Preserve the Legacy:
American Brandy & Rum
AMBRU Campaign
The Historic Legacy of American Brandy & Rum on the Global Stage
The AMBRu Campaign was co-founded in 2020 by Caroline Porsiel and Christopher Brooks. It is a producer-led public campaign to open a national conversation about recognizing American Brandy and American Rum as distinctive products of the United States, and to develop a producer-led American Brandy & Rum Trail.
AMBRu does not certify spirits, does not set federal standards, and has not filed a TTB petition as of September 2026. Recognition to Revenue (September 2026) is the campaign’s first working paper.
AMBRU Campaign
“The history isn’t missing. The recognition is.”
– Caroline Porsiel, Co-founder,
AMBRu Campaign
The AMBRu Vision
American Brandy and American Rum are older than bourbon and deeply rooted in the nation’s history. Yet they still lack the recognition that could help define them as distinctly American spirits.
American Single Malt Whiskey recently gained federal recognition. That is someone else’s path to a name — not AMBRu’s filing, and not a blueprint AMBRu is copying into a petition. We believe American Brandy and American Rum deserve their own public conversation: identity first, then producers who can be found, then a national trail no single company owns.
Recognition to Revenue lays out the case: how recognition can become an economic strategy, and how a national AMBRu Trail could connect distilleries, history, tourism, and regional communities — if producers help define what American guarantees.
This paper is an invitation, not a petition.
Join the conversation at ambru.org. This paper is an invitation, not a petition.
Caroline Porsiel
Co-founder, AMBRu Campaign
Caroline Porsiel is co-founder of the AMBRu Campaign and founder of House of Applejay Distillery in East Ellijay, Georgia. She presented the American Brandy & Rum history and trail framework for the American Distilling Institute on 14 April 2026 and at the Rum Summit in Miami Beach on 17 August 2026. In September 2026 she published the first AMBRu working paper, Recognition to Revenue.
She is a distiller and liqueurist. AMBRu is built from that work: American names that mean something, producers who can be found, and a national trail that no single company owns. House of Applejay is a women-owned, liqueur-first distillery in the Southern Appalachians. The campaign is published separately, for public comment.
Christopher Brooks
Co-founder (2020), AMBRu Campaign
Christopher Brooks is a historian and professor at East Stroudsburg University, specializing in legal and constitutional history. Since his studies at the universities of Edinburgh and Kassel, he has acquired over two decades of experience researching US and transatlantic history. His passion for historical legal traditions informs his teaching and writing, earning him recognition in the Federalist Society and beyond.
AMBRU Campaign
Reviving American Spirits, Rebuilding American Jobs
American Brandy and American Rum aren’t just spirits — they’re cornerstones of U.S. history. Distilled since the 17th century, they powered colonial trade and fueled the spirit of independence. They still lack a distinctive U.S. product identity comparable to Bourbon (declared a distinctive product of the United States in 1964) or American Single Malt Whiskey (TTB final rule, December 2024; effective January 19, 2025).
Our working paper, Recognition to Revenue (September 2026), states the endeavor: a producer-led path toward recognition of American Brandy and American Rum as distinctive products of the United States, and a producer-led national trail so that recognition can be found on a map. A beta map is now public. It is a place to start looking — not a finished trail, and not evidence that visitation or regional returns have already arrived.
AMBRu’s aim is recognition first, then discovery, visitation, and regional economic opportunity — not a claim that those outcomes have already been achieved. As of September 2026, no TTB petition has been filed. The paper is an invitation, not a filing.
A Multi-Billion-Dollar Market – Context, Not a Claim
The global brandy market reached $22.12 billion in 2023 and is projected to hit $35.16 billion by 2030, growing at 6.8% annually. The global rum market was estimated at $18.2 billion in 2025 and is on track to reach $23.62 billion by 2030. Bourbon, with its U.S. designation, supports a robust industry: the Kentucky Distillers’ Association’s 2024–2025 report, released February 2026, puts the annual economic impact at $10.6 billion in Kentucky alone, up from $9 billion in the prior study.
