Lake County Libation Trail Spirit Makers Creating Sanitizer
By: Jonathan Jones 03/26/2020
As the COVID-19 pandemic accelerates, Lake County's distilleries: Copper Fiddle Distillery in Lake Zurich, North Shore Distillery in Green Oaks and 28 Mile Distillery in Highwood transformed themselves into hand sanitizer manufacturers.
Let's not forget once these trying times pass, these saporous spirit makers provide an absolutely divine concoction of flavors. From rum to gin, absinthe and bourbon, to vodka and liqueur and everything in between, Lake County’s four distilleries have the perfect adult beverages for cocktail connoisseurs.
These drinkeries have embraced their roles in making hand sanitizers following the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the recipe of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Their priority is donating the substance to first responders like health care workers and others providing critical services. Let's take a look at the Lake County Libation Trail spirit makers creating hand sanitizer.
The Highwood distillery is focusing its efforts on fulfilling hand sanitizer orders solely for the area's first responders and retail partners. While they are preparing washables for the medical industry, law enforcement and other realms, they have also created "Prohibition 2020" cocktails to go. Each to-go cocktail contains 4.5 servings. The salty dog comes with two bottles of Three Cents pink grapefruit soda and some of distillery's homemade citrus salt for the rim. Twenty-eight mile also features the French, cosmopolitan, winter fools, pink gin, negroni, vodka gimlet, passion and lemon drop martinis (they have temporarily halted creating cocktails to create a sanitizer). The Highwood drinkery has an unbelievable backstory of how these crafters came up with the name and logo of their distillery. The Debonair (the woman on their logo) was a real-life queen during the Prohibition Era. Twenty-eight Mile Vodka also just earned a MicroLiquor Spirit 2019 Triple Gold Award for Extraordinary Taste and Highest Recommendation.
28 Mile Vodka & Distillery, 454 Sheridan Rd. Highwood.
Instead of doing carryout services, the Lake Zurich distillery decided to put different contents in the still. It wasn't gin, whiskey or vodka this time, it was to create a hand sanitizer concoction. As of last week, the distillery provided nearly 100 bottles of sanitizer for police and fire departments in the area. It usually takes around seven days to make a supply, but the Lake County Libation Trail team utilized 45 cases of unsold bottles of rum to accelerate the process. A little history behind the distillery, the Lake Zurich spirit maker puts the L in “gimme a liddle fiddle.” Copper Fiddle created small-batch gin and other spirits since 2012. The distillery’s story is derived from a family heirloom passed down from generation – that heirloom being a violin. This 1906 musical instrument’s sound is what the Lake Zurich distillery utilized as a metaphor for the smoothness of their gin and bourbon whiskey. The “Illinois-Made” recipient creates each drink from scratch. Copper Fiddle offers gins, rums, and bourbon whiskeys. For their superior drinks, Copper Fiddle has achieved two American Craft Spirit Awards and an American Distilling Institute Award.
Copper Fiddle Distillery, 532 W. Illinois Route 22, Suite 110, Lake Zurich.
North Shore Distillery is getting their hands in the hand sanitizer-making business. The Green Oaks distillery is utilizing the FDA rules and the WHO's recipe and is aiming to have the sanitizer available as much as possible for pickup orders. The priority of these sanitizer requests are going to first responders, health care workers and others providing critical series (some which they are donating to). A little backstory behind Illinois's first craft distillery in the land of Lincoln. Since 2004, Derek and Sonja Kassebaum (and their larger than life friend Ethel) provide vodkas, rums, gins, absinthes and unique seasonal beverages. The self-proclaimed nerds and Illinois-Made inventors love to experiment on new flavors with a plethora of different ingredients, and that’s why the award-winning Green Oaks distillery designs innovative art with their liquid creations. Their seasonal spirit for the last two years has been exceptional curaçaos. They also just recently released an American Malt Whiskey that is available for pickup.
North Shore Distillery, 13990 Rockland Rd., Green Oaks.
If there is any way you can help their cause, visit the three distilleries' Facebook pages for more information.
28 Mile Vodka & Distillery Facebook Page » Copper Fiddle Distillery Facebook Page » North Shore Distillery Facebook Page »
For more information on these noble Lake County Libation Trail spirit makers creating sanitizer, click here. For a full list of restaurants providing curbside pickup, carryout and delivery, continue here.
Enjoy photos from our social media friends on the Lake County Libation Trail.
Be sure to continue sharing with us socially!
