Heyo! It's time to start another week and talk about something from history! This week we're learning about George Washington's whiskey distillery. Every photo used in this post is from the Mount Vernon site.
Before the American Revolutionary War, the popular alcohol to distill was rum, however, after the war, it became even more expensive to import molasses from the British West Indies which was the most important ingredient in making rum. It was soon realized that it would be cheaper and easier to begin distilling whiskey. Whiskey is made of wheat, rye, and corn which could all be grown locally. Also, whiskey was an easier distilling process than rum.
James Anderson a Scotsman who worked as Washington's farm manager convinced Washington to start a whiskey distillery because he'd seen how lucrative it had been in his home country. The distillery was built in the winter of 1797-1798. Washington assigned six enslaved men to work at the distillery. Those men were Hanson, Pete, Nat, Daniel, James, and Timothy. I couldn't find anything else about them while doing my research, but I wish I did.
The distillery was the biggest distillery in 1799. The building itself was 2,250 square feet. It produced 11,000 gallons a year, bringing in what is about $120,000 today. Washington's whiskey was not bottled. They didn't brand it either. Whiskey was poured into wooden barrels that would hold about 31 gallons. It was sold to merchants, local stores, and even Washington's neighbors and friends. The whiskey wasn't aged, but they did distill it up to four times. Basic single-distilled whiskey went for 50 cents per gallon which is around $12 today. The four-timed distilled whiskey went for a dollar per gallon is around $24 today. For an entire barrel of whiskey, that would be $16-31 back then which is $386-748 today.
Debated writing a paragraph about the Whiskey Rebellion, but it happened before Washington established his distillery. However, there will be a post about it in the future! The rebellion was started because people were upset over the taxes on distilleries. It was squashed in 1794 and four years later, Washington paid $332 for 616 gallons of whiskey. Which would be about $8,000 today.
Random side tangent: Washington was able to use the waste from the fermentation process to his pigs. It made his pigs so far that Julian Ursun Niemcewicz, a Polish visitor to Mount Vernon in June of 1798 stated, "the most delicate and the most succulent feed for pigs...[they] are so excessively bulky that they can hardly drag their bellies on the ground". So at least we know the man "recycled".
Unfortunately, the distillery fell into disrepair following Washington's death in 1799. The building was picked apart slowly and burned down in 1814. However, thanks to Mount Vernon turning into a national park, the foundation was excavated and the distillery was rebuilt in 2007. Today, you can purchase your own bottle of Washington's whiskey. The rebuilt distillery only operates twice a year, but they have tried keeping everything as faithful to Washington's original recipe and the way it was done in 1798 as possible.
Thank you for joining me on this journey of learning something new about history every week. If there is a specific moment in history, or weird history story you'd like to see me dive into, feel free to leave a comment! If you liked this, check out my other "That Time..." history posts!
Comments
Post a Comment