Getting the hand sanitizer "wash" together at Fort Myers Brewing.

Two local businesses that specialize in serving some of the best spirits and brews in Southwest Florida are using their talents to help local health facilities and first responders.

Wicked Dolphin Rum Distillery in Cape Coral and Fort Myers Brewing Company have teamed up produce hand sanitizer, which they have been distributing to Lee Health, police and fire departments around the region.

“With COVID-19, there was a big need for hand sanitizer, so we stepped up as a local company, along with Fort Myers Brewing, and have been supporting our community,” said Dan Termini, director of operations at Wicked Dolphin.

The award-winning handcrafted rum distillery started producing sanitizer of its own last month before joining forces with Fort Myers Brewing to essentially double their production.

FMB is producing mass quantities of “wash” or a high-sugar solution that takes about two weeks to ferment.

Hand sanitizer, bottled and ready to go.

“We have taken the wash as far as we can through the process in our facility, (and) we transported it over to Wicked Dolphin so they can work their magic to turn it into the final product,” said Rob Whyte, co-founder of Fort Myers Brewing with his wife, Jen.

That wash is then brought to Wicked Dolphin where it is distilled, mixed with pure alcohol from Wicked Dolphin, made into sanitizer then packaged for distribution.

“We put our heads together to see how we could help increase production,” Termini said.

Termini said the process on Wicked Dolphin’s end is similar to how they produce rum, but instead of worrying about taste and flavor, they attempt to harvest as much alcohol they can in their facilities.

Wicked Dolphin is also creating a “wash” and running its big still 24 hours per day to maximize alcohol creation.

Wicked Dolphin takes its raw ingredients and ferments them, also with help from Fort Myers Brewery. They then start cooking it in their stove to get raw alcohol. That is then mixed with measurements of hydrogen peroxide, water and glycerol.

Termini said they try to get the mixture to 80 percent alcohol. It is then bottled in one-gallon jugs to bring around the community.

“We’re ‘Florida Strong,'” Termini said. “We built our company based on being a big supporter of our community and it feels good to support our community.”

FMB is producing 2,000 gallons of wash per week to bring to Wicked Dolphin. It has already produced over 5,000 gallons of finished product so far, and can make 300 gallons of finished product every other day.

Wicked Dolphin in the near future will host a community day where it will distribute roughly 10,000 smaller bottles of hand sanitizer for the community. That event is still being planned by the distillery.

Though the Wicked Dolphin tasting room is currently closed, it is doing some curbside pick up. Bottles are still available to purchase at the distillery location in Cape Coral.

It is also offering a virtual “Happy Hour at Home” once a week where you can tune in on Facebook to learn how to make certain drinks.

For information, visit www.WickedDolphinRum.com.

Wicked Dolphin is at 131 S.W. 3rd Place in Cape Coral.

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