Scores of manufacturers have taken great pains to pivot their operations to focus on COVID-19 response products, producing things like masks and ventilators.
It’s also been common for distilleries to contribute to the cause by using their ethanol to create the hand sanitizer that has been in short supply nearly everywhere.
Well, in a mistake that in hindsight seems bound to happen, one Australian distillery has issued a recall after learning it had inadvertently sold gin bottles that, instead of containing booze, contained sanitizer.
The Apollo Bay Distillery, near Melbourne, has converted a portion of its facility to producing hand sanitizer and had reportedly distributed bottles over a two day period before realizing that they were not containing the right product. “The product is labelled as gin, however it is not gin,” the company said in a Facebook post.
Bearing the logo of the company’s SS Casino brand gin, the bottles instead contain “1.45 percent glycerol and 0.125 percent hydrogen peroxide,” which wouldn’t prove to be lethal cocktail if it comprised the worst martini ever, however it would probably lead to some nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
So if you find yourself in possession of some really awful smelling and tasting gin… that might just be actual gin. Maybe try pouring it on your hands?