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
Rye whiskey be further designated as "straight", as in "straight rye whiskey". Rye whiskey was historically the prevalent whiskey in the northeastern states, especially Pennsylvania and Maryland. Pittsburgh was the center of rye whiskey production in the late 1700s and early 1800s. By 1808, Allegheny County farmers were selling one half barrel for each man, woman and child in the country. By the 1880s, Joseph F. Sinnott's distillery, Moore and Sinnott, located in Monongahela was the single largest producer of rye whiskey, with a capacity of 30,000 barrels a year. Rye whiskey largely disappeared after Prohibition. A few brands, such as Old