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UPDATE 3/19/20 5:50 p.m.: Response to Divine Distillers sanitizer has beenenormous. Greenwood plans to make more but is out for 3/20 and 3/21. Check Divine Distillers Facebook page for updates of when more sanitizer will be available.

Divine Distillers, Salem's only distillery, has joined with liquor industry counterparts worldwide in making a batch of 90% alcohol sanitizer that can be used to clean hands or surfaces.

Owner Jason Greenwood made 50 gallons of the sanitizer using "heads and tails," the first and last parts reserved from previous distilling batches. The sanitizer blend contains alcohol from making Divine Distillers' apple brandy, rum and agave spirit.

Greenwood's challenge now is distributing it. Divine Distillers is in the process of moving to a new facility at 25th and McGilchrist, but the company is still distilling in their original facility in the 45th Parallel Building at 2195 Hyacinth Street NE.

Finding bottles has proven the other major distribution challenge, Greenwood said, "I've cleaned out Dollar Tree and Walmart of spray bottles."

Greenwood recommends community members in need of sanitizer bring a spray bottle or jar to the new location, located in the same building at 25th and McGilchrist that houses The Lighting Gallery, between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. He plans to take those bottles, fill them, and then recipients can pick them up at the same 25th Street location the following day.

He discourages people from going directly to the Hayacinth location. "Nobody will be there to meet you."

Greenwood is not charging for the sanitizer. Instead, he asks recipients to make a donation if they are able to a selection of non-profit and arts organizations.

"The Eugene Opera," he said, "lost close to $100K" when forced to cancel a production of Tosca this past weekend. Not an opera fan? Greenwood hopes people will donate to Salem's Elsinore Theatre, the Willamette Humane Society, the ASPCA or the Gilbert House Children's Museum.

Greenwood has some concern that Divine Distillers and other distilleries could face repercussions for distributing alcohol in the form of hand sanitizer.

Typically, he said, alcohol, including heads and tails, "it's not supposed to go to the public." He believes the federal government could require distilleries to pay taxes on it.

"That's why the big guys, Jack Daniels and Smirnoff, aren't doing this."

Small distilleries, he said, aren't letting those fears stop them from making the sanitizer available.

"We live in this community," he said. "It's not the best situation, it's just the situation we're in."

Emily Teel is the Food & Drink Editor at the Statesman Journal. Contact her at eteel@statesmanjournal.com, Facebook, or Twitter. See what she's cooking and where she's eating this week on Instagram: @emily_teel