Like the rest of America, Amy Bohner couldn’t find any hand sanitizer. So she made some herself.

Bohner and her husband, Steve Bohner, own Alchemy Construction in Arcata (Humboldt County) and they worried about keeping their employees safe. Luckily, the Bohners also own Alchemy Distillery, which meant that they had plenty of hand sanitizer’s main ingredient in stock: alcohol.

“We made a test batch, just about 200 little 50ml bottles for our job sites, clients and home,” Bohner says. “We had some extra to give to friends with elderly family members. We gave some to first responders. Then we just kept getting calls. Word was out.”

Alchemy is one of many distilleries around the country that has pivoted, in the past few weeks, from producing alcohol for drinking to producing alcohol for cleaning. Just within California, the roster includes Wright & Brown, Falcon, Krobar, Hanson, Heretic Brewing and, soon, Seven Stills. It’s a way for these businesses to lend a hand during the ongoing public health crisis, even when the outlook for many small, independent distilleries is uncertain as some of their main sales channels — bars, restaurants and tasting rooms — have temporarily closed.

As concerns over the spread of the coronavirus mounted, sales of hand sanitizer jumped 73% year over year by late February, according to Nielsen. The new surge in distiller-made hand sanitizers is thanks in part to new guidelines from the federal government. On March 18, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau announced that it was relaxing the rules that would typically prohibit a spirits producer from making industrial products like hand sanitizer. The waiver lasts through June 30.

“Things changed pretty quickly,” says Farid Dormishian, co-owner of Falcon Spirits in Richmond. He and his business partner had wanted to begin giving out hand sanitizer three weeks ago, but getting the go-ahead was tricky before the alcohol bureau eased its regulations. Now, he says he thinks he’ll be able to have everything ready to ship out this week.

The challenge, Dormishian says, will be keeping up with orders.

“We’re giving 1,000 bottles to the city of Berkeley,” he says. “I just got a message from a dialysis center; they need over 100,000 ounces per month. We’re talking to Kaiser to provide some in bulk.”

Figuring out the logistics may be complicated. But as it turns out, learning to make hand sanitizer is relatively simple.

Bohner, along with many other distillers, is following one of the recipes recommended by the World Health Organization, which calls for ethanol, hydrogen peroxide, glycerol and sterile water. Many distilleries already buy neutral ethanol from suppliers — and are simply using higher-proof versions for the sanitizers — but in Alchemy’s case, the base is rye whiskey.

In fact, when Bohner learned about the relaxed guidelines from the TTB, “We were in the middle of a rye whiskey production run,” she says. “We had already milled organic rye and fermented it. We figured we could switch gears.

“Instead of putting this into a barrel,” she said to her husband, “let’s just make it into a hand sanitizer.”

Of course it’s been a big decision for distilleries to shift from high-end spirits to hand sanitizer, and in some cases, to charge little or nothing for the products.

Alchemy, Bohner says, is still generating income by selling its spirits through distributors. That, plus the generosity of many of the distillery’s suppliers, is allowing her to donate her hand sanitizer at no cost to the recipient. (For now, Alchemy is donating all of its sanitizer to a local hospital.) The farm that sells Alchemy its rye, which the Bohners then ferment and distill, has donated 2,000 pounds of the grain. And its label supplier has said it will print the sanitizer’s labels for free.

Some distilleries are charging small fees for their sanitizers: Krobar in Paso Robles is selling bottles ranging from $10 to $27 to the general public. Falcon’s Dormishian had hoped to provide sanitizer for free, but has decided instead to charge recipients just for the cost of goods — a cost that still doesn’t account for the distillery’s other expenses, like rent and labor. Falcon currently has no revenue: It has decided to stop producing spirits for now, and has already turned down three orders from wholesalers, in order to focus on sanitizer production.

It’s a sacrifice, but to Dormishian, it’s worth it.

“We just knew we had to do something about this,” he says.

Esther Mobley is The San Francisco Chronicle’s wine critic. Email: emobley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Esther_mobley Instagram: @esthermob

Make your own hand sanitizer While the large quantities of ethanol and glycerol used by professional distilleries may not be available at your local drugstore, you can still make a version at home using rubbing alcohol and either glycerin or aloe, which will help moisturize the skin. An effective sanitizer should contain at least 60% alcohol, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To make the sanitizer, fill a bottle two-thirds of the way with alcohol (look for a rubbing alcohol that's at least 91%) and one-third aloe or glycerin.