“Whiskey War” of Brooklyn, image from Kings County Distillery’s Boozeum
This image, taken from the Boozeum at Kings County Distillery, depicts the “Whiskey War” of Brooklyn, which happened in December of 1869.
At the time, the neighborhood of Vinegar Hill, then called “Irishtown”, had a predominantly Irish immigrant population and a number of small whiskey distilleries. After the excise tax of 1862, many small distillers continued to operate without paying the tax, which was about triple today’s rate.
