4 Hands For Hands

4 Hands Brewery has brewed beer with a mission for years with their City Wide American Pale Ale and City Wide Pilsner. For each case sold, they donate $1 to a different nonprofit every quarter. The brewery’s drive to give back pushed them to craft a new product with the greater good in mind – 4 Hands Hands Cleaner.

When Kevin Lemp, 4 Hands Brewery founder and CEO, learned how depleted the hand sanitizer market was, and realized that 4 Hands already had three out of four of the ingredients needed to make it, the wheels started turning. When the brewery acquired the missing ingredient, glycerin, and two-ounce containers, production on 4 Hands Hands Cleaner began.

“We started out just to make a couple of gallons to have on site for our team,” Lemp says, “but things changed so quickly.” Once they heard that City Hall was completely out of sanitizer, they decided to scale up their new operation to make hand cleaner for more than just the 4 Hands employees. On Wednesday, March 15, 4 Hands announced “4 Hands for Hands” on social media, giving the two-ounces bottles away for free and asking only those who are able to donate to a fund for the wellbeing of the St. Louis hospitality industry. The following Monday, Lemp delivered 140 gallons of hand cleaner to City Hall.

The hospitality industry, including 4 Hands, has been hard-hit by the pandemic, but pivoting to fill this market need is important to the entire 4 Hands team. Before they came up with this plan, morale was low at the brewery, but once they figured out a way to give back, spirits lifted. Lemp sees it as an extension of the City Wide mission, one they’re thankful to be able to do.

The brewery is continuing its hand cleaner production and is now filling one-liter bottles to sell to the doctor’s offices and grocery stores who have called to ask them for it. Lemp says, “We want it to go to the people who are helping people.” They plan to produce an additional 2,000 gallons of hand sanitizer in the next two weeks, for those who can’t stay at home. Even in this challenging time,Lemp says, “There is still good in the world. There are still people who go above and beyond.”