Whiskey Rebellion Whiskey Rebellion The Whiskey Rebellion (also known as the Whiskey Insurrection) was a tax protest in the United States beginning in 1791 and ending in 1794 during the presidency of George Washington, ultimately under the command of American Revolutionary war veteran Major James McFarlane. The so-called "whiskey tax" was the first tax imposed on a domestic product by the newly formed federal government. It became law in 1791, and was intended to generate revenue for the war debt incurred during the Revolutionary War. The tax applied to all distilled spirits, but American whiskey was by far the country's most popular
Irish whiskey John Powers and George Roe (all family run, and collectively known as the "Big Four") came to dominate the Irish distilling landscape. The chief output of these distilleries, known as single or "pure pot still" whiskey, was made from a mix of malted and unmalted barley, and solely distilled in pot stills. The style, having initially emerged as a means of avoiding a 1785 tax on malt, endured although the tax had been later repealed. In fact, even by the late 1880s, only two of Ireland's then 28 existing distilleries were producing single malt whiskey, the rest steadfast in their