using it as a currency led to the whiskey rebellion.
I wouldn’t say that it lead to the rebellion. The currency had long been used, and was favored in the western regions as there was very little cash money around.
However the tax was unfair, in that large producers in the East could pay a flat rate in cash, producing as much liquor as they wanted, but if you had little money to pay, you had to provide part of your whiskey, a progressive tax, in effect, an income tax.
The impulse behind that tax was only partly to raise revenue. More than that, it was to establish federal authority over the West. This was seen as vital because of all the colonial and post colonial revolts, such as Shays’ Rebellion, the War of the Regulation, Pontiac’s Revolt (that was particularly bloody), etc. There had been rebellions a hundred years before that.
In effect, many of the United States still saw themselves as autonomous, to the point if they didn’t like something the national government did, they could secede at will.