I believe that it goes way back to just after the Revolutionary War. The Colonies had morphed into States and populations were on the rise. Ambitious farmers could move westward and open up a prosperous life on the "frontier". They soon learned that logistics were entirely different from what had been their normal way of conduction business. The vast expanses of the newly opened lands caused their expenses for transporting their grain crops to market to skyrocket until someone (probably Scotch) built a still and the rest was history.
Transporting wagon loads of grain was replaced by kegs and barrels which were much easier to ship. There was money to be made and it wasn't long before the Federal Government instituted a tariff on distilled spirits. The farmers, having recently booted King George's tax collectors back to England were in no mood to split their profits with a fresh batch of parasites.
George Washington, not in a mood to allow open rebellion, sent in the army to quash the "Whisky Rebellion"1. Said quashing was accomplished in short order and we are still faced with paying "Excise" taxes to this day!
Regards,
GtG
1 Google "Whisky Rebellion" for more background.
IIRC it was the first really big challenge to the Federal government to show they were in control not just along the coast but into the interior. If George had done nothing the US might have splintered into militia controlled feifdoms.