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Ocala’s first licensed distiller, like other distillers across the country, was called up during the Covid-19 pandemic onset to supply badly needed hand sanitizer. Paul James and his son Taylor, owners of J2B accepted the challenge, and set out to meet that demand.
As the central component of sanitizers, high grade alcohol is produced by most distilleries. A writer for the Ocala Star banner, Carlos E. Medina realized how important this was, writing an article mid-March, and a follow-up in April about J2B creating badly needed hand sanitizer from their alcohol.
J2B has given away many bottles, and supplied numerous local first responders. However, in the following weeks they also went through every drop of their reserves, which were aging for their Rum and Whiskey products, because of the demand, and every bottle they had.
“We did it because we depend on our community, and we believe they should be able to depend on us.” Taylor , Head Distiller at J2B stated.
“Then the economy began to falter, and our reserves were gone, so we saw no choice for us but to run our equipment 24/7 to produce more alcohol. This created back logs and damages to our machinery, to say nothing of stress to diminished staff. Having also run out of our stock of bottles, we thought we’d have to give up the effort.” Then someone reached out to help;
Nestle Waters – Nestlé Waters North America (NWNA), which produces Zephyrhills® Brand 100% Natural Spring Water in Florida, has long supported the communities in which it operates through donations, disaster relief, employee volunteerism, economic investment, educational programs and other initiatives. To help communities impacted by COVID-19, Nestlé Waters has been donating specially designed blue bottles to be filled with hand sanitizer and distributed to healthcare professionals and communities across nine states. After hearing about J2B’s efforts, the company reached out to offer assistance in providing much-needed bottles to help fulfill J2B’s shortage.
J2B stated they were grateful for and are putting the bottles to good use. “We still needed a source for volumes of alcohol, because we couldn’t produce it fast enough, and thanks to the Florida Craft Distillers Guild who they are members of, who were seeking better ways to distribute and market both sanitizer and Distillers Spirits, these sources are also now becoming available. Paul said, “It’s a real testimony of what the synergy of both large and small concerns pulling together can accomplish when needed.”
Est. June 18, 2012 by Paul and Tim James: a micro distillery of small boutique-style production. More information about James Two Brother’s Distillers LLC can be found at the James 2 Brothers website.
For additional information contact: Paul James 352-291-0585 info@2brothersdistillers.com
