ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — Black Button Distilling has been making spirits on Railroad Street since 2013. Tuesday was a day to celebrate.

“So we are looking at the 2 millionth bottle of Black Button bourbon that has been made here in Rochester,” Master Distiller Jason Barrett said.

It’s been almost a year since I walked into Black Button with my camera and did a story on their mass production of hand sanitizer. A year later, they are still thriving and surviving through the pandemic. 

It’s been a very busy year,” Barrett said.

Black Button Master Distiller Jason Barrett holds up the distillery’s 2 millionth bottle of Black Button bourbon distilled in Rochester.

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To say the least. 

“It represents a lot of hard work by a lot of people that have given a lot to this company and a community that has supported this company in ways I could never even imagine,” Barrett said.

Black Button installed eight bottling lines, went to a two 10-hour shift operation, six days a week and was able to produce around 900 bottles of hand sanitizer in 43 minutes. 

“So when the FDA put out the emergency authorization that craft distillers could make ethanol hand sanitizers we saw it as a way to keep our employees working,” Barrett said.

They worked with the hospitals and the health care providers to make a product that was in high demand. 

“We were shipping those to hospitals across New York as far away as Detroit and Baton Rouge. The outpouring of support from those medical professionals and the needs that they had was what then caused us to continue to improve that process,” Barrett said.

Black Button Distilling stopped producing liquor from the third week of March through July 28 and with all that happened last year, they were still able to make that 2 millionth bottle of bourbon.