3 Daughters switches gears on hand sanitizer giveaway amid crushing demand

3 Daughters Brewing has cancelled plans to give away hand sanitizer at the St. Petersburg brewery, after news about the give-away went viral and drew calls and visits from hundreds of people.

Instead of distributing the hand sanitizer onsite, the brewery will donate all product and future product through several charity organizations within the community, it said in a Facebook post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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**IMPORTANT UPDATE** Friends and family, 3 Daughters Brewing made hand sanitizer and the response was overwhelming. In the past few hours we have received THOUSANDS of phone calls, emails, texts and people coming to the brewery. Our desire to help has quickly grown into an event that we did not intend; hundreds of people gathering at our brewery at the same time. We feel it is the responsible decision for us to cancel our initial plan. Please allow us the opportunity to distribute all of this responsibly and in accordance with state and federal guidelines. Please do not come to the brewery. We will donate all current and future product to charity organizations within the community. We are sorry. In these unprecedented times, we never expected this incredible response, and, as is our mission, we always want to do what is in our community’s best interest. Thank you, 3 Daughters Brewing team __ Original message: As everyone tries to navigate through this unprecedented time, we are going to do everything we can to help our partners, employees and the community that is affected by this crisis. One thing we can do is re-purpose our brewing equipment and materials to produce our own hand sanitizer. Right now, we are bottling 4-ounce bottles of hand sanitizer and will be making them available to anyone for free starting this Thursday. Please limit one per person so we can try and help as many people as possible. Just stop by the brewery between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. and we will give you one free bottle, per person, until we are out. As the situation around Coronavirus escalates, we wanted to share what’s happening and how it will affect 3 Daughters Brewing. In accordance with the mandates and policies set forth by the state government, we are forced to close the tasting room for at least 30 days. Unfortunately, this also means for the time being, we are not able to provide any To-Go beverage options. The 3 Daughters family is committed to keeping the foundation of the brewery solid so as soon as the mandate is removed, and the crisis is past we can re-open and see you all back here again soon enjoying your favorite beer.

A post shared by 3 Daughters Brewing (@3daughtersbrewing) on Mar 19, 2020 at 6:33am PDT

Leigh Harting, 3 Daughters co-owner, had not anticipated the demand when the company announced its plan on Wednesday afternoon in response to the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak.

“The last thing we want to do is have large crowds show up and go against the guidelines that have been issued,” Harting said. “We just want to do it responsibly and get it out there to people in need. We apologize if it caused any stress. That was not our intention.”

The brewery is one of the largest independently owned breweries in Florida, with enormous capacity to brew beer, cider and hard seltzer. But its tasting room is closed under a state order requiring all bars and nightclubs to shut down until mid-April.

Still, the brewery has a sophisticated lab with a TTB (Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau) certified chemist and plenty of sanitary cleaning agents. 3 Daughters combined them and added a thickening agent, then put them in four-ounce bottles.

3 Daughters wanted to give the product away, instead of sell it, to give back to the community, Harting said.

Thank you to the owners of @3DBrewing for very generously providing hand sanitizer to our officers today!
They also gave away hundreds of bottles to the public until they ran out.
No more is available today.#stopthespread pic.twitter.com/WSlvHJ10iJ

— St. Pete Police (@StPetePD) March 19, 2020

“It’s not a for-profit thing,” she said. “Knowing that everyone out there is struggling and it’s hard times, we just felt like we should give it away as long as we can.”

3 Daughters separately supports the Food Bank at St. Pete Free Clinic by recycling the grain used to make beer, selling the used grain for cattle feed and donating the proceeds to the Free Clinic.

The company is looking into becoming a certified B-Corp, a type of for-profit business that balances purpose and profit.

“It’s such a core tenant of who we are. We want to help the community where we can, and this is a place where we can step in and provide some relief,” Harting said.

Although the tasting room is closed, 3 Daughters still is selling its products through retail partners, including Publix, Walmart, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits and Total Wine, and is still shipping to local distributors.