Coronavirus: Gin distiller rubbing his hands together

A Melbourne gin distillery is helping a pharmacist turn pure alcohol into a hand sanitiser cocktail.

Gypsy Hub distiller Paul Baggio is now producing extra alcohol to be made into hand sanitiser. Picture: Aaron Francis

Paul Baggio usually distils alcohol to about 40 per cent for a gin. However, his latest distillation isn’t meant to be served with an olive but with a face mask.

Ascot Vale Pharmacy in northwest Melbourne reached out to his Gypsy Hub in Collingwood for pure alcohol by the litre to make into a hand sanitiser cocktail.

Mr Baggio said the partnership was a marriage of minds but different from his usual business.

“I wouldn’t be drinking it,” he said. “Steer away from all of this. It certainly will be tempting (for some) but definitely use it for hands.”

Mr Baggio is looking to provide about 1000 litres of alcohol to the compounding pharmacy that will then supply medical centres and businesses.

“The call out came just because importation of what would be usual stuff wasn’t available,” he said.

Despite dedicating quite a bit of his resources to the project, Mr Baggio said there was still demand for gin.

“People certainly are warming their cockles,” he said.

Pharmacist Jane Mitchell said she had been inundated with ­requests for hand sanitiser and ­decided to make her own in the compounding pharmacy.

“Even now some of the raw ingredients are hard to get,” she said. “You can’t get packaging.”

Ms Mitchell said her pharmacy used 70 per cent alcohol but was moving towards 62 per cent.

The World Health ­Organisation recommends at least 60 per cent.

She said the pharmacy made sanitiser for medical centres and other businesses that needed to stay open, not for the average customer, and she advised consumers against trying to make their own.

Ms Mitchell and her team have been working every day since last week and sometimes overnight to meet demand.

“We can’t keep up, we’re getting calls from lots of people in the health industry,” she said.

“We’re filling orders pretty much quicker than we can make it.”
Ms Mitchell said the price of the sanitiser was “pretty obscene” but she had no control over the cost of the raw ingredients and was concerned about getting deliveries in a timely manner.

“You kind of feel sorry that you have to (charge so much) but it’s very labour-intensive as well,” she said.

“We’re charging what we have to charge to cover our costs and operation.”

Ms Mitchell said the business seemed to be coping but the situation was quickly changing.

“You just have to sit tight at the end of the day and see what changes,” she said.

“It’s just helping out, just responding to what the community needs at present.”