By Frank Rajkowski, SJU Writer/Video Producer

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - At the Brother Justus Whiskey Company, Phil Steger '97 and his crew normally focus on handcrafting microbatches of single-malt whiskeys.

But as distillers, they also possess the resources and expertise needed to make hand sanitizer, of which alcohol is a primary ingredient.
 

And with the need for that product more critical than ever amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the former three-time All-American swimmer and his company have switched their focus.

"We started off like a lot of people, just wanting to do whatever we could to help out," said Steger, who won three conference titles and earned All-MIAC honors seven times during his swimming career at SJU from 1993-97.

"Hand sanitizer is alcohol. And that's an area where we have expertise. So that's the area on which we decided to focus."

Brother Justus – a six-year old craft distillery founded by Steger and located in Northeast Minneapolis – originally planned to produce sanitizer on its own. But after seeing how great the need was, the company began reaching out to others in the business.

When they discovered Tattersall Distilling and Du Nord Craft Spirits, two other Minneapolis distillers, had similar operations going, the companies decided to pool their resources.

The result has been a joint effort that has been titled "All Hands MN." The three companies are now manufacturing hand sanitizer by the tankerful – 8,125 gallons at a time.

Working with epidemiologists and other health experts, they've decided to prioritize requests from places on the front line of the pandemic like hospitals and nursing homes, where having enough hand sanitizer can directly help prevent deaths.

Then next from places where people are in close quarters like homeless shelters and other high-density residences, as well as from essential service providers like health and sanitation workers and grocery store clerks.

"Those are placed where we can do the most to help try and slow the spread,"  Steger said.

At the moment, because of the facilities they have on site, much of the production itself is taking place at Tattersall and Du Nord, while the crew at Brother Justus handles the organization of the effort – fielding requests and prioritizing what gets shipped where.

The first tanker of ethanol (right) – a key ingredient in the process – arrived last Monday (March 30). And requests have been running high – sometimes coming in as often as 10 a minute, Steger said.

"It's taken some adjusting," he said. "I liken it to building a huge house on a moving treadmill. Everything is moving really fast. But the situation is moving fast too. So we've just been trying to keep going.

"It's been awesome to see how this has come together. We're essentially functioning as one organization right now. We're buying things for each other, sending stuff where it's needed and we'll figure it all out later."

Steger said the effort is a way for the company to live up to the legacy established by its namesake Br. Justus Trettel – a monk at Saint John's in the post-World War I and Prohibition era.

"One hundred years ago, farmers in Minnesota were suffering because of the end of World War I and the loss of Europe as a market for their grains," said Steger, who was a student regent at SJU and gave the commencement address for the Class of 1997. 

"Br. Justus took it upon himself to teach farmers around Avon and elsewhere in Central Minnesota the Benedictine whiskey-making techniques he'd learned. That way, if they were going to do it as a way to find another source of income, they'd be doing it safely. Even if it was illegal at the time.

"Helping others is just a very Johnnie thing to do."

To make a donation to the effort, or to request hand sanitizer for a location in need, visit the project's website by clicking here.