On September 14, 1787, George Washington stepped into the City Tavern in Philadelphia with his pals and began a night of drinking that would make today's wildest frat parties look like afternoon tea. It was a Friday night, and the Constitutional Convention that would produce America's foundational document was all but concluded; the signing would take place just three days later. So Washington, then in his mid-50s, and his companions did what the moment called for. They got rip-roaring drunk.
Washington and a party consisting of "55 gentlemans" consumed 45 gallons of booze that night. The beverages served included seven bowls of punch, eight bottles of cider, a dozen bottles of unspecified beer, 22 bottles of porter, 60 bottles of claret, 54 bottles of the fortified wine Madeira, and eight bottles of whiskey, according to an itemized receipt that was reconstructed and later published in The Washington Post in 2018. It was, as the Post put it, a "bender that began America."
Washington went on to become a spirits entrepreneur, opening a distillery at his home in Mount Vernon, a revitalized version of which is open today. His distillery made whiskey and apple brandy, an aged, whiskeylike spirit distilled directly from apples. By the end of the 1700s, he was reportedly selling nearly 11,000 gallons annually. His customers consisted mostly of his local circle—neighbors, traveling merchants, family, and staff from the estate, according to the Mount Vernon library website. Much of the whiskey was sold for cash, but he sometimes traded it directly for services from his family physician, James Craik, meaning he literally kept his doctor in good spirits.