MKT Distillery owners Nick and Nici Jesset are expanding their business to include distributing hand sanitizer on Saturday from noon to 6 p.m., Nick said. The move comes as the distillery pitches in to try to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and keep families healthy.

“We’re really community focused and we always tell people [MKT Distillery] is about the community,” Nick said.

Two bottles of hand sanitizer solution will be distributed per household and families can pick up the product through the MKT Distillery drive-through. The hand sanitizer is free of charge, but donations may be made via cash, credit card or Venmo.

Bottles of MKT Distillery products such as their vodka or whiskey may be purchased as well and may be paid for via cash or credit.

The Jessetts decided to start producing the product after a representative from the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office’s You Are Not Alone program called Nici, Nick said. That prompted him to call around to distilleries in Portland, Georgia and at Gulf Coast Distillers in Houston to ask about the processes they’d already set up. To his surprise, they all shared their recipes for the product on-the-spot, he said. He was surprised, he said, because distillers are usually mum about their products.

“You kind of know that a lot of times distillers and brewers and wineries – they hold onto their recipes, or at least a portion of them,” Nick said.

But all three of the distillers Nick called shared their recipes in full, Nick said. Once that was done, he purchased the 190 proof alcohol that is needed to make the product and began mixing it with the aloe and other ingredients used to make the sanitizing solution. He and his distributor dug up every small bottle they could find to package the product in – most having a volume of 2-2.5 ounces- and began making the product.

Nici is tracking special orders for first responders and government agencies, Nick said. The couple are making about two batches of the product each day and splitting the product between residents and those government agencies that have a need to protect staff. The pair have given out more than 200 gallons so far, Nick said.

“When we hand out to EMS and nursing homes and people like that, all the first responders, we usually give them one-gallon jugs or buckets that are five gallons,” Nick said.

Nick said he and his wife are happy to be able to give back to a community that has lifted their business up as they’ve settled into operations in Katy’s old rice dryer silos.

“The community has supported us for 18 months and this is our way to give back to them,” Nick said.