In October of 2013, Allegheny Distilling began producing what would quickly become Some of America’s most-awarded rums, garnering well over 100 medals and commendations from national craft and international spirits competitions, including:

• American Craft Spirits Association Best-in-Show Spirit

• San Francisco World Spirits Comp. BEST-in-SHOW RUM

• San Francisco World Spirits Comp. best-in-class white rum

• 3X San Francisco World Spirits Comp. Double Gold Medal Winner

• 4X San Francisco World Spirits Comp. Gold Medal Winner

• 2X American Craft Spirits Association Best-in-Class Rum

• 3X Spirits Journal Chairman’s Trophy Finalist

• 2X New York Intl. Spirits Comp. Double Gold Medal Winner

• 8X Rum Renaissance Gold Medal Winner

• 7X Best-in-Class/Category Liqueur

• 3X Best-in-Class Spiced Rum

• 4X USA Today “10 Best” Craft Distillery

• And many more…

Allegheny Distilling originated in the historic Strip District of Pittsburgh making Maggie’s Farm Rum, the first commercially-available Pennsylvania-made craft rum since Prohibition. Maggie’s Farm is more about what it isn’t, a corporate entity with marketing gimmicks and slogans. Our focus is on making the best products we can and doing it with full transparency. Maggie’s Farm is a truly independent craft distillery founded without any outside funding.

Maggie’s Farm has grown into a nationally-distributed brand with availability in 12 states and world-wide recognition with some of the highest awards from some of the largest national and international spirits competitions.

In 2008, original founder, Tim Russell, was laid off from a project management position following a corporate acquisition of the company he’d been working at since he left school. He then decided to work for himself, putting all of his energy into making sure his future would be in his hands only. After a couple of years of studying distillation practices and planning out the logistics, Tim took an early withdrawal of nearly his entire 401k, and with small investments from two friends, opened the original distillery with a 75-gallon pot still and a 300-gallon dairy tank to use as fermentation vessel.

We grew into a 250-gallon pot still with 5,000 gallons of fermentation capacity by 2016. These stills, now in retirement, are still proudly on display at both our original distillery’s tasting room located in Pittsburgh’s Strip District and also our new distillery in Pittsburgh’s South Hills neighborhood of Upper St. Clair.

In 2022, we secured our first bank loans and acquired a former 22,000 square-foot wig warehouse in Pittsburgh’s South Hills neighborhood of Upper St. Clair and renovated it into a new state-of-the-art distillery complete with full-service restaurant and cocktail bar which opened in December of 2023. The new distillery includes 10,000 gallons of fermentation capacity and an 800-gallon pot still with a custom-designed gooseneck/downward lyne arm, similar in style to Jamaican rum and Scotch whisky stills, to maximize the capture of the fermentation’s natural flavor and aroma compounds.

All of our rums are distilled from Louisiana turbinado, a raw cane, rather than molasses, and pot-distilled for body and flavor on 100% copper Spanish-made stills. We produce our rums using Caribbean-derived yeasts with longer fermentation times for higher ester production. Even our white rums are lightly rested 3-6 months in stainless for additional smoothness and ester development.

Each of our pure, single aged rums are at least 3-5 years old and aged in various casks, including ex-bourbon, rye, sherry, and rum casks, for a variety of finishes, geared as sipping rums, similar to modern whiskey.

In 2015 we began producing lines of blended rums. Our “50/50” line allows us to release a “dark” rum with traditional Caribbean character and quicker turnaround times by equally blending our own rum with imported aged rum from Central America. This availability lets us maintain proper aging of our own 100% single rums without feeling rushed to release them until we feel they’ve reached proper aging after multiple years.

Our Hidden Harbor white rum is part of a collaboration with Hidden Harbor tiki bar of Squirrel Hill, blending two of our white rum styles with a 20% addition of rums from five different countries for a unique “six-island” blend. Read our products page for more information on these rums.

All of our rums are bottled with no sugar additions for a naturally dry product.

All of our flavored liqueurs are produced with 100% all-natural ingredients. No artificial flavor extracts are ever used.

Learn what the media and industry experts are saying about Maggie’s Farm Rum.

Since 2018, we’ve made nearly $100,000 in donations to over 50 different animal rescue shelters!

As of February 1st, 2018, for every bottle of Maggie's Farm core rum sold, either white, spiced, aged, or “50/50” dark rums, $1 will be donated to animal rescue charities in the area of the sale, as denoted on labels for all bottles now rolling out into our current distribution markets. The monthly bottle sales to each market will be tallied and the funds donated directly to non-profit, no-kill animal shelters in the areas of distribution, whether in our home state of Pennsylvania or one of our ten other states of distribution. Multiple, different charities in the areas of each city will be chosen each month with the best effort of spreading the donations around to benefit as many as possible.

As Maggie's Farm continues to experience growth in production and sales, a desire to give back has come to fruition. With this ability, and without any product price increases, owners Tim and Layla Russell have decided to assist charities close to their hearts. "These are ones that benefit finding long-term homes for lost, neglected, or abused pets." As Layla has stated, "Family pets can be our greatest companions and truly depend on us, and in exchange provide us their unconditional love."