George Washington owned the largest whiskey distillery in America by 1799.

The distillery was built in 1797 and used five copper pot stills. The whiskey recipe used 60% rye, 35% corn, and 5% malted barley. This mixture created a spicy drink called common whiskey. In 1799, the business made a profit of $7,500. This is worth about $160,000 today.Workers did not age this whiskey in barrels like modern companies do. They sold the spirit immediately after making it. After Washington died in 1799, his family ran the business for a short time. The building fell apart and eventually burned down in 1814.Archaeologists found the original foundations and drains of the building years later. In 2007, a group rebuilt the distillery exactly where the old one stood. They used historical records to make it look and work like the original. Today, it is a museum that still makes small amounts of whiskey using 18th-century tools. This includes using water-powered stones to grind the grain.