Raise a glass, not fees, for Tacoma area distilleries, unlikely heroes of pandemic

Ingenious adaptations by small businesses trying to survive a pandemic shouldn’t be penalized by small-minded government bureaucrats. Certainly not if those adaptations could save people from sickness, hospitalization or even death from a COVID-19 infection.

And certainly not if the start-up costs are absorbed by business owners, who then give away the initial stock of their new product to the public for free.

But penalizing ingenuity is exactly what happened last week when small liquor distilleries around America — including at least two in Pierce County — were slapped with surprise $14,000 fees from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

“It was really a tone-deaf decision to finish the year. It made absolutely zero sense,” Alan Davis, co-owner of Chambers Bay Distillery, told us Monday.

He and his partner’s offense? Tapping their stockpile of high-proof alcohol and shifting to hand sanitizer production last spring, just as the pandemic was just starting to rage.

Virtually overnight, Americans became obsessive hand washers and the supply chain of household disinfectants broke down. Empty shelves brought out the worst in some people (we’re talking about you, hoarders and hustlers), but the best in some public-spirited entrepreneurs.

So it was hard to swallow last week when distillers learned they were being assessed an FDA fee for making hand sanitizer — a product so desperately needed, mind you, that the federal government had encouraged them to make it.

After an uproar in the industry, the fee was quickly repealed.

“Small businesses who stepped up to fight COVID-19 should be applauded by their government, not taxed for doing so,” Brian Harrison, chief of staff for the US Department of Health and Human Services, tweeted on New Year’s Eve.

Still, the fee stands as a testament to the small-print details and unintended consequences that small businesses must watch like hawks. Vigilance is especially vital in the wake of a $908 billion pandemic relief package negotiated by federal officials before Christmas.

Chambers Bay Distillery in University Place and Heritage Distilling Co. in Gig Harbor were among the first to fill the hand sanitizer void last year. Off-the-shelf grocery store liquor didn’t do the trick; to kill this nasty virus, quick-thinking distillers turned to the 95-percent alcohol contained in their neutral-grain spirits.

Davis and his business partner, Jeff Robinette, gave away 50-milliliter bottles of sanitizer until their initial supply of high-proof spirits ran dry. They didn’t start charging until they had to order more ingredients, weeks into the pandemic.

Eventually Chambers Bay started selling to several Tacoma area institutions: hospitals and senior-living facilities, police and fire departments, and golf courses, to name a few. The Port of Tacoma bought sanitizer in 55-gallon barrels.

Heritage also offered free hand sanitizer early on, provided that customers purchased at least $25 worth of liquor. The Gig Harbor-based distillery later expanded distribution, even selling 750-ml vodka bottles of hand sanitizer at Costco stores.

Filling this niche was a classic win-win situation: good for public health, and a helpful side business to blunt the pain of Washington’s hospitality industry shutdown.

Alas for Chambers Bay and other distilleries, demand for their hand sanitizer has tapered off as the retail supply chain snapped back into shape.

It’s not a stretch to think of them as unlikely heroes of the early pandemic; Washingtonians should do what they can to help them come back strong. This year distilleries would like to use a new state law that allows them to operate up to two off-site tasting rooms — Lord willing, and the coronavirus numbers stop rising.

“We’re hoping for the Roaring 20s, just like after the Spanish flu (100 years ago),” Davis said.

We’ll drink to that.

So raise a glass to Washington distilleries and other small businesses that have shown impressive resilience, flexibility and ingenuity these last 10 months. They’ve earned a big bounceback year, no question. And no more surprise bills from the government.

This story was originally published January 5, 2021 at 12:30 PM.