Three years ago Kent Fleischmann and Don Poffenroth, the founders of Dry Fly Distilling in Spokane, worked with legislators in Olympia to change spirit-making laws in Washington State. This is what allowed all the new microdistilleries to start opening here. They have since made a business out of training new distillers through an apprentice program—most of the new micros opening up are founded by people schooled at Dry Fly. Kent Fleischmann and Don Poffenroth are very influential in that community, is what I’m saying.

Today, they came out against liquor privatization measures I-1100 and I-1105, calling them "poorly written initiatives designed and heavily financially supported to benefit special for-profit-only interests." Among their concerns are "enforcement issues, loss of state revenue, and the potential effect on smaller wine and beer producers."