I'm Sam Calagione, founder and brewer of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery.

And for 25 years, we've been making everything from I.P.A.s

to sour beers to rums to gin.

And now, during this time of crisis,

we've come to see that there's a very specific kind

of alcohol that pretty much everybody needs.

I never thought I'd say this, but we're

launching this week our newest product, Dogfish Head Hand Sanitizer.

I got this email from David Grinnell

who oversees brewing for Sam Adams,

and in it was a photograph from a European distillery

that had repurposed their production facility to start

making hand sanitizer.

And I was like, duh, this is what we need to start doing.

Our engineers went to work overnight

and basically built from scratch

a custom bottling line just for filling hand sanitizer.

There goes two of our engineers right there.

Hi, guys.

And literally by that Friday, we

were shipping our first load to local hospitals.

We made the first batch out of our gin

and shared it with a hospital.

And they were pretty much like, we'd rather

smell like nothing than smell like we just

came out of a nightclub.

So we quickly took all the flavoring and aromatic agents

out of the recipe.

I don't think that we're heroes.

We're hard-working, industrious people

trying to do something good in this challenging moment that

will keep the nurses and doctors and emergency workers

as safe as possible.

So here's a sort of recipe that I

learned that I hope will be applicable to lots

of businesses around the country

to help them engage in a positive way in this moment

of crisis.

Step 1, you've got to start by reaching out

to your local or state government

to understand where there is need.

So in our case, we're working with state government

to understand through their eyes who

are the most critical customers for our hand

sanitizer, starting with hospitals and health agencies.

Step 2, sell it.

You know, we are a business.

We have a payroll.

We've got bills to pay.

In our instance, we're really proud that we've

been able to keep all of our full-time co-workers employed.

But we've had to get creative because we

did shut down our two restaurants and our hotel.

But now they're here helping to make

the food for our production co-workers.

And they're here packaging and making the hand sanitizer

as well.

And Step 3, figure out a way to give back.

When we decided that we wanted to provide

to the State of Delaware our hand sanitizer,

they were like, “Look, charge us market value.”

But we didn't really have a good taste

in our mouth about profiting from this moment of crisis

as we worked with the state.

So 100 percent of the profits from the hand sanitizer that we

sell to the state will be given to a fund

to give financial relief to hospitality workers that

have been put out of work by this crisis.

Mariah and I were at the grocery store last weekend.

And a nurse came up to us from the local hospital

and said, “Thank you so much.

Our stores were really low.

I want you to know I'm keeping that growler. When we're

done with the hand sanitizer,

I'm going to empty it out and refill it

with beer at Dogfish when this is all over.”

And I'll always remember that.

Knowing I got to do my part, shoulder-to-shoulder with all

my co-workers, makes this beer taste that much better.

Cheers, and stay safe out there.

Kidding — do not drink this stuff.