Edinburgh, Mar 19 (IANS): British beer giant, BrewDog has switched production to hand sanitisers to meet the huge spike in demand amid the coronavirus pandemic, it was reported.

The craft ale company has created ‘Punk Sanitiser' - based on its flagship Punk IPA brand - to hand out for free to help curb the coronavirus spread, reports the Metro newspaper.

A spokesman for the Scotland-based brewery said: "We are determined to do everything we can to try and help as many people as possible stay safe. It's time to keep it clean."

BrewDog founder James Watt said: "Just to be clear, we will not be selling the sanitiser. But giving it away to those who need it."

He said that the crisis had hit the business hard, adding: "At BrewDog we are doing all we can to make it through and protect as many jobs as we can. But we, like so many businesses have lost 70 per cent of our income almost overnight."

Meanwhile gin distilleries have also switched to hand sanitiser production after spotting their facilities were perfect for producing the alcohol-based hand cleaner.

Bristol's Psychopomp Micro-distillery is supplying the public with 100 ml of the product at a time for a donation to charity.

58 Gin, in London, will launch hand atomisers in about three weeks' time after making a batch for a charity.

Matt Felgate, the owner of Lincoln Gin, said: "We are trying to use the resources we have - namely high-strength alcohol - to put together a functional hand sanitiser. I do not want a penny from this. I'm here to help and do the right thing."