Those are someone else’s published numbers. They are the league American Brandy and American Rum are measured against — not a league AMBRu has entered, and not a result a designation would automatically deliver. They also mix imports, domestic production, and foreign styles. They are not a measure of recognized American Brandy or American Rum.
A category that cannot be named cannot be defended, taught, or toured at scale. Recognition to Revenue organizes around Recognition → Discovery → Visitation → Economic Opportunity. It does not treat designation as a switch already flipped.
[1] Grand View Research, Brandy Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report, 2024–2030. [2] Grand View Research, Rum Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report, 2025–2030; later Grand View snapshot, $18.2 billion in 2025. [3] Kentucky Distillers’ Association, The Economic and Fiscal Impacts of Kentucky’s Distilled Spirits Industry, 2024–2025, released February 2, 2026. The prior study, released early 2024, reported $9 billion.
The Sequence, Not a Guarantee
The spirits industry supports more than 1.7 million jobs nationwide, through production, distribution, and sale. Kentucky distilling supports 23,935 jobs, with $2 billion in salaries, wages, and benefits — nearly 24,000 jobs in the Kentucky Distillers’ Association’s 2024–2025 report, released February 2026.
Those figures describe industries that already have a name people can find. They are not a forecast for American Brandy and American Rum, and they are not a jobs count tied to a petition.
If recognition can be discovered, visited, and shared, it can start to support distillers, fruit and cane growers, tourism workers, and the towns around them — from California’s orchards to Southern cane fields. That is the sequence. It is not a promise of 2,000, 5,000, or 10,000 jobs.
Exports: A Name That Can Travel
U.S. spirits exports reached a record $2.4 billion in 2024, then declined 3.8% to $2.37 billion in 2025 amid trade friction and retaliatory actions. American whiskey still leads, at $1.08 billion in 2025. In that same report, U.S. rum exports were about $90 million and U.S. brandy exports about $35 million.
U.S. spirits already export. American Brandy and American Rum do not yet have a name that does that work, and the category lines show it. Recognition to Revenue does not forecast an export total and does not treat designation as the cause.
Tourism: One Trail, Not Two
The Kentucky Bourbon Trail drew a record 2.7 million visitors in 2024 and held that total in 2025, announced April 2026. About 80% came from outside Kentucky. Groups stay three to five days and spend $600 to $1,400 per trip. That is a comparable — a named category with a map people can actually use. It is not a tourism-revenue claim AMBRu is making for itself.
AMBRu is building the idea of one American Brandy & Rum Trail: not two branded trails, not one company’s route, and not a trail that exists because a designation has been granted. A beta map is now public. It is a place to start looking, not a finished trail. A name with no map still sits on a shelf. From Northeast stills to Southern farms, the history is already distributed. The map should be too.
[3] Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, Annual Economic Briefing, February 2026 (1.7 million jobs; $250 billion in U.S. economic activity); American Spirits Exports Report, 2024 and 2025 (released March 31, 2026). [4] Kentucky Distillers’ Association, The Economic and Fiscal Impacts of Kentucky’s Distilled Spirits Industry, 2024–2025, released February 2, 2026. [5] Kentucky Bourbon Trail / Kentucky Distillers’ Association, visitation release, April 7, 2026.
“American Brandy and American Rum predate bourbon as American distilling traditions. They still lack a distinctive U.S. product identity comparable to Bourbon (1964) or American Single Malt Whiskey (2024–2025).
AMBRu’s aim is recognition first, then discovery, visitation, and regional economic opportunity — not a claim that those outcomes have already been achieved.”
SUBSCRIBE TO AMBRU
AMBRu is building a conversation around two of America’s foundational spirits. Join at ambru.org. Help put American Brandy and American Rum where they belong: on the map as distinctive products of the United States — if the country decides they should be.
Not a TTB petition. Not a certification. Not a claim of industry consensus.
American Brandy & Rum Trail
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Current Market Baseline for American Brandy and Rum
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