Thomas Jefferson’s attempts to yield wine from his Monticello vineyards may have proven unfruitful, but he was much more successful at brewing beer, a “table liquor” he served at dinners at his Albemarle County estate.

Nearly 250 years after he and others wrote the Declaration of Independence, setting in motion an American revolution, a nearby brewery and the nonprofit that owns and operates Monticello have worked together to concoct an ale that honors beer brewing and nation building.

Monticello’s Rough Draft, an American peach wheat ale brewed by Blue Mountain Brewery in Afton, Virginia. Monticello and Blue Mountain introduced this ale to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. (Courtesy of Monticello)

The Thomas Jefferson Foundation and Blue Mountain Brewery have introduced Rough Draft, a fruited wheat ale brewed using peaches from a Monticello orchard, Tufton Farm.

Rough Draft is Blue Mountain’s second beer with ties to the Monticello estate. The two entities first came together in May 2022 for the Monticello Mountain Ale, which features honey from the mountaintop’s apiaries and “might be the smoothest beer we’ve ever brewed,” as Blue Mountain describes it.

Monticello Mountain Ale, honoring the region’s long history of brewing, made its debut 210 years after the first batch of beer was bottled by Jefferson himself on May 12, 1812.

“Initially it was Jefferson’s wife, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson, who brewed 15-gallon batches of small beer … nearly every two weeks at Monticello,” Monticello’s director of retail, Stephanie Fox, told Virginia Craft Beer in 2022. “After her death in 1782, enslaved chef Peter Hemings became the plantation’s head brewer. Hemings, who learned malting and brewing from British brewmaster Joseph Smith, increased beer production and introduced a stronger ale.”

Visitors can buy Rough Draft at Monticello and at Blue Mountain Brewery, Afton.

 

https://www.pilotonline.com/2025/09/25/rough-draft-ale-marking-americas-250th/