George Washington: Whiskey Maker Extraordinaire

Did you know that George Washington was likely the largest whiskey distributor in the nation at the time of his death in 1799? It isn’t really a fact found in textbooks, but Washington was an incredible entrepreneur and his farms, gristmill, and distillery were extremely productive and innovative. At a time when most Virginia planters were still dependent on tobacco, Washington made wheat his primary crop. The wheat was grown on his five farms, threshed in a special 16-sided barn that he invented, ground at his gristmill, then distilled into whiskey.

After years of research and excavation, George Washington’s Distillery was rebuilt on the foundation of the original building, next to Washington’s Gristmill. Since the Distillery opened in 2007, small amounts of rye whiskey have been distilled onsite, but this month our Distillers have begun a more ambitious project. Steve Bashore, Manager of the Farm, Gristmill & Distillery, has stone ground over 2000 lbs. of grain in our Gristmill and the distillation of 100 gallons of rye whiskey is about to begin. In order to share this amazing experience with the public, a special blog, “Making George Washington’s Whiskey,” will document the entire process. The whiskey will be available for sale to the public in a series of special bottlings.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 13th, 2009 at 5:31 pm and is filed under George Washington. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.