Howdy from Washington

[Spirits by DZine]

Greetings from Amboy WA. Snowed in today so thought this would be a good time to introduce myself. We are starting a craft distillery in SW Washington. It's been about a 3 year process for us. We started in Washington. Couldn't deal with the laws at that time. thought about a move to Oregon but then decided we could work with the new craft distilling laws passed this July. They are pretty restrictive but we will give it a shot. We were given tentative approval earlier this month by the WSLCB but then, a week later, we were told that our tasting room could not be in a separate building from our distillery building. We are located on a 4 acre rural commercial parcel. We thought we could follow the profile of local wineries which are allowed to have separate production and tasting room spaces on the same premises. State says no such luck. We will be producing a variety of spirits including a "moonshine" vodka to coincide with our local bluegrass festival held each summer in the park next door to our operation. Whiskey is on the horizon. Our LLC is Mt St Helens Spirits. We have registered a number of trademarks so we'll see what sticks. Thanks for all the good forum info. Keep in touch and stay warm. Hey, I've tried contacting the local Washington association a number of times without return response. Any secret to success here?

[Gwydion Stone]

Howdy!

And people wonder why I live in Seattle but distill in Portland. I'd push back on the tasting room thing and make them cite a reason and a precedent. As far as I can tell, "premises" means "on the same piece of property." This is another example of how that legislation did not "level the field" for distillers.

I'm the webmaster at the Washington Distillers Guild site, did you try to sign up and not get through? Try again and I'll be looking for you.

Cheers,

~ Gwydion

[billowens]

Greetings from Amboy WA. Snowed in today so thought this would be a good time to introduce myself. We are starting a craft distillery in SW Washington. It's been about a 3 year process for us. We started in Washington. Couldn't deal with the laws at that time. thought about a move to Oregon but then decided we could work with the new craft distilling laws passed this July. They are pretty restrictive but we will give it a shot. We were given tentative approval earlier this month by the WSLCB but then, a week later, we were told that our tasting room could not be in a separate building from our distillery building. We are located on a 4 acre rural commercial parcel. We thought we could follow the profile of local wineries which are allowed to have separate production and tasting room spaces on the same premises. State says no such luck. We will be producing a variety of spirits including a "moonshine" vodka to coincide with our local bluegrass festival held each summer in the park next door to our operation. Whiskey is on the horizon. Our LLC is Mt St Helens Spirits. We have registered a number of trademarks so we'll see what sticks. Thanks for all the good forum info. Keep in touch and stay warm. Hey, I've tried contacting the local Washington association a number of times without return response. Any secret to success here?

Send your name, address website etc. So I can list you in the distilling directory

bill owen bill@distilling.com

[Guest Liberty Bar - Seattle]

Hey there.

I'd like to join Gwydion in welcoming you to join the WDG, and if you are planning a trip up to Seattle, please do get in touch with someone at the guild as that would be a great excuse for us all to get together.

And, Gwydion is of course correct - the law as written is better than nothing, but far from any kind of balanced and intelligent solution to the problem of having no lawful ability to distill here in Washington. BUT - we look forward to working with the state and with local distillers to make Washington a great state for distillers and new spirits. It should be an interesting upcoming few years.

Andrew