HGBA Spotlight of the Month: Bill Karlson of KO Distilling

How KO Distilling is lending its fighting spirit to the front lines against COVID-19

In response to the unprecedented health crisis created by COVID-19, KO Distilling has completed the retooling of the Distillery to enable the production of hand sanitizer. The Distillery is producing 1,500 gallons of Bare Knuckle Hand Sanitizer each week.

As the COVID-19 pandemic evolved, on March 12, with his employees and customers’ health and well-being in mind, KO Distilling’s Co-Founder and CEO, Bill Karlson, closed the Distillery and tasting room to the public. All employees, including distillery-site production and tasting room staff, were provided with work to be done remotely.

“We had been planning some upgrades to the Distillery plant’s chill water cooling system and planned to use the unfortunate closing to have the work done while employees and customers would not be inconvenienced,” said Karlson. “During the ensuing weeks, the severity of the pandemic and, importantly, the demand for hand sanitizer became clear, and we knew we had to join our Distillery colleagues in producing this important tool for first responders. When coming up with a name for our hand sanitizer, it was fitting for us to use Bare Knuckle. We are glad to be able to help the community fight the good fight during this coronavirus pandemic.”

Putting the Pieces Together

While the plant upgrades were being made, Karlson and KO Head Distiller, Ryan Hendricks, began putting the pieces in place to produce hand sanitizer. This included:

Modifying distilling processes and equipment to be able to produce high-proof ethanol needed for hand sanitizer with 80% ABV ethanol
Procuring other ingredients including hydrogen peroxide, glycerol, and a denaturant which makes the hand sanitizer ‘Not for Human Consumption” in compliance with FDA and WHO guidance.

About the Hand Sanitizer

Bare Knuckle Hand Sanitizer is available in 5-gallon pails, each of which has a sealed lid with an extractable pouring spout for easy use. The Distillery initially plans to donate supplies to Manassas area first responders, hospitals, charitable organizations, and nursing homes. Additional quantities are being sold through government channels or to essential businesses to help cover production costs and support the continued employment of the Distillery’s 15 employees. Hand Sanitizer inquiries are being managed through the Distillery website.

A 5-gallon Hand Sanitizer pail is being offered at $195.00, but with quantity discounts available. KO will be able to allow buyers to pick up orders at the distillery Monday through Friday from 10 am to 5 pm.

As needed, KO Distilling will arrange for the shipping of palletized pails. Shipping costs to be borne by the buyer. For each emptied, cleaned and dried 5-gallon pail which is returned to KO in good working condition, KO will provide a $10 discount on the purchase of a future hand sanitizer order by the buyer.

Learn more about KO Distilling Hand Sanitizer for sale in Virginia HERE.

And what about the spirits?

While KO is not currently producing its award-winning gins and whiskeys, the Distillery does have 4,000 barrels of aging spirit that will be ready for bottling when the pandemic recedes. KO’s Bare Knuckle Whiskeys and Battle Standard Gins remain available in Virginia ABC stores and throughout DC, MD, and DE through Prestige-Ledroit Distributing Company.

KO has online spirit sales for package delivery HERE.

Virginia’s Fighting Spirit: A Look at KO Distilling & Bare Knuckle Whiskey

April 23, 2020 / by Nanci Hellmich

Bill Karlson, MS Software Systems Engineering ’94, is distilling a new solution to fight the coronavirus.

In late March, when he heard that other craft distilleries across the country had begun making much-needed hand sanitizer during the coronavirus pandemic, Karlson and his team decided to join the sanitizing army with their business, KO Distilling in Manassas, Virginia. Its original products are Bare Knuckle whiskeys and Battle Standard 142 gins.

“Hand sanitizer requires 80 percent ethanol, of which we can produce a lot,” says Karlson, the company’s co-founder and CEO. “Last year, we produced about 65,000 proof gallons of distilled spirits using approximately 350 tons of Virginia grains. So, we gladly and quickly made the pivot.”

Karlson initially plans to donate Bare Knuckle Hand Sanitizer to Manassas-area first responders, hospitals, charitable organizations, and nursing homes. Additional quantities are being sold through government channels or to essential businesses to help cover production costs and support the continued employment of the distillery’s 15 employees.

To manufacture hand sanitizer, KO Distilling incorporated some changes in their facility. “Thankfully, we didn’t have to completely retool the distillery,” Karlson says. “What we did have to do is modify our mashing, fermenting, and distilling processes to be able to produce 170 proof ethanol, which we had never done before. That proof is needed because compounding with other sanitizer ingredients dilutes the ethanol down to 160 proof.”

They bought a few thousand pounds of hydrogen peroxide, glycerol, and a denaturant, which makes the alcohol undrinkable. They also needed to stock up on thousands of five-gallon pails, lids, and many other supplies, he says.

Karlson and his team set up a 4,000-square-foot area, which is about the size of a basketball court, in the distillery for employees to safely and efficiently compound, label, fill, seal, palletize, and ship hand-sanitizer pails.

They switched to a 10-hour, seven-day production schedule to make about 1,600 gallons of hand sanitizer a week. “We opted to go with five-gallon pails, each of which has a secured lid with an extractable spout, which will allow for easy and safe pouring and refilling,” he says.

The company is limiting its sales to the Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Maryland-area. “We already have a substantial pipeline of large orders from local customers.”

KO Distilling is still making and selling its other products.

Karlson, who is retired from a career as an executive with a government contracting company, says his education at Mason helped in the business world. “What I learned at Mason was how to apply the knowledge you learn in a classroom to solving real-world problems.”

He’s not sure how long they’ll be making Bare Knuckle Hand Sanitizer. “Like everyone else, we are hoping the pandemic subsides quickly, but we are prepared to make hand sanitizer not only during the remainder of the pandemic but for weeks and even months after the pandemic is over because sanitizer product supply chains will take a while to rebound.”

In the meantime, he’s thankful that he and his team can help. “When you make and sell spirits, you get satisfaction from knowing you are making a quality product that people will like,” Karlson says. “By producing hand sanitizer, it is gratifying to know that we are doing something that actually might help another human being from getting infected by the virus.”