it might be the end of April until more are available.

His sugar supply required a trip to a supplier in the Houston, Mo., area earlier in the day. He said he plans to keep making the sanitizer as long as he can obtain supplies. For now, his bourbon production is on temporary hold.